The challenge
For Severn Trent Water (STW), one of the largest water service providers in the UK, legacy tools, waterfall development, manual processes and siloed teams inhibited innovation. STW’s software-driven business covers real-time metering and leak, water quality and wastewater management. With almost 60% of its more than 350 applications heavily customized commercial-off-the-shelf apps, including SAP and third-party field management apps, maintaining this large and complex portfolio left little time for innovation. To cut costs and free up time, STW engaged Cognizant Digital Engineering for a sustainable digital transformation.
Our approach
After conducting over 60 interviews with STW staff Cognizant zeroed in on three goals:
- Shifting the mindset toward innovation and collaboration
- Adopting Agile and DevOps ways of working
- Improving application agility
To achieve these goals, we recommended shared workspaces, goals and incentives; Agile and DevOps processes; and adopting a modern technology stack on cloud unlocking applications from legacy data centres.
STW business leaders trained on value-stream mapping, with the help of a “Weighted Shortest Job First model”, to do the right prioritisation in different business situations. The core transformation team—STW leaders and Digital Engineering experts from Cognizant—focused on modernizing team structures and encouraging Agile development teams to work on application features that interested them the most. Meetings shifted away from the office environment to bring previously siloed teams together.
