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Delivery leadership · client engagement · commercial performance

Turning around failing digital delivery and service

Digital Delivery • IT Service Management • Operating Model Design

When delivery slips, service performance drops, and confidence starts to erode, I step in to restore control, stabilise outcomes, and rebuild trust.

I bring digital delivery and IT service management back into one operating model that works in practice across complex, regulated, and high-pressure environments.

Atos BBC DWP HMCTS Home Office MoD Siemens

Delivery Director · Portfolio Lead · Trusted across Central Government, the BBC, the Home Office, and complex regulated environments

“He combines a professional, can-do attitude with highly impressive technical knowledge, excellent business acumen, and unwavering customer focus.”
Linda Moss — Manager, Application Management
The problem

Most organisations do not need another disconnected model

Most delivery problems are not technical. They are structural.

They need digital delivery, IT service management, and connected governance to work together in practice. That is where my background across programme and managed service delivery, organisational change, transition, and operational leadership becomes useful.

I have spent 20+ years working within in-house teams, global outsourcers, systems integrators, and SMEs, helping clients bridge the gap between heritage and modern, digital delivery approaches, ensuring this new reality meets commercial and stakeholder expectations.

I am typically brought in when:

  • Delivery is slipping and confidence is dropping
  • Service performance is unstable or under scrutiny
  • Run and Change are disconnected
  • Leadership needs clarity on what is really happening
  • Delivery off track or losing control
  • Support and maintenance disconnected from product delivery
  • Supplier and team interfaces creating friction and delay
  • Leadership lacking visibility, grip, or confidence
  • Operating models no longer aligned to business need
What I do

Three ways I typically help

I work with organisations to stabilise delivery, strengthen live service, and redesign operating models where control, confidence, and performance are at risk.

01Delivery Turnaround

Stabilising complex programmes where delivery has drifted, re-establishing control across cost, schedule, and outcomes to protect investment and restore confidence.

Governance reset, stakeholder alignment, and delivery visibility, combined with pragmatic recovery planning and commercially viable execution that brings programmes back onto a credible, fundable trajectory.

02Service Transformation

Transforming live service environments to improve performance, resilience, and user experience, while reducing operational risk and total cost of ownership.

Integrating Run and Change through ITIL-aligned service improvement, transition, and performance management, ensuring services are scalable, measurable, and aligned to business outcomes.

03Operating Model Design

Aligning Agile, ITIL, and DevOps into a practical operating model that enables consistent delivery, service performance, and governance across complex organisations.

Organisation design, role clarity, governance, automation, and integrated delivery-and-service ways of working that improve efficiency, reduce friction, and support sustainable, outcome-driven execution.

Proof points

Commercially credible outcomes, not generic claims

£45M+Central Government revenue secured through new business and renewals
£7.6MRevenue protected through targeted service transition intervention
90%Incident backlog reduction; aged incidents cut from 18 months to one
60%Process efficiency improvement through robotic process automation
€250MGlobal portfolio expansion supported at Atos
Case studies

Selected case studies

Three examples showing how I work across turnaround, transformation, and operating model design in complex, regulated environments.

Delivery Turnaround Siemens NWE TOPAS

Delivery Turnaround — Siemens TOPAS NWE

Problem: SAP Application Management services across North West Europe were failing to meet cost reduction and quality targets due to non-conformance with the agreed Target Operating Model, particularly around near-shore delivery.

Action: Led a focused “SWAT” team across the UK and Netherlands to diagnose root causes, re-architect the delivery model, and define a “back to green” recovery programme. Designed a transition to a near-shore Poland-based model, incorporating labour arbitrage, lean ITIL processes, and standardised tooling, while securing buy-in across regional leadership and delivery teams.

Outcome: Delivered a fully approved transformation plan within two weeks, enabling an incremental transition to the target model and positioning the service to achieve ~30% cost reduction while meeting quality and regulatory requirements.

Service Transformation BBC Project Stratus

Service Transformation — BBC Project Stratus

Problem: The BBC’s application landscape was fragmented across custom, enterprise, and third-party systems, creating duplication, integration complexity, and risk of obsolescence while limiting return on investment.

Action: Led a multi-disciplinary team across the UK and India to develop a transformation roadmap using a structured scorecard approach to identify high-risk, low-fit applications. Designed a four-year modernisation plan and created an investment model that offset capital expenditure through reduced operational costs via offshoring.

