From pause to progress – Records management platform and operating model upgrade

The Challenge

The client was midway through an upgrade of its records management platform, driven by compliance requirements. The program was not delivering to business expectations, and leadership took the decision to place it on hold to contain further risk and cost. That pause raised questions: what had gone wrong, and what needed to be true before the program could safely restart? Executives across business, risk and technology needed an independent answer quickly, and they needed one they could all stand behind, since restarting without addressing root causes risked repeating the same outcome at greater expense.

Client Overview

The client is a large Australian utility that operates essential network infrastructure and carries statutory recordkeeping obligations across its corporate, operational and regulatory functions. Records management is not a back-office concern in this environment: retention, discoverability and auditability underpin regulatory reporting, safety investigations and legal discovery. The organisation had accordingly committed to modernising the platform that holds those records, with delivery accountability shared across business, risk and technology stakeholders.

Implementation

Org were engaged to run an assurance health check focused on: the root causes of underperformance, the lessons to be carried forward, and the pre-requisite activities to be completed before the project was reactivated. The review was deliberately scoped for speed and candour rather than exhaustive documentation, so that the findings would land while the pause was still current and the decision window was open.

The approach combined a review of key project artefacts with structured interviews across business, risk management and technology executives, triangulating documented intent against lived delivery experience. Findings were tested with stakeholders as they emerged.

Five themes drove the key findings and recommendations:

• Change was being led as a technology upgrade rather than a business-driven change, leaving the business without ownership of the outcome.
• There was no defined target operating model, and roles and responsibilities for records management were unclear.
• The experience and skill profile of the project delivery lead was not matched to the demands of the program.
• The governance model was not fit for purpose for a program of this risk and complexity.
• The delivery method and portfolio PMO oversight were not providing the visibility or control executives assumed they had.

The Impact

The health check gave leadership a defensible basis for the restart decision. Every recommendation was accepted by business, risk and IT executives and subsequently implemented, giving the reactivated program the operating model, ownership, leadership and governance it had previously lacked. The speed of the review meant the pause itself stayed short, limiting the cost and preserving momentum with the stakeholders.

Key outcomes:

• Rapid turnaround: Completed in just eight working days, including the executive read-out.
• Executive alignment: All recommendations accepted by business, risk and IT executives.
• Actionable outcomes: Recommendations implemented ahead of the program restart.

The result was a stronger foundation for the program to restart, with the right ownership, governance and delivery controls in place.