Case study: Modernising the digital backbone at an international heritage arts organisation
The challenge
The client delivered online and face-to-face education and training, bespoke and conservation commissions and ran physical and online retail. Their technology had grown organically over many years, with rapid additions during the pandemic. The result was complex integrations, heavy manual work and an uneven experience for students, customers and supporters.
Our approach
Listen and map: Spoke with teams across education, studio, retail, fundraising and operations. Mapped key journeys and pain points.
Assess the technology stack: Reviewed systems, integrations and data flows to understand where effort and risk were highest.
Define the target state: Recommended replacing legacy tools with modern, off-the-shelf platforms that integrate cleanly.
Prioritise what matters: Built a three-year plan that sequences changes by value, risk and readiness, with clear costs and dependencies.
Strengthen delivery foundations: Proposed a governance model, practical cyber security steps and capability uplift so changes stick.
Results
Clear plan, shared priorities: A costed, three-year roadmap with phasing the leadership team could back.
Better experiences: A path to reduce manual effort, improve data quality and give students and customers a smoother journey.
Simpler landscape: Move to integrated platforms for CRM, retail/eCommerce, course management, studio work management and finance.
Stronger delivery and security: Governance to steer decisions, concrete actions to raise cyber resilience, and upskilling for key staff.
What we delivered
Platform recommendations, including: New CRM for fundraising and membership, new eCommerce/retail platform, course management solution, work management tool for the embroidery studio, finance system options
Three-year, costed roadmap with sequencing and dependencies
Governance model and decision-making toolkit
Cyber security improvement actions
Capability plan to support adoption