Issue 104 October 2008 (380 KB) Download a PDF version of the latest newsletter.
Index
Minister to attend Socitm 2008
Datapoint & Transformational Agendas for National and Local Government
Presidents Dinner
Hey Wanna New Job?/Still got a vacancy?
OGC gives Insight to public sector
Regional Round up
Kettering Borough Council - 'Customer engagement' the key to service transformation
Socitm 2008 Key Sponsors... and Last Few Stands
Socitm Learning, a new beginning
The 'credit crunch'
OGC/HMT Joint Guidance on Competitive Dialogue 2008
Socitm Consulting update
New report from Socitm Insight
Editorial
Paul Murphy MP, Minister for Digital Inclusion, is to attend the Socitm 2008 conference (Newport 12-14 October) when he will speak about the Government’s Digital Action Plan to be launched this Autumn.
Minister for digital inclusion to address Socitm 2008
Paul Murphy MP, Minister for Digital Inclusion, is to make an address at the annual conference of Socitm, the local government IT management association, in which he will speak about the Government’s Digital Action Plan which will be launched this Autumn.The Socitm 2008 conference, Serving the instant access society, will be taking place in Newport, South Wales from 12-14 October.
As well as his role as Minister for Digital Inclusion, Paul Murphy is also Secretary of State for Wales and chairs Cabinet committees on local government and the regions, and on personal data security — a topic that is also being well covered at the event.
The Minister’s address is on the morning of 13 October; the conference programme also includes a workshop on digital inclusion that will emphasise the importance of the topic. Currently, 75% of people who are socially excluded are known not to have access to the Internet or the information and services it offers. The workshop on digital inclusion is being presented by Socitm Consulting, currently engaged on a major project on behalf of the Department of Communities to examine awareness of the topic among local government staff and partner organisations. The project is currently undertaking a survey of local government officers and suppliers to explore awareness of and activity around the issue. The workshop will provide an opportunity for delegates to explore issues behind digital equality, share their experience, and hear about best practice from across the UK. To participate in the digital inclusion survey as Head/Manager of ICT go to: http://dclg.socitm.info/HOIT/
Please note that if you cannot attend the whole conference, day tickets are available for Monday or Tuesday for £240.
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Datapoint is a Systems Integrator for organisational and call centre communication. We co-design and support solutions that enable effective interaction between work colleagues and citizen communities.
These directly support the core themes within national and local government agendas such as avoidable contact, service transformation, shared services and mobile access for ‘in the community’ workforces.
We recognise the journey to joined-up service provision is one of transformation. Although current and next generation technologies provide a framework for the convergence of information, workflow and communication, an effective organisational context that aligns and supports associated working practices and culture is a necessary precondition for success.
Datapoint is therefore not just a technology partner. Our education, consulting and training services are embedded throughout our solution lifecycles to ensure that full value from an investment is realised beyond the intentions expressed at the business case stage. We run a well regarded programme of Best Practice Forums that provide accelerated access to latest thinking and deployments from both public and private sectors.
Our InnovationLABs, in which next generation technologies are showcased, provide hands-on experience of how a new solution would function and fit into your service roadmap. And in many cases, we have developed low risk pilots to allow operational benchmarking for more reliable business case development.
Our solutions portfolio has relevance to many of the key themes that have been developing over the current period of transformational agenda setting. Our roadmap for delivering ‘Segmented Customer Service’ directly matches the intention to provide citizens with a more personalised service experience. It also tackles the issue of avoidable contact and brings fresh thinking as to how the cost of a live phone service can be reduced in line with Varney recommendations.
Another building block of our portfolio is ‘Performance Optimisation’. Its intention is to help customer service leaders develop a consistently high performance culture and therefore optimise their investment in ‘live’ service provision. Our approach extends beyond traditional performance and quality management solutions which are restricted in their effectiveness through the limited impact that manual sampling has on managing the full volume of citizen interactions that flow through call centres.
The next category of solutions in Datapoint’s portfolio is ‘Customer Insight’. This is a key strategic ambition for national and local agendas for its value as a catalyst to ongoing development of the ‘citizen focused’ delivery model and the continuous improvement cycle that can then be built into organisational life. Learning directly from the way citizens’ talk about their needs and being able to rapidly quantify best practice and service failures provides both the metrics and the detailed evidence needed to manage this aspect of the service transformation agenda.
