From Siloed Processes to Seamless Service

By Dr. John Gøtze, Chair of the awards jury

An interview with Paul Boyd, Chief Information Officer, Medway Council

When Medway Council set out to overhaul the way residents report nuisance vehicles, Chief Information Officer Paul Boyd saw an opportunity to prove that digital transformation can be both people-centred and cost-effective. Medway Council is a finalist for the Excellence in Business Transformation Award, hosted at IRMUK’s Business Change & Transformation Conference. We caught up with Paul to learn how the team merged four disjointed services into one friction-free experience—and what other councils can take from Medway’s success.

Jury: Paul, what first convinced you the nuisance-vehicle process needed a ground-up rethink?

Paul Boyd: “Residents were having to figure out which of four separate services to contact—illegally parked cars, abandoned vehicles, cars for sale on the highway, or cars being repaired on the highway. That patchwork created delays, duplication and frustration. We knew there was a better way.”

Jury: You framed the project around service design. How did that shape the solution?

Paul Boyd: “We started by walking the journey from a resident’s perspective. Viewing services through the resident’s lens reveals opportunities for simplification and unification. Instead of asking people to pick the right form, we built a single ‘Report it’ gateway that does the triage for them.”

Key design moves:

• • A dynamic web form that displays existing cases in real time, preventing duplicate reports.
  • Direct integration with DVLA databases to check MOT and tax status on the spot.
  • Automated geo-verification to ensure a vehicle is actually inside the Medway boundary.
  • Smart conditional logic so residents see only the questions relevant to their situation.
  • Automatic hand-off of out-of-scope cases—like dangerous vehicles on private land—to the DVLA or other agencies.

Jury: What kind of impact has the new service had on staff and residents?

Paul Boyd: “We’ve automated or eliminated 75 percent of the manual work it used to take. That frees our teams to focus on higher-value tasks—analysis, enforcement, and engaging with communities—rather than re-keying forms. For residents, the payoff is faster outcomes and fewer ‘What’s happening with my case?’ phone calls because they get updates automatically.”

“Automating backend processes not only improves efficiency—it re-sets expectations for what local services should feel like.”

He adds that because Medway chose not to bank the savings as headcount cuts, “teams can reinvest that time in work that creates even more public value.”

Jury: You’ve called the platform a reusable ‘service pattern.’ What’s next?

Paul Boyd: “We built nuisance-vehicle reporting as the proof-point, but the pattern scales. We’re already rolling it out to litter, graffiti and potholes. The ‘Report it’ model gives us a consistent UX, shared data standards and a single codebase we can extend—rather than reinventing the wheel every time.”

Jury: Any lessons you’d highlight for peers in other councils?

Paul Boyd:

1. 1. Start with the user’s pain points, not the organisational chart.
   2. Engage frontline staff and residents early; they’ll spot edge cases designers miss.
   3. Don’t underestimate the cultural work—aligning siloed teams around a shared vision takes persistence and transparent metrics.

“Strong leadership is crucial, but so is showing quick wins that build trust in the bigger digital story,” Paul stresses.

Paul and the Medway 2.0 team will share a deeper dive into their approach—and pitfalls to avoid—at the Enterprise & Business Architecture, Service Design and Business Change & Transformation Conference 2025.

Fast Facts

About the IRM UK Awards and the Conference

Medway Council’s transformation story is just one of many being celebrated at the IRM UK Enterprise & Business Architecture Conference Europe 2025, co-located with the Business Change & Transformation and Service Design conferences.

As a finalist for the Excellence in Business Transformation Award 2025, Medway joins an inspiring line-up of organisations demonstrating meaningful, people-centred innovation.

📅 Awards Presentation:
Monday, 16 June 2025 | 09:50 – 10:05 AM
🏆 Finalists:

• • Novo Holdings – Nana Lundgaard, Digital Change Manager
  • Medway Council – Paul Boyd, Chief Information Officer & Vicky Bichard, Lead Service Designer

The IRM UK Awards shine a light on organisations rethinking the way services are designed, delivered, and experienced — celebrating bold thinking, collaborative leadership, and measurable outcomes.

To explore the full programme and join the community:
📄 Find Out More: Click Here
🎟️ Book Your Place: Click Here