Unsung was engaged to conduct a comprehensive strategic assessment of obsolete hardware and software supporting a business-critical Issuing Certificate Authority (CA). The engagement originated from urgent operational concerns regarding end-of-life technology infrastructure that underpinned essential digital trust services across the enterprise.

The client required immediate tactical remediation to address short-term operational risks whilst simultaneously developing a robust, cost-effective transformation roadmap capable of delivering sustainable strategic outcomes across a multi-year modernisation programme. This dual mandate required balancing urgent operational continuity requirements against longer-term architectural modernisation objectives.

Unsung delivered a comprehensive suite of strategic and technical deliverables that equipped the client with the evidence base required for confident, risk-managed decision-making:

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• A detailed assessment paper evaluating the full spectrum of vendor options, technology platforms, and architectural patterns. This included analysis of consolidation opportunities that could reduce operational complexity and ongoing support costs, alongside comprehensive evaluation of business change implications affecting people, processes, and governance frameworks.

• A strategic transformation roadmap incorporating structured build logic that clearly delineated mandatory change activities from tradeable elements and transitional requirements. This roadmap provided executive stakeholders with a clear view of investment phasing across the multi-year programme lifecycle.

• A comprehensive service decomposition exercise that quantified enterprise-wide service consumption patterns across people, process, and system integration dimensions. This analysis provided granular visibility into how the PKI service was consumed across diverse business units and technical platforms.

The engagement presented significant organisational and stakeholder management challenges that required skilled navigation to achieve successful outcomes. The client organisation featured a complex stakeholder landscape with multiple competing priorities, differing risk appetites, and varied levels of PKI technical understanding across business and technology leadership groups.

Additionally, organisational risk aversion manifested as reluctance to adopt modern vendor technologies and architectural approaches, despite clear evidence demonstrating superior alignment to long-term strategic objectives. Unsung successfully navigated these challenges through structured stakeholder engagement incorporating tailored communication approaches for different audience groups.