Overview
Citadel Edge has been the incumbent provider of sustainment support for Defence’s Objective Digital Records Management System (DRMS) for over 19 years. In the last three years, the team has focused on delivering comprehensive, end-to-end support under tight timeframes while continuously evolving the service. This project involves holistic support across 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level help desks, bespoke software enhancements, and management of over 60 production applications. The environment serves a massive user base (110,000+ users across multiple secure networks, 24×7) and is absolutely mission critical.
Services and challenges
Our sustainment team provides round-the-clock helpdesk support, capability development, testing, training, and ITIL-aligned service management. They frequently collaborate with Defence ICT partners and vendors (Objective Corp, Leidos, Kinetic IT, etc.) to design and implement solutions. A key challenge has been performing major system upgrades and enhancements within constrained maintenance windows and high-pressure timelines, ensuring minimal disruption to Defence operations. The team’s deep familiarity with Defence requirements and security requirements has enabled them to meet every challenge, including surge support on short notice.
Notably, since 2019 they have maintained over 90% core staff retention and demonstrated the ability to meet urgent “surge” staffing needs (deploying cleared, highly skilled personnel at short notice). This capability has been crucial for handling peak workloads and time-sensitive tasks without compromising service quality.
Recent key achievements (2019–Present):
Citadel Edge’s Objective Sustainment engagement has achieved exemplary results, reflecting its ability to deliver under challenging timeframes:
- Perfect Service Levels: Maintained an unblemished record in meeting 100% of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) throughout the tenure, indicating all support requests and deliverables were completed within agreed timeframes.
- High-Volume Support: Responded to over 30,000 service desk contacts from Defence users and executed more than 200 production environment changes in the period since July 2019 – all while meeting strict deadlines and avoiding impact on operations.
- User Training and Uptake: Trained over 3,000 Defence personnel on the Objective system, rapidly rolling out knowledge transfer even as new system versions were introduced. This training effort was often coordinated on tight schedules to align with deployment of new capabilities.
- Major Upgrades: Successfully performed multiple Objective software upgrades from version 7 through to version 11, planning and executing each major upgrade within limited outage windows. All upgrades achieved required security accreditations across various Defence networks, demonstrating compliance with evolving security policies under deadline.
- Innovation & Enhancements: Developed and implemented numerous bespoke enhancements and innovative solutions to adapt to changing requirements. Examples include an Automated Email Capture feature, a Purge Documents Solution for lifecycle management, and other custom workflows/tools (e.g. automated migration utilities, secure classification enforcement tools) that address emerging Defence needs. These innovations were often delivered proactively, ahead of formal requirement changes, showcasing a culture of continuous improvement.
Adaptability and continuous improvement
The sustainment team has demonstrated exceptional adaptability by continuously improving processes and integrating new technologies. They introduced advanced monitoring and automation (e.g. Nagios and Dynatrace for infrastructure monitoring) to preempt issues and reduce response times. The team routinely goes beyond contractual scope to ensure system reliability – for instance, identifying and resolving underlying infrastructure issues (storage, server, network, middleware) that were impacting Objective’s performance. By performing root-cause analysis and working with third parties to fix these external issues, Citadel Edge’s improved overall service stability without being asked, illustrating a strong commitment to Defence’s mission continuity.
Crucially, the team’s responsiveness and close collaboration with Defence stakeholders have resolved incidents rapidly even under unforeseen time pressures. Annually, over 100 days of additional effort (after-hours and weekends) were provided beyond contract obligations to support urgent Defence needs. This willingness to go above and beyond – coupled with process maturity and a stable, experienced team – underscores Citadel Edge’s capacity to deliver critical services under demanding time constraints. The Objective Sustainment case study highlights a track record of on-time, on-budget delivery and the ability to adapt through innovation and continuous improvement, ensuring Defence’s enterprise records system remains robust, up-to-date, and fully aligned with evolving requirements.
