Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioners (VLSB+C) regulates the legal profession in Victoria: investigating compliance, certifying practitioners, and managing casework across licensing, complaints, and investigations teams. Its systems had aged into a patchwork of legacy platforms and manual processes, and a first attempt to replace them with a new regulatory management system (RMS) had already stalled, after a previous consultant engagement was terminated for failing to deliver enough material to take to market.
The challenge
VLSB+C needed to validate its existing documentation, close the gaps, and produce updated requirements robust enough to run a request for proposal (RFP) for a systems integrator to build a new case and file management platform. The brief covered high-level requirements for nine of VLSB+C's 120 business processes, detailed requirements for two, a service blueprint and journey maps, and a technology assessment of a pre-selected Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform, all against VLSB+C's own tight go-to-market date. Stakeholder engagement needed three-week lead times across a large, disparate group already fatigued by the previous, unsuccessful engagement, and much of the existing documentation conflicted with itself.
Our approach
We started by auditing what VLSB+C already had: working out what could be built on, what needed rebuilding, and what should be set aside entirely, alongside an early technology audit of the pre-selected Dynamics 365 platform.
Embedded analysis Two Revium business analysts worked embedded inside VLSB+C's RMS team, sitting alongside subject matter experts across licensing, complaints, and investigations to map business processes and continuously cross-check requirements with product owners to eliminate duplication.
Service design with ownership in mind A large-scale service blueprint and two journey maps, selected by VLSB+C from several candidate journeys, were built through workshops that included VLSB+C's customer experience (CX) team from the outset, so ownership of the artefacts transferred organically rather than being handed over at the end.
Technology validation We assessed Microsoft Dynamics 365 against case management workflows, financial trust account management, integration, compliance, security, and user experience, rating each area as suitable as is, suitable with modification, or not suitable, to minimise custom development and confirm the platform's fit.
RFP development We contributed to every section of the RFP materials and wrote a market story document giving systems integrators context on VLSB+C's history and current state, alongside input into the proof of concept brief.
Outcomes
VLSB+C went to market with a comprehensive RFP package and an evidence base that had eluded the previous engagement. Respondents fed back that the level of detail was sufficient to bid with confidence. VLSB+C has since shortlisted vendors and is now in proof of concept with two providers, with the technology assessment confirming Microsoft Dynamics 365 as a suitable platform for its workflows.
Beyond the RFP itself, the service blueprint and journey maps have become living documents that VLSB+C's team continues to own and update. They've been printed and put up on the walls of VLSB+C's building, giving senior stakeholders and teams well beyond the RMS project a shared, holistic view of the future state.
What this means for organisations like yours
Legacy systems and stalled transformation attempts aren't unique to VLSB+C. Any regulator or public sector body sitting on ageing platforms, conflicting documentation, and a first vendor engagement that didn't land, faces the same starting problem: turning fragmented history into evidence solid enough to act on. Embedding analysts directly inside VLSB+C's own team, rather than working at arm's length, is what turned that history into a business case a systems integrator market could respond to with confidence.
Reflections
From VLSB+C
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Person, Title, VLSB+C
From a Portable team member
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Sam Bury, Business Director, Portable
Project team
- Andrew Fulton, Technical Lead
- Luke Thomas, Principal Legal Designer
- Sam Bury, Product Delivery Lead
- Anshika Jain, Experience Designer
- Becky Leonhardt, Business Director
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