National Highways – Optec Modernisation and Refresh Programme
Designed a national delivery model for £105m in technology investment; using advanced analytics to prioritise spend and embed a smarter, coordinated approach to regional delivery.
The Context:
National Highways was preparing to invest £105 million in modernising critical technology infrastructure across six regional areas. Delivery was fragmented: each region used its own systems, suppliers and planning logic.
Without a coherent operating model, there was no way to prioritise investment, coordinate delivery, or track impact. The risk was clear, duplicated spend, wasted time, and missed safety improvements.
IGS was engaged to design and deliver a programme operating model that bringing national structure to a regional delivery challenge
Our Role & Approach:
Over a 12-month engagement we:
Designed and implemented the OPTKIS prioritisation tool: a bespoke analytical model that used asset-level data to rank interventions by impact
Conducted deep-dive discovery across regions, SMEs and data systems to identify systemic issues with data integrity and performance visibility
Introduced new data collection and cleansing processes to improve reliability and comparability
Built a full programme operating model including governance structure, planning tools, delivery processes, and a new central coordination unit to oversee implementation and assurance
The Result
New national delivery model adopted across all six regions
Analytical tooling used to shape £105m investment portfolio targeting interventions with greatest operational and safety impact
Forecast savings of £50m+ over programme lifecycle.
Cultural shift toward centralised programme governance, supported by buy-in from senior operational leadership
Programme now live, with new model underpinning procurement, delivery, and assurance
Client feedback described the work as “a real step change for our business”