Building Digital Maturity & Cyber Resilience

A major UK rail operator, serving millions of passengers annually under close regulatory scrutiny, was investing heavily in digital transformation to improve customer & colleague experience. Marlborough’s senior leadership, expert practitioners, and proven methods enabled a step change in digital maturity & cyber resilience that strengthened compliance, reduced risk & improved the customer experience.

Posted Oct 20, 2025

AT A GLANCE

Pain Points

Low digital & cyber maturity
in critical national infra. sector
Rising regulatory scrutiny & risk
Underperforming suppliers
Acute need to inject senior experience & 'fresh eyes'

Our Leadership

Deployed senior digital & cyber leaders & practitioners
Introduced leading practices & rigorous governance
Injected pace & challenge
Ensured significant ROI

Value Delivered

Double-digit % cost savings
Greater compliance (praised by Department of Transport)
Enhanced customer experience
Permanent uplift of in-house maturity & capability

SITUATION & CLIENT CHALLENGE

Our client was investing heavily in digital transformation to improve customer and colleague experience. But digital maturity was low, cyber risks were growing, and regulators were increasing scrutiny. Fragmented change efforts, weak governance, and underperforming suppliers created business risk. The Head of IS required decisive leadership to strengthen digital and cyber foundations before scaling customer-facing initiatives.

OUR LEADERSHIP ROLE & KEY INTERVENTIONS

Appointed by the Head of IS, Marlborough deployed a senior team that blended digital and technical expertise with proven leadership. We:

Reset programme foundations, aligning stakeholders on value, priorities, and accountability.
Established governance and oversight, enabling timely, informed decisions.
Improved supplier performance, holding contracts to account on cost, time, and quality.
Provided CXO-level leadership, guiding delivery with a focus on customer and business value.

Transformation Critical Enablers

Conducted rigorous business impact assessments.

Challenged and shaped transformation goals, aligning workstreams to client-wide priorities, including:

Improved customer and colleague experience.
Stronger partnerships with industry stakeholders.
Measurable service improvements.
Innovative, customer-focused products.
Reduced running costs.
Enhanced cyber security.

Established effective governance, enabling senior leaders to make timely, informed decisions while applying agile techniques to successfully navigate transformation challenges.

Leading Practices, Capabilities & Solutions

Engaged stakeholders proactively, running workshops and forums that built alignment across internal teams and external partners. (This was made significantly easier due to the positive and customer-centric culture experienced across our client’s business).

Introduced leading practices, blending proven approaches with tailored frameworks such as the UK NCSC Cyber Assurance Framework.

Injected pace and commitment, bringing collaborative facilitation and leadership to drive delivery and embed change.

Developed Permanent Teams

Invested in client teams throughout the journey, not just at delivery.

Shared expertise and knowledge, transferring skills into the organisation.

Enhanced in-house capability, building value-adding technology skills.

Delivered sustainable improvements, aligned to the Head of IS’s ambition for stronger, more self-sufficient teams.

KEY RESULTS & LASTING IMPACT

Marlborough strengthened the client’s digital and cyber foundations, delivering:

Double-digit % cost savings, redirected to invest in technology to improve the customer experience.

Strengthened customer experience & service levels, through raised maturity, improved processes and greater predictability.
Improved regulatory compliance & mitigation of business risk, exceeding expectations through accelerated delivery of key regulatory requirements; Praised by DfT (Department for Transport) inspection teams.
Enhanced supplier performance, delivering to time, cost and quality while mitigating risk.
Enhanced business processes and ways of working, embedded through upskilling teams and processes to increase consistency and predictability of performance levels.
Permanent uplift of in-house capability, embedding new ways of working and reducing reliance on external providers.

"Marlborough provided essential and invaluable support to us during the development of our in-house cyber capability, helping us to respond effectively to mitigate cyber-attacks"

Head of IS

"Marlborough have been a great partner on our digital transformation journey. It was really enjoyable working with the team – they were extremely professional, experienced and energising to work with"

Finance Director

Throughout, Marlborough worked in partnership with our client, applying CXO-level digital and technical expertise with a shared laser focus on business outcomes and customer value.