Presentation from the APM Enabling Change SIG Conference on Thursday 22 March, London.

1. Information Technology Service
Transformation
How Royal Mail Group changed its supplier landscape (and what
happened along the way…)
Chris Bennett
Service Delivery Director
John Mackie
Head of Technology Supplier Management

2. Agenda
1. Royal Mail – history and at a glance
2. Background
3. Objectives
4. What we did and when we did it
5. Where did we get to
6. Challenges we faces and lessons we learned
7. Some facts and figures

3. The Royal Mail Group is one of the largest letters and parcels groups in
Europe, made up of three brands…
• Royal Mail, our letters and parcels business,
covers the ‘one-price-goes-anywhere’ UK universal
service.
• GLS, our European parcels business, employs
15,000 employees in 42 countries
• Parcelforce Worldwide, our UK-based express
parcels business, delivers around 150,000 parcels
every day

4. Royal Mail’s History
• First Postal Service in the world
• 500 years old in 2016
• Part of the national infrastructure
• FTSE100 company: 2013
• Universal Service Provider (USO)
• Regulated by Ofcom
• Recently completed one of the largest IT transformation projects
in Europe – ITST and this is the story
Sir Brian Tuke – first “master of post”
Largest fleet in the UK - 45,000
vehicles

5. c.142,000
UK EMPLOYEES
£4.02 BILLION
PAID IN EMPLOYEES
WAGES AND SALARIES
UK PARCELS, INTERNATIONAL
AND LETTERS COMPRISES OF
OUR ROYAL MAIL CORE
NETWORK AND OUR EXPRESS
PARCELFORCE BRAND
£2.4 BILLION
SPEND ON SUPPLIERS
IN THE UK
65p
Royal Mail at a glance…
Delivering:
Collecting From:
Processing through:
Contributing:
c.1 BILLION PARCELS
delivered by our core
network in 2016-17
c.15 BILLION
LETTERS
6 DAYS A WEEK TO
c.30 MILLION
ADDRESSES
Mail
Centres
10,400*
POST OFFICES
76,000
BUSINESSES
38
£10.8BN
VALUE ADDED TO THE ECONOMY
6 REGIONAL
DISTRIBUTION
CENTRES
C.1,400
DELIVERY
OFFICES
CAN TAKE A LETTER FROM A POST BOX IN LANDS
END TO A MAILBOX IN JOHN O’GROATS OVERNIGHT
c. 60,000
DELIVERY ROUTES
c.115,000
PILLAR BOXES
Including satellite offices
We deliver c15bn letters and
1bn parcels every year, more
than all our competitors
combined.
* There are c.11,500 Post Offices in the UK, however c.1,100 are mobile Post Offices that transfer their mail to static offices for collection.

6. Background
• The pre-ITST supplier base was borne out of a large-scale outsourcing of RMG’s IT function in
2003
• An assessment of RMG’s IT estate in 2011 identified a number of fundamental risks:
• poor condition of the IT estate - old, badly fragmented and inflexible;
• poor service quality and availability as a result systemic under-investment and
• lack of visibility and understanding of the IT estate within RMG, with knowledge sitting
with third party suppliers.
• RMG’s technology and the way it works needed to change dramatically to keep pace with the
strategic needs of the business
• In 2012 RMG began the process of defining its future technology needs and agreeing the
‘service renewal’ and sourcing strategy needed to match them.
• We decided to implement a “tower” model.

7. What did we want to achieve?
The ITST Programme was set up to manage the transition to a flexible, multi-supplier, ‘eco-
system’ environment, in order to:
• Establish greater control over RMG’s IT functions through a significantly larger internal
IT capability, including an in house Service Integration capability;
• Allow RMG to leverage the scale and skill of its new, expert suppliers and establish
strong supplier relationships focused on our business goals;
• Provide better value for money and flexibility of service;
• Deliver reliable, responsive and assured end-to-end IT services in a collaborative and
interactive manner;
• Focus RMG’s partners and suppliers, individually and collectively, on their contribution
to the evolving and strategic needs of RMG’s business

8. What we did and when we did it….
Calendar 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Strategy
Procurement – long list
Procurement – short list
Negotiations to contract
Transition planning
Service Desk and desk top
Application Maintenance
Enterprise Access services
Infrastructure build
Applications Migrated
BIG Migration
Exit activities
= change freeze (autumn pressure)
Key dates:
OJEU notices: September 2012
ITN: June 2013
Contracts signed by: July 2014
Service Desk live: April 2015
Applications transitioned: : October 2015
First Migration: July 2015
Final Migration: October 2016
Final decommissioning: December 2016