Outcome: Delivered a transformation plan enabling the BBC to rationalise and modernise its application estate with no capital expenditure, improving ROI and achieving £4m in operational cost savings, while unlocking new commercial opportunities within the supplier ecosystem.

Operating Model Design Home Office Shared Application Services

Operating Model Design — Home Office Shared Application Services

Problem: The Home Office required a new operating model for application services delivery as it began establishing its in-house Shared Application Services capability. The existing model was fragmented, with conflicting approaches across a multi-supplier ecosystem split between legacy IT outsourcing and emerging digital delivery models.

Action: Acted as a trusted advisor within a multi-supplier “Rainbow Team,” shaping the Future Mode of Operation. Defined a product-centric, BizDevOps-aligned model incorporating squad-based delivery, integrated toolchains, and blended ITSM, Agile, and DevOps practices.

Outcome: Secured buy-in from client leadership, suppliers, and DDaT ExCo. The model was approved and progressed into detailed design, forming the foundation for a 10-year transformation programme that increased the proportion of applications managed by Shared Application Services from 10% to 80%.

If you are dealing with something similar, it is usually solvable faster than it looks.

Framework

A structured approach that actually works

This is how I make delivery and service work together.

I have my own bespoke delivery and operations framework, ABBOT, a practical, end-to-end framework that unifies Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), DevOps, and ITIL into a single, coherent lifecycle.

It is designed to balance the governance language and structures trusted by executives with the flexibility, adaptability, and speed required by delivery teams. In practice, that means connecting inception, construction, transition, and live operation through one operating rhythm rather than treating delivery and service as separate worlds.

ABBOT is how I translate strategy into delivery structure, integrate Run and Change, and create a model that works both for leadership oversight and for teams who need to deliver outcomes at pace.

  • Executive-ready governance and decision structures
  • Integrated delivery, transition, and live-service thinking
  • Practical alignment between business, development, and operations

In practice, this means I can step into a live situation quickly, understand what is really happening, and start making it better without slowing things down.

“Lleyam is consistently perceived as one of the highest performers in his community, trusted for his advice and known to deliver all that we could expect from him, and usually more.”
Christina Davey — HR Global Bid & Transition Manager
About

Hello, I’m Lleyam

I’m a Digital Delivery and Service Management professional with 20+ years’ experience leading delivery, service operations, transition, and transformation across complex, regulated environments.

My career has first been built on digital delivery and managed services across complex application and service environments. It also spans organisational change, transition, and operational leadership, giving me the grounding to help clients move from instability to control. Around that core, I have shaped value propositions and supported deal architecture, which means I understand not only how services run, but how they are positioned, governed, and funded.

I have worked in-house, with large outsourcers, systems integrators, and SMEs, and I’m most useful where strategic thinking, commercial awareness, and hands-on execution all need to come together.

I’m typically brought in when services need to perform better, delivery needs to regain control, or a client needs a credible advisor who can think strategically, shape the narrative, and execute practically.

Lleyam Bartholomew headshot
Where I operate

Where I typically operate:

  • Central Government and public sector
  • Regulated and complex environments
  • Multi-supplier delivery ecosystems
  • Business-critical digital platforms
Perspectives

Selected writing and thought leadership

Short, practical perspectives on digital delivery, service management, and operating model design — based on real delivery experience.

Service Management 4.0: Evolution or Just Another Buzzword?

A pragmatic view of modern service management aligned with Agile, DevOps, ITIL4, and continuous improvement.

Read on LinkedIn ↗

Matching ITIL4 with Agile Principles

How ITIL4 guiding principles and Agile ways of working can reinforce each other when applied properly.

Read on LinkedIn ↗

Can Incremental Optimisation Outshine “Big Bang” Transformations Even with Agile?

Why smaller, better-governed change often beats high-risk transformation theatre.

Read on LinkedIn ↗

Everything-as-a-Service?

Considering the impact of pay-per-use commercial models on classic IT outsourcing arrangements.

Read on LinkedIn ↗

Application Transformation: a smarter, more efficient approach

A commercially grounded view on balancing cost, risk, service quality, and landscape transformation.

Read on LinkedIn ↗

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

A more personal perspective on DEIB and the story behind My Story; My Glory.

Read on Microsoft Sway ↗
Contact

Start a conversation

If you are dealing with a delivery or service situation that is not where it needs to be, I am always open to a focused, practical conversation.

Typically engaged at leadership level on complex, high-impact delivery and service challenges.

I tend to be most useful where there is complexity, pressure, and a need to restore control quickly.