Forestry England is responsible for the public forest estate. For over 100 years, Forestry England has been growing, shaping and caring for over 1,500 of England's forests for the benefit and enjoyment of all, for this generation and the next.
The iterative approach and modern application delivery allowed requirements to be continually refined, updated and prioritized, successfully delivering a modern web application.
The transformation project by CGI of our timber sales system has exceeded my expectations so far. The CGI Delivery Manager and development team have developed a good understanding of managing timber and have brought forward some exciting and innovative ideas. Retaining the existing database, developing and delivering on a modular basis and running the old and new software in parallel has given us assurance and confidence moving forward.
Systems Manager, Forestry England
Forestry England’s Sales Recording Package (SRP) that managed timber stocks and sales, was a 20-year-old legacy application used for stock management, contract control, dispatch recording and invoicing. The application was no longer fit for purpose as it had become unintuitive, time-consuming and complex to use with an increased risk of errors.
Forestry England and CGI partnered to develop a new modern application platform called eTimber by adopting an agile development approach, running in parallel with support of the existing system over the contract duration. This gradual transformation delivered improvements in stages over the duration, mitigated risks, reduced cost and delivered significant value earlier to the client.
The legacy application was replaced module-by-module which enabled the value of the existing historical SRP data to be maintained while delivering improved features and functionality at frequent intervals throughout the transformation.
The iterative approach and modern application delivery allowed requirements to be continually refined, updated and prioritized, successfully delivering a modern web application that met the desired outcomes of:
- Improved staff productivity
- Improved knowledge and ownership
- A future-proof platform for continuous improvement
- New opportunities
- Significant return on investment
