In this blog, you can learn more about one of the sponsors for our SIAM conference: Service North. Service North is taking place in Manchester, UK on the 1st of November, with a broad range of presentations from SIAM experts. You can view the agenda and book your place here.
Introducing Hippo Digital
Founded just 3 years ago, Hippo Digital are based in Leeds, Yorkshire and have quickly established themselves as a leading supplier of digital leaders, service design teams and delivery expertise in support of large scale digital transformation programmes to both UK public and government organisations and private sector companies looking to truly embrace digital services to innovate and evolve. From a starting point of 2 employees Hippo now employ around 60 staff on both permanent and associate basis.
This momentum has been achieved by having a clear and concise understanding of how to analyse what problem needs to be solved for a digital service to be delivered successfully alongside the ability to work closely with their customers in an outsourced contract structure. Working as part of an organisation’s own teams, Hippo are employed as consultants to solve service design issues using a number of tried, tested, robust and creative methods to help design digital services that add value to the customer experience. By using analysis and research the team are then able to report back concisely to all stakeholders with a range of solutions to help make delivery of the product or service successful and within budgetary and time constraints.
Hippo and SIAM
As an outsourced resource themselves the team at Hippo have first hand experience of being on both sides of a SIAM relationship as customer and supplier. SIAM has been widely used in the UK public sector for nearly a decade and with a background in the public sector Service North presenter Liz Whitefield has been aware of SIAM and its use within multiple supplier relationships for a considerable time.
She comments, “Outsourcing is an integral part of many organisations digital strategies for a myriad of different reasons. What is encouraging to see is that, as companies continue to go through digital transformation and change, SIAM and other Service Management approaches are being adopted into many more sectors. The need to modernise your business practices to remain competitive means the benefit of SIAM is spreading out into the private sector and beyond.”
SIAM offers clear guidelines for all stakeholders, increased governance, it supports the need for agile delivery of the right product all whilst working within tight budgetary constraints and multiple relationships.
The Hippo Team at Service North
Liz Whitefield, a Director at Hippo, will be presenting on the importance of language in successful service delivery (learn more about the agenda and speakers here). Taking a look at how, for teams across the delivery landscape, a lack of understanding and appreciation can be compounded by the language we use, and how some of the tools meant to facilitate change can get in the way. This is not unique for any industry and Liz is keen to explore how understanding expectations and the language we use to communicate is a key factor to success across this multi-supplier landscape we work in.
Liz is a leading expert in service design and design thinking. Following a successful career in UK Public Sector she is now a Director at Hippo Digital. She is passionate about delivering better outcomes for the business and the end user. She has extensive experience in leading Digital Service Design across large Public Sector Organisations, and works closely with leadership and delivery teams to create the right conditions for success. You can learn more about Hippo here.
