The One McConnell Intranet is complete and in daily use. Training and microsites are in UAT. Find it Win it is a deep working demo, ready to prove. The Utopia planner is built and heading for UAT. This programme takes all of it to complete, adopted and running as one system - and it runs the way McConnell runs a job: a programme of works, a completion gate at month three, snagging through UAT, then handover.
Over the past months McConnell has commissioned a set of applications one at a time: the intranet, training, project microsites, bids, and now the Utopia planner. All of it exists as working software today: one system complete and in service, two in UAT, a bid engine built and ready to prove, and the planner heading for UAT. What the estate has not had is what the One McConnell picture asks for: one sign-in, one plan, one front door, and someone whose job is to run it all properly. It is also owned rather than rented - bespoke software on McConnell's own accounts, built alongside your teams, in place of per-seat licences. That is what this programme buys. Not a restart, and not another subscription: everything finished, integrated, adopted by the people it was built for, with a managed service wrapped around it.
Everything below is already built and running on McConnell's own Cloudflare and AWS accounts in the UK, signed into with your normal Microsoft accounts. Shown honestly, stage by stage - because the programme's whole job is to take every one of them to complete, adopted, and running as one system.
Built, delivered and in daily use across the business. Ongoing enhancements are currently quoted piece by piece - inside this programme they are simply included.
Your Microsoft 365 tenantThe matrix, certificates, bookings and weekly HR sync, in UAT now with tweaks landing as they surface. And the scope has grown: a per-employee portal and McConnell-authored course delivery (LMS) are part of this programme.
mcconnell-training.pages.devResident community sites with updates, email notifications and unsubscribe, in UAT. The programme closes UAT out and cuts production over onto the McConnell projects domain.
mcconnell-projectmicrosites.pages.devA working demo with serious depth behind it: a tender radar, drafting with citations from 17,000 of McConnell's own bid documents, scoring and Word export. Completion and bid-team rollout sit inside this programme.
mcconnell-finditwinit.pages.dev See the flagship showcase belowYour Utopia model and all ten working-group action plans, live in the planner with owners, dates and a cited assistant. Heading for UAT - and the full platform grows across the programme.
mcconnell-utopiapm.pages.devThe Utopia document you shared draws one integrated platform: a project questionnaire that generates a real project plan, and one place where documents, safety, quality and training meet. That is exactly what this programme delivers - and because the pieces already exist and work, six months is enough.
And the assistant you met in the Utopia planner extends across the estate - grounded only in McConnell's own data, running on McConnell's own AWS, in the UK.
Set out the way McConnell would set out a job. Solid bars are committed work. The completion gate falls at the end of month 3 for the current estate, snagging runs through UAT, and handover lands in month 6. Below that sits the next committed build, McConnell's own site app, and a dashed row of capacity held for whatever else is scoped at steering. The hatched lane at the bottom never stops.
Foundations. Katie stands the programme up in week one; microsites close UAT and cut over; single Microsoft sign-in across the estate begins; Find it Win it completion starts with the bid-team walkthrough.
Core releases. The archetype questionnaire generates a real project plan; Safety Controls aligned to the working group; the first McConnell-authored course runs end to end; Find it Win it moves into live bid use.
Development complete. Trackers, KPI's and dashboards live; training portal complete; suggested team and resource map; every deliverable demonstrated at the month 3 steering review.
Structured UAT. The working groups run UAT on their own areas; pilot groups on every other application; defect triage and fix cycles; data verification and a security and access review.
Rollout. Wave rollout team by team, with comms that make sense to site as well as office; training sessions and short guides; the bid team fully live; adoption tracked at steering.
Snagging and handover. Final tweaks from live use; documentation, runbooks and admin training; the site app trialled on site; final steering review and the decisions that follow, on Mango retirement and on document control.
Every month throughout: intranet enhancements, ad-hoc development, the service desk through Katie, the fortnightly show and tell and the monthly steering review - week one to week twenty-six. The retainer is the same every month and can be paused at any month end.
Utopia is not one feature. It is your ten working groups - Safety Controls, Procedures, Systems, Training, Programme Trackers, Customer Care, Commercials, KPI's, Dashboards and General - becoming one platform. Here is the full set from your workbook, your Utopia document and our calls, on the same six-month board.
Archetype five drops straight in - nothing hardcodes four. The commercials view is confirmed at steering once we agree the source system. The assistant mascot is yours to name.
Most contractors rent bid software by the seat. McConnell's is bespoke, already deep in working demo, and its completion and rollout to the bid team sit inside this programme. It was built on your own bid library, so it answers in McConnell's voice and shows its sources.
The bid-team walkthrough is being scheduled now. Completion and rollout are inside the retainer, not a separate quote.
McConnell bid documents behind every draft, cited line by line.
As a test it re-scored a real past tender higher than the bid McConnell submitted, named the weaknesses a human should fix, and flagged an expired certification that could not be used as evidence.
Every rented per-seat tool this estate replaces becomes bespoke software McConnell owns outright, designed with the people who actually use it. Nothing here is a product you have to bend your process around. Here is the ledger so far, and where it goes next.
Like any good job, the groundworks went in first and nobody ever sees them. Cloudflare carries the edge, the hosting and the security perimeter. AWS Bedrock in the UK region carries the private AI. Both sit in McConnell's own accounts, they were laid once, and everything above builds on them without being re-founded.
Microsoft sign-in · UK data residency · spend ceilings · read-only source systems
The edge: hosting, performance and the security perimeter around every application.
Private AI on McConnell's own account. Your data trains nothing and goes nowhere.
Groundworks complete - scales as we build
You are not paying for a bench of consultants. You are paying for the person who built every application in this estate, and a certified programme manager whose job is to make the whole thing run like clockwork - and to be the one person you contact about any of it.
A programme this size fails when everything is urgent and nothing is planned. So the engagement runs on a simple service rhythm, managed by Katie under ITIL 4 practice. Ad-hoc development, fixes and intranet enhancements come through the same front door and run in the always-on lane on the board above, inside the retainer. You always know what is happening, what is next, and where your request sits.
A 45 minute demonstration of working software every two weeks. Progress you can see, not status you have to take on trust.
One hour with Simon and Beth: progress, decisions, the backlog and the month ahead. The programme's single decision point.
Every request goes to Katie through one channel. Nothing gets lost in inboxes, and nothing depends on catching anyone at their desk.
Every request is acknowledged by the next business day, triaged, and planned into the programme - visibly.
Delivery is remote, with on-site sessions planned in advance where they earn their place: UAT workshops and training days.
Meetings are booked in advance and work is planned into phases. Anything live and broken jumps the queue; everything else joins the plan rather than interrupting it.
That is how new ideas get in without a change-order fight, and how the programme stays on one monthly figure.
Hosting stays on McConnell's own Cloudflare and AWS accounts at their usual low running cost, and AI usage runs under the monthly spending ceilings already in place. Nothing in this programme creates a per-seat licence.