In a busy week when he has introduced major reform of the MOD’s procurement structure, Dr Liam Fox, secretary of state for defence, said he was keen to come to The Salamander Organization’s reception because “what you do is so key to the success of what we want to do” and that systems built with Salamander’s MooD software “allow us to integrate information much more efficiently, and drive down costs as a result. If any department needs to drive out cost, it is the MOD.” Dr Fox recognised the importance of the smart SME sector to the UK economy as a whole. “Salamander is a very good example of where we need to be in the global economy. … We can’t compete on low wages, we need to use innovation.” The importance of export has led to several Government initiatives to support SMEs in developing sales abroad, particularly in the defence sector, where he warned suppliers not to rely on the MOD budget. “It is not sensible for the defence sector to be dependent solely on MOD budget …. One of the innovations that we are shortly going to bring forward is making it clear on our website when ministers and officials will be travelling abroad so that companies are able to tell us … where they might want government ministers or officials to help” to progress contracts abroad.
Dr Fox ended by saying that Salamander was “An absolute model for where the UK economy needs to go: Innovative, smart, cost cutting, looking outwards not inwards.”
Dr Liam Fox speaking at reception to celebrate Salamander's second Queens Award for InnovationBrian McBride, ex-CEO Amazon, thanked Dr Fox for his remarks, and complimented Salamander on its track record of winning Queen’s Awards for Innovation. “To win two of these awards in six years is incredible – innovation is really tough.”
Bernard Edwards, chairman of The Salamander Organization, had earlier described how he and Dick Whittington, the two founders, had been encouraged, not downcast, when people told them that what they wanted to achieve was impossible.
Please find following a story showing how Salamander has helped one particular part of the MOD, the Logistics arm, to reduce costs and become more efficient.
MOD saves £29m with Control Room system based on Salamander’s MooD strategic decision support system
The MOD saved tens of millions of pounds in cost avoidance when Control Room, a decision support platform using Salamander’s MooD software developed for the Logistics NEC programme, identified that the organisation already owned a suitable engineering platform for a new series of unmanned aerial vehicles and halted the planned purchase of a similar system. Unmanned aerial vehicles are a strategic defence capability with expanding use in a number of actions worldwide. Control Room, working within the MODAF framework, supports strategic decision making by modelling the future, showing how particular choices will affect budgets, assets and personnel in highly visual displays, dashboards and reckonings.
The MooD software underpins the entire Logistics Architecture and has enabled substantial additional savings by reducing project timescales and improved deployment of resources through reuse across 100’s of projects all of which have improved direct support to operations and have delivered substantial financial savings. Control Room directly supports cultural change within the MOD, which has traditionally started every project from scratch, encouraging sharing and reuse of information, resources and experience to contribute to the MOD’s aims for improved budget management.
“This is one example of how Control Room enables us to track better the financial implications of new requirements and make choices about investment. Control Room gives us improved access to a broad range of information about assets across different departments, divisions and projects. Reuse and redeployment is better than purchasing new.” Says Brigadier Alan Clacher, Director, Log NEC programme.
The UK MOD Logistics NEC capability change programme is tasked with delivering a step change improvement in the logistics end to end capability that underpin MOD support chain, to improve outcomes for forces at the front line as well as efficiency. It is a £2bn programme. Control Room allows easier access to information on all assets, physical, intellectual and financial as well as personnel across MOD departments to enable greater efficiency. Salamander worked closely with Logistics NEC at all stages, following on from its involvement with the development of MODAF, the MOD’s internationally recognised enterprise architecture framework, during the last decade.
MooD, Salamander’s decision support system based on architectural principles, is award winning patented software used in complex environments in a wide range of organisations including Shell, BP, NATS and HP as well as the defence community. MooD is a highly flexible system that can be rapidly configured to create multi-dimensional views of physical, financial and intellectual assets, connecting strategic decision making to frontline operational detail.
“MooD has been critical in delivering operational effectiveness, resulting in significant savings.” Clacher says.
The MOD is committed to improving budget control in line with the Strategic Defence Review published in 2010. The MOD is responding to the new economic reality, where more must be achieved with less. Air Commodore Mark Neal, Head of Information Strategy and Policy, is responsible for ensuring technology helps the MOD work within the new financial environment as well as delivering essential capability at all levels. With regard to Control Room, he says:
“If you have a simpler and shared view of the business that you’re in and the outputs you’re trying to deliver then it is easier to see when investment proposals do or do not fit that understanding, and you can see duplications and omissions.”
