Techmodal, the Bristol and London based data specialists, have been successful in their bid to deliver “positive transformational change in people, analytics and associated digital communications for the Royal Navy”.

The data specialists say they will “deliver transformational change to the Royal Navy People functions” over the next three years.

“Supporting Navy Command’s senior leadership in their programme to transform the Navy in 1000 days,  under this framework contract Techmodal will build, deliver and support data science, analytics and digital solutions  underpinned by support from industry leading governance and assurance subject matter experts including Karmarama, Kainos, PA Consulting, PwC, Deloitte, Oliver Wyman, Havas and Palantir.”

Techmodal has previously delivered disruptive change in the form of tailored Digital People Analytics Solutions to Navy Command HQ over the last two years and have built an expanded team around their proven Data Science led capability.

Gareth Vaughan, Director at Techmodal said:

“Winning this work is a fantastic outcome for Techmodal and our partners. We’re excited to bring together a data science, digital solutions and world class partner to help the Royal Navy transform their people enterprise.”

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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29 COMMENTS

    • I had to go on a separate Goofgle search to find out. They are an HR service making sure that the right people are on the right deployments at the right time, to keep the RN’s ships at sea without burning out personnel. They also apparently manage careers. All of this using data analytics more effectively, according to them.
      Not sure why they didn’t manage to say this in their official press release though. The point of press releases is generally to make dure that everyone knows what you do…
      https://www.techmodal.com/solutions/people/

        • Hi Daniele, I know, I was baffled by the press release and had to work hard to get any sense from their website- far too many buzzwords to be helpful!
          From the sounds of it, they seem to be selling a really advanced HR resourcing tool. They’re handy, because it can be stupidly difficult to find people with the right skills for all the jobs that need doing, and I guess there’s an argument that doing it via software can be better from the point of view that no favouritism/discrimination can be shown. Not saying any exists, but I think everywhere that uses people to allocate resource can suffer at least from the problem that out-going people with good social skills get better positions than others who may be more qualified.
          I’d be interested about how the career management bit works; career progression and having a “future” in a role, with lots of development opportunities, cross-training and stuff like that is really important these days. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing, why not get the most out of a difficult job if you’re working hard at it?
          If the software can help with this, as well as improving assignments and deployments, then retainment in the RN could be improved, which can only be a good thing.

          • Joe, I don’t think the long term career stuff is a massive problem for most guys, you have a rough idea of your most likely career path, there’s the odd left field option but by and large you know your progression.

            The problem is the short term stuff, covering for people who have ‘fallen over’ at short notice, guys filling gaps that are either out of date or haven’t done all the courses…. meaning its still a hassle for all concerned. I can’t see a new system being any better at this than when its done locally, yes there is potential for favouritism but then, other bits of info that the new system doesn’t know like a pregnant missus or the like will get factored in.

            I’m maybe a bit cynical, both of the logic for it (someones ‘bright idea’) and how effective it will be. Time will tell I guess.

          • You sound like a man speaking from experience! That’s fair enough, I guess the military career path is different to the civilian one.
            I guess it remains to be seen whether it’ll be an improvement, but I’ve found that a lot of the data analysis stuff that’s well thought through can be really useful.

          • Luckily the firm are also working with the RN on the ‘short term stuff’ too – based on the same underlying data source and linked to the other Tools 😉

        • It’s simple Daniele you get a bunch of kids fresh out of university come in teaching you and your grandmother how to suck eggs. Then when it all goes wrong another bunch come in to show you that you should have had more faith in your own abilities in the first place as everything goes back to how it was. Money well spent.

          • Unfortunately you have jumped to the wrong conclusion in this case. Having spent 2 years running the RN’s in-house People Data MI hub I think I have a pretty good grasp of what Techmodal can do to help the Navy make better decisions. Unless you think each person involved having their own spreadsheet unlinked to the others and based on stale data is the best way?

          • TM do indeed have some bright young graduates working on this, guided by an extremely experienced team of ex-military personnel data SME’s; one of which was previously the PM for the RN’s in-house People Data team so has a pretty decent understanding of the challenges the RN faces.

