We have been making good progress recently with our preferred partner concerning the development of an LCRIG DPS which has been something of a journey of discovery.
To give you a sense of the stage we have reached, we hope to achieve the Agreement for Partnership that will allow us to build a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). The MoA will hold the work already invested by the Steering Committee and describe partner contributions as well as the Go/No-Go decisions, project plan and broader stakeholder activities.
To give you confidence that other options were considered, we evaluated different options to deliver the DPS, including doing it alone without a partner. However, this would likely require at least £250,000 in capital investment and a similar amount to build a resilient team. As you know, with any digital project, the cost can build over time. We have no doubt LCRIG could deliver the DPS, but it will not scale as quickly as we wish, as we believe that demand for the DPS will be significant.
In discussions with the partners, we are considering changing the name from the LCRIG DPS to something focused on innovation. It has been pointed out that the project will fill the need to provide a Centre of Excellence to help Members and the Market improve access to and procurement of innovation, mainly if we focus on the “problem first” and not the solution. At Strictly Highways, in every presentation, we heard this request. Second, whilst we are dynamically purchasing innovation, we are not using the category management approach, which is implied by the term DPS. In the following weeks, should you have any thoughts on an appropriate name for this unique model please let me know.
In closing, I remain excited and committed to the project. Recent discussions have helped frame the project and bring more organisations to support, especially in the innovation trial space. In the end, our LCRIG DPS is about the market scale and the adoption of proven, market-ready innovations which will improve the cost of managing our assets.
As always, I’m happy to hear the views of any of our members.