CivTech 8 challenge: effective resource management for a multiskilled workforce

CivTech will be holding a virtual briefing session to talk to a Challenge Manager about the CivTech Process and how to apply to solve a CivTech Challenge, at 5.30-6.30pm on Thursday 17th November. Click here to register for a place.

Challenge background

The Scottish Government’s Rural Payments and Inspections Division (RPID) is the accredited paying agency in Scotland for Rural Payments and Services.

600 staff in 17 area offices throughout Scotland and Head Office in Edinburgh provide a range of services — some in the office covering administration and payments and helping develop policy, others out conducting inspections.

Currently:

• We have multifunctional people across different environments and locations
• Some work is seasonal (timing is influenced by the growing season, weather and disease outbreaks) and driven by legislative requirements
• Demand must also be met from stakeholders and partners and this demand of our resource is hard to quantify and qualify under the current system, meaning we are reactive to communication from other services, for example customers or from partner agencies and other public sector services.
• The current system assumes a level of demand led, difficult to predict work
• The existing tool is a snapshot in time and uses a level of assumptions that remain static throughout the year
• Difficult to plan ahead for new work and align resources to meet the needs of new projects and programmes that are required since the European Union (EU) exit

Our key responsibilities are:

• payment of  scheme grants and subsidies, many ex Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This is around £650m per annum
• inspection of agricultural/crofting land, livestock and plant health to ensure compliance with regulations.
• Delivery of the Vision for Agriculture

Currently:

• We have multifunctional people across different environments and locations
• Some work is seasonal (timing is influenced by the growing season, weather and disease outbreaks) and driven by legislative requirements
• Demand must also be met from stakeholders and partners and this demand of our resource is hard to quantify and qualify under the current system, meaning we are reactive to communication from other services, for example customers or from partner agencies and other public sector services.
• The current system assumes a level of demand led, difficult to predict work
• The existing tool is a snapshot in time and uses a level of assumptions that remain static throughout the year
• Difficult to plan ahead for new work and align resources to meet the needs of new projects and programmes that are required since the European Union (EU) exit

We know that other public and third sector teams and organisations experience similar problems however we can be clear about the problems we wish to solve for:

Usability. The existing system is restrictive in respect of the types of data that we may wish to collect and manage.

Usability. Initial entry of data is time consuming and laborious. The task of resource re-allocation is not practical.

The platform of the existing system restricts data management capabilities including access and re-use of existing data that we control.

It is difficult to understand dependencies with other planning data for comparison of planned and actual throughput.

We have considered available products in the market, for example Harvest, Asana and Monday.com. We also sought input from across other parts of the Scottish Government and partners across Scotland.

If your organisation has a possible solution, see further details at the link below.

CivTech Eligibility

Anyone can apply, from anywhere. You could be an existing company with a team and a product that is ready to be repurposed to answer the challenge. Or a group of graduates with a great demo. Or a digital team that’s looking for a great idea to get involved with. Or even the reverse — an individual with no digital background but with real insight into the challenge and a cracking idea but can put together a great support team.

Rewards for CivTech challenges

Up to 3 teams are selected for the 2-3 week Exploration Stage of each challenge, and will receive £5000 per team (plus VAT if applicable). Winning teams will be invited onto the 12-15 week Accelerator Stage. Each team completing the Accelerator will receive £30,000 (exc. VAT), with no hidden charges, and no equity or IP stakes being taken.

If you are successful at the Demo Day following this stage, further contracts can be negotiated up to a total value of £210,000 or £610,000 (plus VAT if applicable) per team (depending on whether your Challenge was advertised on Public Contracts Scotland with a value of up to £250,000 or up to £650,000.) Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Investment Bank and other support channels will also get involved to help drive the businesses forward. Click here for full details of the process.