Tech Overhaul Programme
Delivering secure modern IT even in the oldest buildings
Why is that important? Because these buildings are home to a wide range of government teams, all working on projects and day-to-day work vital to both the host country and UK citizens. It might be anything from policy making to passport applications, and the staff onsite need modern technology to make that work run smoothly.
One challenge is ensuring that every building, whatever its age, has the same standards in secure modern technology.
That’s where the Tech Overhaul Programme came in, beginning with the plan to deliver advanced secure WiFi for what was then the FCO (now the FCDO), at their sites across the world, enabling modern flexible work for the government employees in each post. The WiFi rollout would eventually include 61 posts globally, as well as updates for the then FCO’s whole UK estate, including King Charles Street, Lancaster House, Carlton Gardens, Northgate House, and Hanslope Park.
The programme would also see us deploy new secure IT to the customer's sites around the world – some 223 offices and missions, in fact. In order to do that, we’d first need to make sure that existing data held by our customers - both in the UK and at overseas sites - was securely migrated to modern cloud-based platforms.
The WiFi rollout would eventually include 61 posts globally, as well as updates for the customer's whole UK estate.
For all that to happen, we needed the stellar advice, imagination and technical capability of our team in Digital, Data and Technology. Their development of an advanced WiFi system means that more than 4000 staff can now connect securely and effortlessly across the customer's global estate. At the same time, the team’s IT deployment – which in the end included roughly 15,000 devices - provides government users all over the world with faster, smoother, more reliable systems.