Digital government: Building a better UK — Zaizi’s year in review

It was another bumper year of growth and impact for Zaizi. We worked on projects close to our hearts — those essential to making the UK the safest place to live.

Throughout these projects, we stayed true to our core purpose: realising the potential of our staff, our clients, and the citizens they serve.

Digital government is hard. We know the pressure public sector teams face; trying to build exceptional services while navigating budget constraints, resource gaps and rising expectations.  

But together we succeed. Our commitment is rooted in our experience helping public sector partners overcome complex problems to achieve exceptional outcomes.

We work side by side with public sector teams to turn broken systems into joined-up services that are simpler for users, safer to run and stronger for the future. 

We do this by:

Here is a look at some of the work where we applied those skills over the past year.

Boosting efficiency, cutting costs, and future-proofing systems

Home Office — digitising and automating processes

We completed a four-year project with the Home Office, transforming a manual process into a fully digitised, automated, and paperless system.

While a major focus has been on ensuring a smooth handover to the support team, we’ve continued to deliver transformational outcomes. In our most recent work, a new functionality reduced the end-to-end processing time by 99% in early testing. Greater automation has enabled the team to achieve 27% efficiency gains with a more streamlined workflow.

Other departments have expressed interest in adopting a similar solution. We have started a project with another team and it has already achieved several major milestones. 

Following go-live, a senior member of the client team described it as a “more attuned, efficient and reliable system, providing a solid foundation for our future business.”

The National Archives (TNA): Making records digital

We’re helping TNA launch Manage Records Compliance (MRC), which centralises oversight of public records compliance. The streamlined workflow supports efficient data collection, structured reporting, automated tracking, and actionable insights. 

A successful discovery phase progressed into an alpha that achieved a green rating across all 14 categories of the Service Standard.

Testimonials from client:

Modernisation of legacy services

Another project with the TNA involves modernising a 20-year-old legacy catalogue system. Our discovery identified user needs, pain points and requirements for a replacement service. 

The recommendation was an “evolution, not revolution” incremental, cloud-first rebuild, with the initial focus on replacing the most unreliable systems. 

This avoids both the risks inherent in a “big bang” replacement project and maintains a stable service before a complete rebuild. 

Simplifying cloud adoption

Zaizi has also provided cloud and development expertise within a hybrid TNA multidisciplinary team to enhance the Access Your Records (AYR) service, which provides UK government departments with access to archived records uploaded by other departments. 

We’ve helped make the service safer and more efficient; resolving any issues, connecting key services through more secure endpoints, and improving file processing. 

Go from legacy to leading edge: The great legacy escape — ditch the spreadsheets, drop the paper, modernise for what’s next

Driving productivity and better decision-making with AI

Border Force: Screening with AI 

We’re evaluating how AI can further improve freight scanning and screening at ports for Border Force.

We’re developing a technical enablement strategy and roadmap to incorporate AI model capabilities into the existing ScanApp solution. Zaizi helped build ScanApp, a web-based application that makes it easier for Border Force officers to view, analyse and share scan images and information of freights for investigation, reference, training and intelligence. 

Throughout this process, Zaizi has worked in step with the AI playbook and helped Border Force secure future funding and stakeholder buy-in for the next phase of AI delivery. 

The work has been noted as an “Exemplar project” across Border Force and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. We’ve shared our lessons with various government teams, including the Border Force AI working group and the cross-government AI community.

Pegasus Care: Turning data into better care

This specialist care provider supports adults with complex needs. They wanted to know how to turn the vast amounts of data they have into proactive tools that reduce administrative burden and improve service delivery to residents. 

Having taken our AI readiness assessment, we delivered research and wireframes, developed an AI proof of concept, and produced a roadmap on how to improve data quality and explore safe, practical AI use.

The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO): Smarter case summarisation with AI

TPO is exploring the use of AI to support case summarisation and reduce manual effort in case handling. 

We’re assessing their technical feasibility, evaluating data readiness, and undertaking a light-touch risk review to ensure the safe and responsible use of AI. 

Read our white paper: Unlocking government efficiency — An AI readiness roadmap for decision makers.

Protecting information, reducing risk, and making the UK safer

Enabling secure cross-collaboration

In the secure government space, we’re working on several projects to simplify administrative workflows and enable real-time collaboration where it hasn’t traditionally been possible.

This allows teams to share information and coordinate faster without compromising strict security requirements. 

Feedback from teams shows we’re significantly reducing time on routine tasks and removing long-standing operational barriers. Teams are working faster, more effectively and with greater confidence. 

Building strong services

We helped a secure government customer simplify its services using modern, cloud-based technology with security as a key focus.

For example, we launched a new online application form that simplifies and streamlines a service they provide to external organisations.

We’re also launching an MVP that allows secure report uploads. We’re reusing a solution from another project with the same client — using its workflow, secure document handling, and engagement management features.

Supporting cyber resilience

Continuing to work on a government website that provides support for individuals, businesses, and the public sector to protect against cyber threats and build cyber resilience.

On another project, we’re helping a government client build and maintain a vital outreach initiative that’s inspired thousands of people in the UK. 

Our experience in national security: We’ve been a trusted partner to national security departments for over ten years

Shaping services that are easier to use and solve real problems 

User-centred insight underpins our support for the delivery of some key national initiatives.

With HMRC, we worked on a discovery to determine the most sensitive and effective way to implement legislated changes to inheritance tax, minimising the burden on bereaved people.

In another discovery, we explored users’ needs around the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a policy that adds a carbon cost (akin to a tax or levy) on certain imported goods.

We’re assisting government departments deliver some of the UK’s critical national programmes.

For example, we’re helping the Office for National Statistics plan for the 2031 Census.

We also conducted exploratory work with The Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE) on a high-profile national issue that will make the process quicker and more effective.

What next?

Other case studies

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