The Royal Mint - June 2023

Inside the technology function of Britain’s coin maker

Richard Hobbs Group IT Director

Richard Hobbs, Group IT Director at The Royal Mint, details how an innovative technology strategy is driving Britain’s coin maker into the 21st century

The Royal Mint is a company that needs little introduction, at least not to the majority of the Great British public, coin collectors, or those interested in the Royal Family.

Founded more than 1,100 years ago in around 886 AD, the Mint – as it’s colloquially known – is one of the UK’s oldest brands and remains the official maker of British coins. It’s also billed as the home of precious metals (think gold bullion bars) and recently launched a luxury jewellery collection called 886 by The Royal Mint.

That’s without mentioning the illustrious commemorative coins side of the business, which continues to thrive, and the iconic Olympic medals it created for London 2012. It will come as no surprise, however, that The Royal Mint has had to digitally adapt to rapidly-evolving societal norms and technological advances.

Much of that responsibility has fallen to Richard Hobbs, Group IT Director of The Royal Mint, who joined just before the pandemic in early 2020. Hobbs has been spearheading The Royal Mint’s technology transformation and implementing a five-year strategy that supports the organisation as it diversifies –which, he believes, is on the right track.

“We’re transforming from a traditional manufacturer into a modern, digital-oriented organisation,” says Hobbs. “And over the last five years or so, we’ve been very successful in our commercial diversification but also in introducing new technology into the business.”

ERP ‘critical’ to Sustainable Precious Metals programme

Like all forward-thinking manufacturing businesses, The Royal Mint has come to recognise the undeniable importance of sustainability and, with that, is factoring sustainable practices into its everyday operations.

Later this year, The Royal Mint is opening a plant to recover precious metals from electronic waste. Once up and running, the precious metals’ recovery site is expected to process 90 tonnes of UK-sourced e-waste every week.

Clearly, then, The Royal Mint requires a powerful ERP system in the form of

“We’ve been really successful in our diversification, but also in introducing new technology to help the organisation”

RICHARD HOBBS GROUP IT DIRECTOR, THE ROYAL MINT

Ffion

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design process

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations to support this groundbreaking journey. The aim, Hobbs explains, was for this technology to support that entire manufacturing process – from the minute the e-waste is sourced, all the way through to products reaching the consumer.

That includes being able to track e-waste loads as they come in, manage the process of removing component parts, identify them, and then move them into The Royal Mint’s business. Building an effective ERP system was therefore “critical”, but also served as a huge opportunity for the tech team.

“There aren’t many opportunities to implement a greenfield ERP in an existing

RICHARD HOBBS

TITLE: GROUP IT DIRECTOR

COMPANY: THE ROYAL MINT

INDUSTRY: CONSUMER GOODS

LOCATION: CARDIFF

Rich joined The Royal Mint in January 2020, bringing 20 years’ experience from financial services, where he worked for Barclays Bank, Barclaycard, Lloyds Banking Group and Admiral Insurance. During his time, Rich has led his team to implement the technology strategy at The Royal Mint, driving forward its digital transformation, modernising cybersecurity and growing the IT function as The Royal Mint diversifies and expands its business. Working closely with the executive board, Rich has led in driving a culture of technological innovation, enabling the delivery of The Royal Mint’s

Hitachi Solutions enables ‘world’s first’ e-waste sustainability programme for The Royal Mint

Hitachi Solutions is a global Digital, Data and Technology consultancy specialising in end-to-end transformation using Microsoft Cloud Services, Dynamics 365 Business Applications, Power Platform and Azure, including Application Modernisation and Data & Analytics. Our highly skilled teams drive improvements, create efficiencies and enable growth to revolutionise the Public Sector.

How Hitachi Solutions formed game-changing Royal Mint partnership

Jamie Watson, Client Director at Hitachi Solutions Europe, explains why his firm was well-equipped to assist The Royal Mint in its ambitious transformation

Embarking on its world-first Sustainable Precious Metals (SPM) programme, The Royal Mint (TRM) needed a partner that could seamlessly establish a new ERP system. The Mint joined forces with global consultancy firm Hitachi Solutions, which specialises in people-first business transformation using Microsoft technologies.

Jamie Watson, Client Director at Hitachi Solutions Europe, explains: “From a tech perspective, this involves the full suite of Dynamics 365 (D365) Business Applications: the Power Platform, Azure, and the data and AI platforms. “From a people perspective, it’s centred around change management and digital innovation.”

Forming a partnership

Detailing Hitachi Solutions’ engagement with TRM, Watson adds: “We worked very closely with The Royal Mint team to deliver a people and business-led engagement that initially focused on understanding their needs and goals. “We prioritised those needs and worked out what enabling technology was required within the Microsoft technology stack to turn those needs

into real-life outcomes. “Since then, we’ve continued our relationship, successfully tendered the SPM ERP transformation programme, and we’ve gone live with the D365 Finance and Supply Chain Management solution.”

