Challenge 12.2

What is the problem, and how does it affect the Challenge Sponsor organisation, service users and/or People of Scotland?

The Digital Components and Infrastructure Division supports a widening portfolio of shared platforms and services, such as ScotAccount, ScotPayments, Mailbox, the mygov.scot app, mygov.scot, Cloud Platform Services, Digital Licensing, and Digital Planning Consents. As demand, complexity and customer expectations increase, service management support needs to scale dynamically across different components and service requirements.

We anticipate that the current service management capability across the Directorate for Digital will have a capacity problem as these services grow and future services are developed, and more customers and users enjoy these products. While this problem may have been traditionally solved through a combination of increasing headcount, extending service desk hours, widening the breadth of service management or outsourcing; continuous pressure on public finances means we need to find alternate solutions that embrace technology and are fit for the future to scale at the same pace as the products themselves grow. If we were unable to meet these expectations and demands, it could result in reputational damage, lost productivity and revenue, and introduce security risk.

As set out in both the Scottish Government’s Sustainable Digital Public Services Delivery Plan 2025–2028 and Scotland’s Public Service Reform Strategy – Delivering for Scotland, delivering efficient, joined-up digital services is central to improving outcomes for citizens and making better use of public resources. Realising these benefits depends on shared digital services, components and platforms being resilient, secure and reliable at scale. A scalable service management capability is therefore essential to ensure these services can operate effectively, support growing demand, and maintain public trust, while enabling the continued transformation of Scotland’s public services.

How will we know the Challenge has been solved?

A successful solution would help service delivery teams scale support up and down efficiently and cost-effectively, integrate with existing tools such as Jira Service Desk and Scottish Government monitoring and security platforms, and provide a model that could be used by other areas of the public sector and fast-growing service providers.

A successful solution would mean that headcount and other financial constraints associated with service management are not whole-of-life cost blockers to introducing new common components and services in the future.

Who are the end users likely to be?

We anticipate that the users of a successful product in this space would be the following:

• Service, common components, and platform owners, as well as existing service technical and management staff in Scottish Government, Directorate for Digital

• Customers of the services and components developed by Scottish Government, Directorate for Digital (such as local authorities, and national public bodies); and,

• End users who interact with the services, components and platforms (such as citizens and businesses).

Has the Challenge Sponsor attempted to solve this problem before?

We have engaged in market research previously and were unable to find a solution which was able to integrate with our internal team and scale as required.

Are there any interdependencies or blockers?

While we do not anticipate this becoming a blocker, or creating interdependencies with the CivTech Challenge, applicants should be aware that the Digital Components and Infrastructure Division (DC&I) is currently procuring a service provider through the Scottish Government’s Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for Digital Technology and Cyber Services (DTCS) to enhance and expand its existing IT service management support capabilities and capacity across all components within the Division. This procurement is intended as a short to medium-term solution, utilising traditional service delivery models.

This CivTech Challenge is not intended to duplicate the DPS procurement. Rather, it seeks a truly innovative, technology led, long-term solution for 24/7 service management and monitoring that does not rely on traditional approaches such as increasing headcount, extending service desk hours, broadening the scope of service management functions, or outsourcing.

Will a solution need to integrate with any existing systems / equipment?

Yes. A range of existing systems and equipment will need to be considered. Jira Service Desk is currently in place. Monitoring and security tooling must integrate with existing Scottish Government platforms (AWS CloudWatch, Exabeam, Crowdstrike) and may be complemented where required, subject to Scottish Government approval, to ensure a unified and coherent monitoring system.

Is this part of an existing service?

Yes, this is designed to help scale service management across existing Scottish Government services, common components and platforms, which include:

• ScotAccount

• ScotPayments

• Digital Mailbox

• mygov.scot App

• mygov.scot

• Cloud Platform Service

• Digital Licensing

• Digital planning consents

A solution should have the ability to integrate and scale with any further common components and platforms that may be developed in the future.

Any technologies the Challenge Sponsor wishes to explore or avoid?

We are technology agnostic, for this Challenge we are interested in applications that are highly innovative and future proof to technology advances.

What is the commercial opportunity beyond a CivTech contract?

We believe that a successful solution developed in response to this Challenge could have a wide commercial applicability to organisations that operate multiple services and components with extensive internal and external users.

Who are the stakeholders?

• Delivery teams of the Scottish Government’s common components

• Service customers

• Key suppliers

Who’s in the Challenge Sponsor team?

The Scottish Government (SG) Directorate for Digital, Digital Component and Infrastructure Division (DC&I) is the Challenge Sponsor.

We anticipate that the Challenge Sponsor team will be made up of staff comprising the Service Owner of the Components Management Team, Service Design, User Research and members of in-house support teams.

The successful company will have access to delivery teams and service customers as well as technical staff and cyber colleagues from across the Directorate for Digital.

What is the policy background to the Challenge?

Delivering an effective and scalable service management capability is critical to achieving the ambitions set out in Part 2 (Common Approaches) of Scotland’s Sustainable Digital Public Services Delivery Plan 2025–2028. The reuse of common platforms, components and shared digital services across the public sector are intended to improve user experience, strengthen trust and security, accelerate digital delivery, and realise efficiencies through greater reuse and standardisation across organisations. As adoption of these shared services increases, service management capabilities must scale accordingly to ensure consistent, reliable and resilient service performance.

This Challenge also directly supports Scotland’s Public Service Reform Strategy, particularly Pillar 2 (Joined Up Services) and Pillar 3 (Efficient Services). By enabling the sustainable operation of shared components and platforms, the solution will help deliver more integrated, user-centred services for the people of Scotland, while reducing duplication of effort and avoiding the need for organisations to develop and maintain separate capabilities. It will also contribute to the efficient use of public resources by adopting technology-enabled approaches that improve productivity, increase organisational resilience and support service delivery at scale, aligning with the wider reform objective of delivering better outcomes for citizens within a challenging fiscal environment.