‘Enterprise Communications’ is the final strand of Datapoint’s portfolio. Many organisations are moving into the world of converged networks to support more cost effective communication services and easier integration of back office data and workflow systems with the multiple points of access that make up the customer interface. The world of Unified Communications is a balance between the competing demands of security, reliable performance and open access, so an experienced design team is crucial. Datapoint has absorbed extensive experience and best practice from many private sector international deployments to guarantee this competence.
Although Datapoint may be a new name in national and local government circles, our widely acknowledged track record in transformational partnering is something worth investigating to anyone seeking new approaches to challenging agendas. Datapoint could be part of your new way forward.
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Richard Steel 9 September 2008
Each year Socitm holds the President’s Dinner where supporters of Socitm are invited for a formal black tie Reception and Dinner. It is generally held in the auspicious surroundings of the Stationers’ Hall near St Paul’s. London.
Alas, due to a manager of a Virgin train refusing to go any further after a dispute with a passenger, I was delayed and missed the reception, I just grabbed the crispy sea bass starter before it was whisked away to be replaced by a succulent Lemon and Rosemary Pork fillet and the usual high quality sweets, cheese board, coffees and Port or Brandy. zzzzzz!
After the meal Richard Steel gave a traditional speech thanking all those who had supported the Society. He described himself as a “grafter” and his year’s release from duties at Newham to dedicate his efforts to the Presidency is a testament to his fresh approach to the presidency role. He listed far too many names for me to recall here, but it included Past President Rose Crozier, Adrian Hancock the MD, Socitm’s suppliers, the Stationer’s Hall for an excellent dinner, and to fellow organisations. He spoke of positive changes in Socitm and stressed the need for the society to continue to review and challenge government initiatives “if they had not been well thought through”. He spoke of increased collaboration with other bodies like the Central Sponsor for Information Assurance (CSIA) and National Information Assurance Forum (NIAF). His obligatory after dinner joke about the balloonist asking where he was went down very well. He then handed over to the evenings sponsors.
The sponsors of the dinner this year were the IDOX group, and their Chairman Martin Brooks gave a short speech about the company’s aspirations for working with Socitm members. Martin explained that in February 2008 Plantech, which had previously been the sponsor, joined the IDOX group and Martin was pleased to continue the tradition of sponsorship. He spoke of embracing changes and said that IDOX was a public company, and its services included software and training and consultancy. With over 300 customers of their land, people, and property management systems, the consolidation had helped to produce a new national team. Martin said he felt that debate and dialogue are essential in moving forward to meet new drivers and new expectations. He said members could rely on his company to be a supplier who is there for them, especially as their offices are minutes from Stationers Hall.
More photos are available on Richard’s “blog”. Ed.
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£47K award pending
Socitm’s new online jobs service is now available. This is substantial upgrade to the previous service and we hope it will become the leading online resource for public sector IT professionals seeking new positions and for public sector organisations looking to employ them.
The service covers jobs at all levels and can be searched regionally and by salary. Job seekers can register to receive automatic mailings about suitable jobs, and employers can add jobs directly. The new jobs service can be accessed via http://www.socitm.gov.uk/socitm/Professional+development/Jobs/default.htm.
Jobs on offer at 1st October command salaries of up to £47K like this one:
Job title: ICT Operations Manager
Organisation: North Yorkshire County Council
Location: County Hall, Northallerton
Salary: £40,478 to £47,651 pay award pending
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New public sector deal to supply 10,000 PCS
Corporate reseller Insight is hoping to enable public sector bodies to make savings of up to 50 per cent after landing a deal to supply 10,000 PCs.
A requirement for 5,000 desktops and 5,000 laptops was put to an online auction last month by procurement body OGCbuying.solutions. Insight came out on top and the Lenovo* PCs are now available to all public sector customers, with additional upgrades also on offer.
OGCbuying.solutions claimed the auction would allow savings of about 20 per cent on desktops and about 50 per cent on laptops. Senior category manager Terry Love said: “To say I am pleased with the results is an understatement. We were hoping for prices of up to 40 per cent lower than the current benchmark. Achieving around 50 per cent savings for the laptops is a phenomenal result. This will really pave the way in helping our customers meet their savings targets.”
Insight’s UK marketing director Paul Bolt said: “Insight is delighted to be working with OGCbuying.solutions and the wider public sector. We are offering high specification Lenovo laptops and PCs at hugely competitive prices. We fully expect this to be of interest to buyers as there is no minimum order quantity.”
Chris Chettle, ICT commercial delivery manager for the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), added: “We have always been convinced of the potential for savings through collaboration and eAuctions, and are really pleased with these latest results. The nine eAuctions we have undertaken so far have realised total savings of 35 per cent, which equates to £33.3m saved overall.”