9. Where did we get to?
We achieved our objectives:
• Maintained our pace of change while we delivered (rebuilt the aeroplane in flight)
• New collaborative supplier base ensuring a seamless service to our business
• Strategically aligned suppliers that operate in RMG’s interests
• More reliable, secure resilient services, both contractually and operationally
• Cheaper services - both for the same and additional volumes
• More flexibility and more demanding service levels that meet our business needs
• Suppliers that innovate and bring new ideas to us on a regular basis
• Run savings exceeded the targets set – albeit not achieved as quickly as initially forecast
• And a little industry recognition into the bargain….

10. Challenges
The most significant challenges we faced included:
• Procurement took longer than intended, reasons included:
• Stakeholder alignment challenges
• “too many cooks”
• OJEU restrictions
• Pressure on Transition timelines required additional commercial activities
• Significant complexities and dependencies within our legacy estate were uncovered during
due diligence, increasing the scale of the programme
• Complexity of planning and execution increased by the need to align with in-flight projects
• Projects ITST was dependant upon were delayed - consequential delays to ITST
• Need to minimise risk to the business, necessitating a number of migration delays
• Skillsets, capabilities and numbers of the RMG transition teams were initially inadequate
• Additional work was identified to complete exit.

11. Lessons we learned 1
Procurement phase
• Accuracy of data shared with bidders is key – historical cost saving decisions had
consequences
• Being unable to inform bidders of what our estate included led to significant scope changes
post contract signature – we’d lost visibility of our own estate
• Data must be accurate and current – inventory, software licence registers, IP, access
requirements , volumetrics….
• OJEU processes build in time and cost and restrict dialogue
• You can’t sit on decisions
• Empowered Steering Boards with C level sponsorship key
• Governance processes need to be bespoke for programmes of this scale
• Target Operating Models should be designed to ensure all interdependencies are fully
identified at the outset
• Procurement teams must be multi disciplined to be effective
• Technical scrutiny and realism should be applied to Transition Plans during the
procurement process
• Promises from suppliers should be tested without fear

12. Lessons we learned 2
Transition phase
• Roles, responsibilities and processes must be clearly defined at the outset
• Collaboration from the incumbent supplier must be assured somehow
• An effective HR workstream is vital (TUPE etc)
• Staffing levels must be adequate across all parties - include credible and experienced
Transition specialists. – remove underperformers quickly – no passengers - you will need
more people than you might imagine
• Cross discipline teams working together streamline the complex commercial landscape
• Full representation in the programme boards allows live time decisions
• Suppliers must be presented with realistic Transition end dates
• Transition plans should be challenged with rigour in the early part of the process
• You must challenge your risk appetite, and your suppliers’
• Detailed Transition planning can only be achieved in a rolling format – don’t bow to
stakeholder pressure to present full and detailed Transition plans early
• Interdependencies between suppliers and with ongoing parallel projects must be managed

13. Lessons we learned 3
Transition phase
• Like for like transition should be the aim, with transformation following in a stable new
environment.
• If you must transform during a transition (we did!) recognise the risk and impact
• A efficient and effective Programme Management Office is vital – don’t underestimate the
administrative tasks
• Exit negotiations with incumbents should begin as soon as possible to maximise leverage
• Never stop negotiating during transition – get your governance right with effective change
boards, commercial boards - keep a grip on your commercials
• The Steering Group is more than a reporting body – it’s a significant enabler
• Alignment between the Programme and business as usual teams is essential.
• Communication with stakeholders and the business is key to maintaining confidence and
support for the programme – poor stakeholder management will derail you – but don’t
overcook it…
Transformation programmes are difficult, often take longer than you planned, and may cost
more than you budgeted – manage your stakeholders and your budgets –
and manage your health – you’re not saving lives….

14. Transition facts and figures
115
Apps
transitioned
84
Apps
migrated
700
programme
change requests
1000 +
knowledge
sharing
documents
32
weekends of
migrations
25,000
devices supported
110m
outbound e-
mails per year
migrated
10
active directory
domains
migrated
Migrated out of
4 data centres
Migrated into 3
data centres
(one new build)
2800
servers
decommissioned
1500
non server devices
decommissioned
894 Tb
storage
migrated
750
remote servers
retooled
192
physical servers
built
2500
virtual servers
built
2
mainframes
116
solaris zones

15. Any questions?