Kainos shortlisted in UK IT Industry Awards for digitally transforming the driving test process

Kainos and BJSS have been jointly named as finalists in the IT Project Team of the Year category at the upcoming 2020 UK IT Industry Awards. Our client, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), has also been shortlisted in the Best Public Sector IT Project category.

Designed to celebrate excellence, the awards recognise those individuals, projects, organisations and technologies that have excelled in the use, development and deployment of IT over the previous 12 months. Hosted by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and Computing, the awards are regarded as the benchmark for outstanding performance across the UK computer industry.

Kainos' shortlisting in the Project Team of the Year category is recognition of the company's innovative and ongoing work with the DVSA. In this case, Kainos partnered with BJSS to work on a major programme to digitise the practical driving test.

For just over a year, teams from the DVSA, Kainos and BJSS worked together in a completely new way to digitise a driver examination process largely unchanged since 1934. In real terms, that meant replacing a heavily manual, paper-based process with a user-centric, digitised, fully automated system that has transformed service, reliability, performance and efficiency.

Implementing a truly integrated, user-centric approach, Kainos and BJSS worked together to enable DVSA's team, identify pain points for the 1,800 end-users and demonstrate the benefits possible. The result is an intuitive system that reduces paper, speeds up licence turnaround times from 3 weeks to approx. 3 days and has a user satisfaction score of 82%. Most importantly it has been embraced by the end-user, Driving Examiners, who were at the heart of the project from the outset.

The project is just one element of an overarching strategy that aims to transform DVSA into a digitally enabled organisation in line with GDS standards.

Mark Magee, Head of Driver Policy/DES Project Executive, DVSA explains: 'The move to mobile technology brings the driving test into the 21st century. The approach of using a network of examiners as early adopters has also set a new benchmark for the way that DVSA will involve users and manage change in the future.'

Russell Sloan, Head of Digital Services, Kainos highlights: 'The success of this project came down to the truly collaborative approach that Kainos and BJSS took working alongside DVSA. It was a one-team mindset from the outset and our combined knowledge and experience delivered fantastic value for DVSA and helped to completely transform a process that had been unchanged since 1934.'

Paul Fletcher, Group CEO, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, says: 'Congratulations to Kainos for being shortlisted, they clearly demonstrate the highest levels of excellence and innovation across today's IT sector. These awards showcase some of the most inspiring and best in our industry, and it is a significant achievement to be shortlisted.'

Winners of the UK IT Industry Awards will be announced on 11th November 2020.

For the full shortlist visit the awards website.