A sustainable solution

The design and build of TRM’s new ERP solution means it will prove to be extremely sustainable in the long term. “As a collective team,” Watson continues, “we had less than six months to design, configure, test and deploy a production-ready ERP solution, which, for anyone familiar with these types of programmes, is almost unheard of.”

Watson said the project had provided “huge opportunity” for transformation across TRM’s organisation. He adds: “We can focus less on keeping the lights on and focus more on continually adding new functionality like the Power Platform, robotic process automation, and even brand-new technologies that are hitting us across AI and machine learning. “That will certainly become relevant to The Royal Mint and could, in itself, provide significant long-term benefits.”

business, so we were very quick to recognise it as an opportunity to test drive some of our assumptions and processes,” says Hobbs.

“It’s been a great learning curve for us to start on our ERP journey and, in fact, we delivered the MVP ERP within 15 weeks of inception. That was done by January and we’re already at the end of phase two, which is implementing a second phase of change.

“It’s been a really successful programme that’s had a big impact on the business.”

A cloud success story

The pronounced importance of cloud computing to modern living, technology and the manufacturing industry is well documented. The Royal Mint’s IT transformation from on-premise to the cloud allowed for greater technological flexibility.

“Our new ERP sits on the cloud, giving us the ability to be really quick and nimble, keep it updated, and take on technology,”

“Sustainability is now at the heart of The Royal Mint – and technology plays a crucial role in this journey”

RICHARD HOBBS GROUP IT DIRECTOR, THE ROYAL MINT

says Hobbs. “But it also enables integrations to be fast and effective, allowing us to scale up the product during busy periods and to be elastic without even thinking about it.”

Moreover, cloud computing has allowed The Royal Mint to enhance its data management and cybersecurity, both of which lie at the heart of the aforementioned technology strategy. A data management function has been created to appropriately surface information to the business, which is self-serving and maintains an organised, controlled, and secure data team.

Moving to the cloud and the implementation of modern ERP across the Mint has even helped change internal perceptions of the technology department, with Hobbs adding: “We’re now seen as much more of an enabling function than a

cost function. When the business is moving fast, trying new things, and diversifying quickly, it needs the technology to do it.”

In pursuit of partnerships

The Royal Mint has been able to count on a whole host of partners to help carry out its recent technological transformation and activities.

Its primary partner within the ERP space has been Hitachi Solutions, which worked closely with The Royal Mint’s tech team to implement the Dynamics 365 system managing the precious metals recovery site.

“We’re essentially a public sector organisation, so we have to go through a procurement process,” explains Hobbs. “When we spoke to Hitachi, from quite early on we recognised there was a really strong cultural fit.

886AD

Founded in 886 AD during the time of Alfred the Great, The Royal Mint is one of the oldest brands in Great Britain

800

The Royal Mint employs more than 800 people across functions including manufacturing and technology

Currency

Away from producing currency for the UK and other countries, The Royal Mint has successful businesses across commemorative coins and investments as well as its new luxury jewellery range

“Knowing an ERP project is potentially two or three years long, we wanted to make sure we could work together. The technology itself is quite prescribed but, on the softer side of things, Hitachi were able to engage with us and support us in our decision making.”

Also key was Hitachi Solutions’ experience in working with similar organisations and its success rate in implementing Dynamics 365. This meant that, rather than simply responding to The Royal Mint’s questions, project team members were able to add some colour to the conversations around what they’d seen before.

“We were so lucky,” Hobbs continues. “Hitachi brought in a great project team who we kept for the whole duration; they engaged with The Royal Mint side of things really effectively. It felt like they were part of our own team.

“Hitachi Solutions has been a great partner of ours for about two years now, helping to shape our story and the build we’ve just completed.”

Using Dynamics 365 and sitting within a Microsoft Azure cloud means the Mint has, of course, worked closely with Microsoft, while Optimizely provides its website platform. The emphasis from The Royal Mint’s point of view is on gathering a small but focused group of partners that help the company push through its strategy.

“We recognise that we don’t know the answers to everything,” says Hobbs. “Picking

Expleo’s automation-based approach to helping digitalise one of the UK’s oldest businesses

On a mission to expand on its digital e-commerce operation, with the customer at the forefront, The Royal Mint leveraged Expleo’s domain expertise and best-in-class proprietary methods for testing and assuring technology rollouts.

