An ICT Architecture Partnership with DCCEEW

Circumstance

When the Australian Government formed DCCEEW in 2022, it did so with a bold purpose: to consolidate environmental, energy, and climate change responsibilities into one department capable of driving Australia’s most ambitious sustainability agenda yet. From restoring ecosystems and protecting heritage sites to modernising energy use and leading climate resilience efforts, DCCEEW would need robust, scalable technology foundations to succeed.

By early 2025, it was clear that delivering this mission required additional and specialist ICT architecture support to enhance and uplift the existing architecture team capabilities. This meant strategic, technical, and operational expertise that could span architecture domains as diverse as enterprise, integration, cybersecurity, and field-deployable infrastructure. The challenge was significant, with some genuinely unique elements not generally required in most government departments: delivering contemporary enterprise-grade ICT architecture for systems that not only operate in metropolitan areas such as Canberra and Sydney but also have core functionality in places like Antarctica and Kakadu, where environments are harsh, bandwidth is limited, latency is high, and reliability is mission-critical.

Our Approach

CTO Consulting was engaged to deliver ICT architecture services to underpin the Department’s enterprise Business-as-Usual (BAU) operations, along with several high-profile programmes, including:

• Decommissioning of SAP

• Upgrade and modernisation of a full application and infrastructure portfolio inherited from the former Department of Environment and Energy (DoEE)

• A Re-usable Regulatory System, consolidating 40 disparate applications onto a single platform

To meet the surge in demand for ICT architecture services and to support the DCCEEW Enterprise Architecture team in delivering strategic future state outcomes, DCCEEW engaged CTO Consulting for architecture and related services under a Managed Service Provider (MSP) arrangement. The scope of the engagement included delivering ICT architecture services to meet tactical and backlog demand for design assurance, delivering ongoing architecture assurance and advisory services, and uplifting and enabling the Enterprise Architecture function to focus on strategic ICT directions. The services and activities encompassed a broad range of capabilities, including ad-hoc and tactical elements, as well as outcomes that contributed to the development of DCCEEW’s strategic ICT direction.

From the outset, the engagement required more than technical expertise - it demanded precision delivery, strong coordination, and agile responsiveness to evolving needs. To manage this complexity, CTO Consulting established a robust engagement model anchored in weekly governance forums with departmental leads. These forums became a mechanism for responsiveness, enabling prioritisation across concurrent workstreams, transparent reporting, and early identification of blockers and capacity constraints.

When DCCEEW required a surge in specialised architectural capacity, CTO Consulting quickly mobilised appropriately skilled, security-cleared resources within weeks, consistently meeting departmental expectations and delivery timelines. This ability to scale quickly became a defining element of the relationship, ensuring support across multiple time-sensitive projects.

CTO Consulting’s technical leadership spanned the retirement of legacy platforms such as SAP and the design of secure, compliant transitions for orphaned processes and datasets. The team also introduced dashboards to track progress and forecasting, enhanced enterprise architecture tooling, and embedded business analysts to support backlog refinement and user story development. Providing thought leadership, along with effective methods to implement ongoing and continuous improvements, meant the CTO Consulting team consistently helped in finding opportunities for more effective operation across the team.

The Outcome

CTO Consulting’s engagement with DCCEEW has delivered sustained impact across platforms, programmes, and people. Key achievements include:

• Stronger planning and governance: manual, opaque processes replaced with dynamic, data-driven forecasting and visibility.

• Improved architectural maturity: design reviews and alignment with departmental principles ensured consistency across complex systems, with architectural artefacts that were easier to locate and reference.

• People and capability uplift: providing senior guidance to a broad range of architects across DCCEEW, with knowledge transferred through handovers and working groups supported to build a culture of architectural excellence.

• Trusted delivery partner: CTO Consulting’s responsiveness, adaptability, and consistent delivery have led to extensions and expansions in scope, cementing an ongoing partnership with DCCEEW.

This case demonstrates CTO Consulting’s ability to deliver not only strategy but tangible outcomes under complex and demanding conditions. By consolidating legacy systems, enabling secure and effective ICT architectures, rapidly scaling resources up or down in line with DCCEEW’s evolving needs, and building long-term capability within the Department, CTO Consulting continues to help DCCEEW realise its mission and shape a sustainable future for Australia.