Note *Lenovo acquired IBM’s Personal Computing Division in May 2005, and claims to be a leader in the global PC market, with approximately $13 billion in annual revenue, and products serving enterprises and consumers the world over.
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Yes reader, with the freedom from printed page sizes we return to the more chatty format of regional report, a kind of bloggier style reflecting the individuals’ pen...
Ed.
East Midlands Regional Meeting
Venue: BioCity, Pennyfoot Street, Nottingham Sponsors: Cisco
The East Midlands group is regularly active and I popped across to Nottingham to join them on 18th September at the aptly named BioCity, which, if I got it right, owes everything to Boots the chemist...
The event opened with an impromptu tour of the BioCity facilities because the first speaker Steve Jones was delayed in traffic (a nasty looking four-car incident (we do not call then accidents any more because that implies it is no bodies fault, but I digress!)
Steve Jones, a new non-executive director of Socitm, presented an update on recent and planned developments in the transformation process that the Society is currently undergoing. Steve used a slide set provided by David Houston, our interim executive director, which had been agreed by the Socitm board of directors.
Steve, speaking of the “rescue scheme” put in place to get the Society back on a viable sustainable base, covered a number of issues including a new Vision, recent reorganisation of the society, new governance arrangements and a main board structure more in line with the requirements of running the Society effectively and, last but not least, a range of tighter financial management controls. The slides highlighted the financial legacy inherited by the new management team and the targets set to turn things around whilst also maintaining a healthy reserve.
He spoke of new relationships with Socitm Consulting and greater freedom for them to trade. He described to the meeting a new partnership with Jadu for CRM development and its roll-out later this year.
Questions were asked about the move to the new professional membership structure. It was described as three phases. In phase 1 we move to 2 categories initially then phase 2 with Fellows, Seniors, Members and Student classifications, and the application of SFIA to levels of professional membership. More details of phase 3 will be available at the EGM, including how membership will expand to the wider public sector, and potentially deeper ranges of membership.
[I have a promise of more information especially on membership after the EGM at Newport. Ed]
Diane Roberts of Public Sector Pre sales at Oracle, spoke next with a very non technical pitch from Oracle all about enabling shared services and the environmental impact. She started with the targets we face and went on to show how Oracle is part of the answer.
Diane also drew on her first hand experience at Cheshire to illustrate many points and make it seem more real. I found some of her statistics enlightening including the 600,000 megawatt hours in 2009, the 4 million public sector workers who commute by car, that 30% of real estate in UK is state owned, and that 40% of carbon foot print is domestic heat and light. (I suspect much of the rest is car travel!)
Oracle is relevant in that it has made a commitment — see www.oracle.com/corporate/community/Oracles_Commitment.pdf and via product developments including Real Application Clusters.
After a buffet lunch with well labelled sandwiches, Paul Johnson, Head of European Public Sector team at Cisco, showed us numerous Web 2.0 blogs, chats and other applications that empowered individuals to break out of hierarchical structures and harness the power of networking to create new value. Paul is co-author of Connected Republic 2.0 a white paper. He is a great enthusiast for the subjects like the “power of us” and he seemed to be saying that communities and networks could provide alternative sources for all sorts of things from Map of Medicine (medical advice including online guidance from specialists), tourism sites maintained by the locals, to benefits rights on www.rightsnet.org.uk. A big question raised in relation to the public sector was how this “informal” approach can sit alongside a statutory obligation to provide a service.
Steve Sankey then invited the meeting to comment on the initiative he was proposing for ICT across the region to take up a proactive lead on shared services. The initial focus is on ICT services rather than business processes, but it is expected the focus will expand if it is a success. He introduced Gary Smerdon-White of GSW Consultancy, well known for his work in economic development in Nottingham, who is supporting them in their review of ICT initiatives regarding shared services.
Socitm West Midlands
A meeting to re-launch the West Midlands Region was held on 17 September in Birmingham. This was a significant occasion as there had been no dedicated Socitm meetings for a couple of years, although the WMLGA had been very helpful by incorporating Socitm business into their Regional ICT Officers’ forums.
Socitm President Richard Steel gave us a thorough, informative and “no holds barred” session on the current restructure of Socitm including a preview of the proposed new membership arrangements. He emphasised the importance of the regions as 2-way conduits for members, given Socitm’s national lobbying role as a “critical friend” of central government and national local government bodies.
Socitm Insight luminary Tony Riding gave us a potted summary of recent publications and studies including the key messages. This session was aptly entitled “Things we should have read, but probably did not” and was based on the highly plausible premise that not only do we all lack the time to study everything which lands on our desks, but we also struggle to spot the most significant stuff.
