2025 was a huge year for the Digital Service. Despite reduced capacity, the team kept everything running. Here’s the story of what we handled, what we learned, and why we should celebrate the impact we made.
But, first things first – what is BAU?
Business As Usual (BAU) encompasses the standard activities, processes, and procedures that organisations perform regularly to ensure smooth functioning, regardless of special projects, initiatives, or external disruptions. It represents the operational baseline, the predictable and consistent workflows that keep a business running efficiently.
– Reference Business As Usual: BAU Meaning & Operations Explained – SSDSI
We handled over 4000 requests
(4,029 to be exact!) That’s up from previous years, beating 2023 by nearly 900 requests and 2024 by just under -30, despite losing 6 team members.
- average per month: 336 requests
- average per week: 79
- average per day: 15
If BAU had seasons, June and July would be our monsoon.
- June: 362 requests (166 urgent)
- July: 421 requests (206 urgent – nearly half of everything that came in)
Even December, our “quiet” month, still had a 35% urgency rate. So while volume dipped, pressure didn’t.
Despite the spikes, we kept SLAs on track and prevented backlog buildup – all while juggling sprint commitments. Want to know about Sprints? You can read more about our agile workflow, which we adopt for the bigger products, on our Agile approach to digital transformation page.
Content: Where we spent most of our time
Content ruled 2025. What do we mean by content? Check out our Content section.
- 2,343 content requests — that’s 58% of all BAU work.
- website work (new pages, updates, fixes) was the single biggest request category at 73.7% of all “new request” entries.
What this tells us: -We are effectively the engine room of the council’s public‑facing information – turning complex service needs into clear, accessible digital experiences for Somerset residents and professionals.
We automated the boring stuff (huge win)
2025 was the year we said “copy‑paste events and TTRO updates? Not anymore.” We automated repeatable workflows so that:
- events flow directly from form → approval → site
- TTRO updates follow the same streamlined path
This is a major operational achievement. It frees the team to focus on higher‑value work – and the time savings will grow in 2026. Adam blogged about this recently, if you’d like more details. Article – Transforming how we work: Scaling self-service and automation across the Council.
We learned a lot about how services behave
Departments generating the most “urgent” flags:
- Licensing
- Planning
- Highways / road closures
- Public health
- Safeguarding
These services often have real statutory deadlines – but we also spotted patterns where urgency labels weren’t always justified. This insight fuels our new approach to defining urgency, setting cut‑off points and improving triage discipline.
We kept the service running despite a capacity drop
Losing 6 team members is the kind of thing that would flatten most digital ops functions. But:
- web changes are still published daily
- statutory notices still hit deadlines
- events still went live
- forms still got built
- fixes still happened
This is a testament to team agility and commitment. Although we could not work as quickly as we would like on the ‘bigger things’, such as rebuilding or building microsites, we ensured the day-to-day work continued, which enabled other services to meet their commitments.
We improved the BAU system
2025 wasn’t only about pushing work through. It was about upgrading how BAU works. We changed our form template midway through the year to enable better reporting and hopefully, a better experience for those seeking support. We also introduced or prepared for:
- automation of repetitive tasks
- a future “urgent definition” framework
- structured templates for common request types
- a clearer funnel to separate small changes vs. new builds
- a more predictable workload rhythm
This should set us up for a more resilient 2026.
What we should celebrate most
- we kept the organisation’s digital estate accurate, safe, compliant, and accessible.
- we handled more work with fewer people.
- we automated things that previously slowed us down.
- we learned how services behave and how to manage demand better – strengthening our foundations for 2026.
Thank you to the team
One last thing, thank you to the whole Digital Transformation Service Team. We do more than only build websites and make forms, and the statistics really show that. So thank you, everyone.
BAU is the quiet, unglamorous, essential work that keeps a council functioning, and we do it well.
We essentially create boring magic.
There are things that people have to do – like pay tax, register a vehicle,
work out what to do with dead farm animals, etc. – which are boring. These
things only exist because of government. Our job is to make those tedious
experiences a bit magical: simple, clear and fast. All the hallmarks of
convenience, that works the first time. – Conor Delahunt
Reference – Boring magic – Harsh Browns
If you’re interested in the granular, you can view my presentation below.
