We’ve woken up incredibly proud today… as we only went and won Digital Transformation Project of the Year at the BCS UK IT Industry Awards 2025! This was a joint win for our collaboration with our partners at the Government Digital Service (GDS).

Judged against innovation, return on investment, quality of management and impact, this national recognition celebrates a project that proved something fundamental:

That digital transformation is most successful when you put people at the heart of it.

Why we won: because we focused on people first

Our partnership with the GDS took on a unique challenge – supporting thousands of autonomous, overstretched and geographically dispersed parish councils to adopt .gov.uk domains and improve their digital and cyber security practices.

But technology wasn’t the barrier – people’s time, confidence, capacity and competing priorities were, which is exactly what our approach addressed.

The judges agreed that digital transformation is ultimately about people and behaviours, and were impressed with how we used every tool at our disposal to persuade and incentivise successfully at scale.

Through deep user research, empathy mapping and hundreds of conversations with clerks and councillors, we built the Parish Council Domains Helper Service (PCDHS) around what people actually needed to make the change:

• Simple, jargon-free guidance
• Confidence-building workshops
• One-to-one support for clerks
• Culturally sensitive communications
• Reduced admin and clearer processes
• Realistic ways to overcome cost and capacity barriers

This people-first approach is ultimately why the service worked, and why the judges recognised it as a standout exemplar of digital transformation.

Our delivery excellence recognised on a national stage

Winning this award as the sole SME amidst stiff competition from major multinational consultancies and household names is a huge milestone for us. It demonstrates the success of our approach to delivery, including our:

• Focus on really understanding users
• Agility to iterate based on feedback
• Flexibility to solve real problems rather than deliver predefined outputs
• Willingness to collaborate deeply across an ecosystem
• Genuinely human approach to change

The judges recognised not just the impact of the outcome, but the authenticity of the approach behind it.

How SMEs strengthen government delivery

This award-winning project illustrates how SMEs can deliver transformation that is innovative, people-first and sustainable. It demonstrates the critical role SMEs play in digital transformation:

• Bringing innovation to complex problems
• Operating with speed and flexibility
• Providing specialist expertise
• Building trusted relationships
• Delivering exceptional value for money

The contract was managed in an agile way, enabling responsive and impactful delivery while maintaining alignment with the service’s strategic goals. The success of this project and its national recognition reinforces why SMEs are central to the UK government’s ambition for a diverse, resilient and high-performing supplier ecosystem.

The impact: lasting change for local democracy

The results were significant. The project increased .gov.uk adoption by nearly 600%, achieving its target 66 days ahead of schedule and ultimately exceeding the target by 30%. We improved digital practices across local government and influenced national guidance, increasing accessibility for the general public, enhancing legislative compliance and reducing government exposure to cyber risk.

Our use of innovation to elevate our delivery was also applauded, from automated reporting and processes scaling delivery to a new data dashboard now used across other GDS programmes.

Most importantly, councils across England now have the knowledge, confidence and capability to continue adopting good digital practices long after the project’s end.

Thank you

A huge thank you to our team, our partners at GDS, national and regional representative bodies, domain registrars, and the clerks and councillors who embraced change for the good of their communities.

This award is recognition for all of you!

If you’re interested in reading more about this project and our work with GDS, you can read the full project success story here – Boosting cyber security and good digital practices for grassroots government organisations.