Find out how Expleo can help your organisation embrace a culture of hyperautomation. LEARN MORE

As the country’s oldest company and holder of the exclusive contract to produce the nation’s coinage, The Royal Mint is an icon of British business. Expleo was offered a rare opportunity to partner with one of the country’s greatest establishments in its digital transformation.

Boosting commercial agility

In 2020, Richard Hobbs, Group IT Director of The Royal Mint recognised the significance of innovation within the technology function and formulated a plan to bring new technologies into the business, while accelerating time to market with new product offerings. This coupled with heightened customer expectations around seamless online experiences provided the impetus for the Royal Mint to replace legacy systems and digitalise manual processes that were tying up resources and time. The Royal Mint issued a tender for a project to digitalise its IT infrastructure, selecting Expleo to automate the testing of its e-commerce digital platforms and oversee the testing process for its switch to a new payment provider. Hobbs, architect of the

Royal Mint’s digital agenda, envisioned an ‘automation-first’ approach to IT refurbishment, geared towards expanding the company’s product suite and client base.

Streamlining website functionality

Top of the list of deliverables was a highperformance website – RoyalMint.com. Expleo quickly implemented a robust testing framework to identify defects within the existing IT infrastructure and put in place a quality assurance tool that has allowed The Royal Mint to develop new functionality for a smoother customer journey. This intervention dramatically reduced the number of hours required to execute a core regression test pack by 80%.

Expleo’s

work to improve The Royal

Mint’s website helped the company to unlock new revenue streams across its products. Additionally, the improved testing and bug detection capabilities decreased the risk of lost sales due to system downtime, while bolstering the security of The Royal Mint’s website, and mitigating the risk of cyber-attacks.

THE ROYAL MINT

our partners based on shared synergies and the ability to work well together is the driving factor for me.”

Another important partner for The Royal Mint is Expleo, which has grown to become a force in the fields of engineering, technology and consulting.

“Expleo has supported the expansion of our commercial horizons,” Hobbs says. “Their team’s technical know-how enabled us to improve our development processes and increase efficiencies across the board.

“Expleo facilitated a re-platforming of our website and oversaw the testing process for our switch to a new payments provider. Through this engagement with Expleo, we’ve been able to expedite time-

Royal Mint Pattern

to-market with a new product line, unlock viable new revenue streams and become more commercially agile.

“Overall, this phase of automation has allowed us to focus resources on more strategic initiatives, increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction and boost revenue growth.”

Growing technology talent

The Royal Mint is focused on working towards a sustainable future for its business and the environment, and this includes developing talent within the technology team.

Hobbs says: “Our technology function is robust and we want to ensure we’re sustaining as well as attracting talent to the business.”

The Group IT Director and his team have forged partnerships with the University of South Wales and the National Cyber Security Academy. They collaborate in a number of ways, including supporting students with projects and dissertations, attending speaking opportunities and sharing insights to provide students with case studies to aid their assessments.

“Hitachi Solutions has been a great partner of ours for about two years now, helping to shape our story and the build we’ve just completed”

RICHARD HOBBS GROUP IT DIRECTOR, THE ROYAL MINT

“It’s important for us as a team to engage with the local communities we operate in,” Hobbs adds. “It also allows us to demonstrate the amazing local career options that we have on offer, helping us to attract talent into the business. We work closely with educational establishments and it’s a mutually beneficial relationship; we offer our knowledge and, eventually, this may make its way back into the business via employment opportunities.”

The tech team also works with the Network 75 scheme on technical apprenticeships, allowing students to gain hands-on experience at a world-renowned organisation. The Royal Mint hires directly from university, with three technology team members being employed via this route.

“It’s important for me to ensure my team is happy, whilst delivering our technology strategy and offering a premium experience for our customers,” Hobbs continues. “Our technology function provides lots of opportunities in which our staff can fully immerse themselves, whether that’s working on our new ERP system on the cloud, data management, cybersecurity or working with our project partners.”

What next for technology at the Mint? The outlook for The Royal Mint is transformational, and its technology strategy plays a huge part in delivering some of these exciting plans.

The precious metals’ recovery site will soon go live and begin putting tonnes of e-waste to good use. Cybersecurity innovation and use of data to enhance customer experience is also on the agenda, as are various improvements to the website. It’s projected that the ERP journey will be complete in around 18 months’ time.

Furthermore, Hobbs predicts that AI and machine learning will become increasingly influential in both the technology and manufacturing spaces.

“It’s really interesting to think about how we can harness new technology like generative AI,” he adds. “What impact will it have in the manufacturing space? What can we teach it about our manufacturing processes to constantly enhance and develop them? The scope of potential innovation is boundless.”

“We work closely with educational establishments, and it’s a mutually beneficial relationship”

RICHARD HOBBS GROUP IT DIRECTOR, THE ROYAL MINT

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