            This will move the Navy away from people in West Battery plugging stale data into spreadsheets in isolation into an age of people having the information they need to make smart decisions based on near-real time information, identify issues quickly and predict manpower demands in a far more accurate way.

            This shows that the Navy is committed to leading Defense in the way it manages its people and that’s great news for the sailors who will benefit from this.

    • Glad you asked Sleepy and thanks for the explanation Joe16.

      I have to say, this sounds like total bollox to me but hey ho, it ain’t my problem any more.

      • I think this stuff can be a very useful tool if… and it is a big if… it is used as a supporting tool. The danger here is that someone gets a posting that they don’t feel is right for them and when they seek a transfer or face time with their HR specialist (or is it ‘appointments officer’ can’t remember) they get a, ‘well the computer analytics says this is the right path for you – so get on with it’ kind of response. Computerisation can and does lead to the kind of attitudinal problem. Lets hope the Navy is alive the that risk, or watch the modern generation head for the door…

        • The navy seem to be constantly trying to change things. Great if they get it right but……..

          You’d have thought in a Navy with less people in it than there’s been for centuries that putting the right people in the right place would be easier than ever without some clever machines to sort it.

          • Actually I think it might be harder because your pool of people with a certain skill can be very very small in some of the niche specialisms e.g. just 10 or 20 in the whole of the Navy apparently. If you had 100 and a post needed filling urgently you could move people around or share the work around more easily. Not so easy with a small pool of people.

            You need to think about what people have been doing in the recent past and what they need to do going forward. You do not want to send someone who as just reurned from 3 to 6 months overseas back out on another long deployment nor do you want to prevent them from maintaining and developing their skill sets and future career path. Both options could ultimately lead to the loss of a valuable person.

            With a small pool of people the chances of you finding the spare capacity to fill an unexpected gap becomes far more difficult I think. Get it wrong and people leave, especially these days. Skilled people know they do not have to put up with being dumped on.

            So any tool that can flag up potential issues would be very helpful and could potentially allow the Navy to capture decades of lessons learnt and actually drive them into new decision support processes. Something that can take years to achieve if at all.

            Of course, as I suggested previously, get this wrong or lose the human contact in the appointments process and these tools could make it worse, so it is not without risk.

          • CR, the problems with moving properly qualified people around is a bit more complex sometimes, you need to have the right courses/being in date etc otherwise you’re not as much use so the others you’re working with still end up picking up the slack until the newb gets qualified. Particularly the crap bits like being ‘duty watch’ etc.

            This gets managed locally as best it can but still causes short term grief, often for the person getting moved at short notice. That won’t change under a new system. It seems like the navy trying to reinvent the wheel again while paying someone else to do something that they do anyway without giving money to the private sector.

          • Hi Andy P,

            Fair point, but I would say I was not thinking in terms of ship board or in unit personel management e.g. duty watch. Rather I was thinking in terms of where people got ‘posted to’ next or which courses they were sent on. I.e. the long term poeple management challenges that all large and complex organisations have to deal with to a greater or lesser extent, and to be fair they do not come much more complex than the Navy!

            So for example if you have a small pool of specialists, e.g. the aircraft handlers on the QEC then if a couple of your experienced people put their papers in you could have an issue with regards to getting the next deployment properly (and safely) manned. Given we only have 2 carrier we are never going to be overly blessed with people with that skill set. In fact, the Navy appears to have managed the 10 year gap remarkably well, with a considerable amount of very generous support from the US Navy.

            If this tool was applied at the level you describe, within Fleet units if I have understood correctly, I would agree totally with you. It would be a waste of money that is needed elsewhere and could actually make matters worse as I think it would inevitably impact on the interpersonnal / leadership skills within the Fleet. If ever there would be motivation to put papers in that would be it I would have thought. At the strategic level I think it could, if done properly, help.

      • Agree, what a load of business speak. I’m sure they are fleecing MOD with dumb people in smart suits promising something they can’t deliver

      • If you aren’t there anymore who is spending 3 weeks every month producing that spreadsheet that was out of date before it was finished (and nobody ever looked at)? Or did the data analytics ‘total bollox’ render the role obsolete?

  4. It would be interesting to know how much the contract is worth. Also a translation from the above in to simple Standard English so that the Public know exactly what they are paying for.

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