In 2006, Birmingham City Council undertook the first steps on its business transformation journey. This journey would affect the entire council’s operation, service delivery, personnel, and the citizens of Birmingham.

To help the council, a joint venture was created between Birmingham City Council and Capita. This strategic partnership brought with it enhanced ways of working and additional capacity. A single approach to business transformation was required that would provide consistency across the council and the council’s partners.

Adopting a common approach across the partnership was designed to:

• establish a common language
• reduce duplication of effort
• provide best practice tools and templates
• minimise risk and reduce cost.

The common approach, provided programme teams with a best practice vision led, benefits driven method, tools and templates, complemented by a quality management framework. This became known as CHAMPS2.

CHAMPS2 was initially developed to meet the ‘modernising government’ agenda, which has a strong focus on citizen services, cultural change, and efficiency gains.

Since 2006, CHAMPS2 has undergone continuous development by business transformation practitioners, and today the method is made freely available for both the private and public sectors.