Encouraged and guided by Richard Steel, the first regional AGM in quite a while produced a new regional committee.
Much of the afternoon was devoted to planning the way forward for the region, however, the trio of Kevin Biddle, Bob Merchant and Peter Rhodes took us through current regional broadband initiatives and activities.
With a fair wind another meeting will be held before Christmas and should continue during 2009 on a quarterly basis.
Mark Wheatley, Temporary Self-Appointed Regional Secretary
London Region
The London Socitm September branch meeting was sponsored by BPM who specialise in Public Sector Portfolio Management — www.bpmcsi.com.
Other presentations concerned Government Connect and the subsuming of London Connects within Capital Ambition. Capital Ambition is London’s Improvement and Efficiency Partnership. The Capital Ambition collaborative ICT strategy is being developed over the next few months using the Socitm Insight information and technology architectures. The objective is to identify collaborative projects which deliver efficiencies as well as provide a platform for further consolidation of applications and infrastructure delivered through joint procurements.
Presentations and contacts can be seen on http://www.londonconnects.gov.uk/events-diary/view-15.html
Steve Pennant, IT Advisor to Capital Ambition and London Connects CE
Northern Ireland (NI) Region
The NI group held a very successful event on 12 September 2008 around the theme of Delivering quality in Software Engineering. The event was sponsored by SQS and presentations from the event will be available via our web page.
The next event for Socitm NI will be held on Friday 21st November 2008 in the Park Avenue Hotel in Belfast. The theme for this event is Programme and Project Management and the event is being sponsored by Cora systems.
The event is free to attend, so if anyone would like to join us, they should contact me by email.
Marie McCrory, McCroryM@BelfastCity.gov.uk, IS Consultant, www.belfastcity.gov.uk
South West
The South West region’s last event was held on 12 September, was sponsored by HP, and a particular focus was on virtualisation technologies.
We heard first hand (from Paul Evans and Gary Kilvington) of the business and technological challenges Exeter City Council faced in delivering service efficiencies, and how in partnership with Eurodata and HP, they are delivering enhanced e-government services, greener IT and built a platform for the future.
Ian Brooks, HP’s Head of Innovation and sustainable IT, also gave an excellent insight into future technologies.
To add a little variety to the morning proceedings, Shey Cobley, of Oxford City Council and the winner of Socitm’s Graham Williamson Challenge in 2007, described her recent visit to India, and offered a fascinating insight into the public sector there.
The afternoon was devoted to Professionalism and in particular Delivery Management (DM), one of the competency areas in the Gov. IT Profession. Dr Steve Foreman Head of IT at the Met Office, outlined the work going on in this area and we agreed to have it as a standing item on our future agendas so that, as a region, we could explore cross boundary working with other Government agencies.
Feedback from the event was very positive from the 40 delegates, who will be looking forward to our next event on 5 December, to be sponsored by Cisco.
Stewart Jackson IT, South West Secretary
Highlighting Highlights and Highlands
Highlight Reports
If you take part in benchmarking and use the reports to undertake some analysis of your performance have you considered buying a “Highlight Report”? — this gives an immediate comparison of your organisations results verse the rest of the group.
It can save you a lot of time in making the charts and graphs yourself and since it comes from Socitm is has that little extra “street cred” that it is fully independent. It will highlight the strengths and weaknesses and will signpost areas for action/ improvement.
Contact Anna Hooper or Roland Waterhouse for more details.
Highland Club
Benchmarking North of the Border
Doug Mclean, Roland Waterhouse, Anna Hooper and Martin Greenwood supported by clients from Wales and Shetland Isles met councils in Scotland on the 27 August in order to launch a Scottish benchmarking club.
The proposal was well received and we will be following this up with the councils concerned in the near future.
Roland Waterhouse, Benchmarking Manager, 01244 678294, roland.waterhouse@socitmconsulting.co.uk
Police Group
Ed. Ann tells me that:
“We’re struggling on attendance at the Police Group meetings — pressure of work seems to be over whelming the active colleagues at the moment.”
This is sad news especially as the Society is about to branch out and more fully embrace the whole public sector including “blue lamp”.
So if any Police members read this, why not contact Ann and give her some support and suggest some hot topics and arresting case studies that will rekindle interest in the group.
Contact Ann Middleton, Chair Socitm Police Group Ann.Middleton@met.pnn.police.uk
Fire Group
Neil has advised me of some changes and futures dates:
Ivan has moved on. He’s no longer working in the Fire sector, and the new chair is Damian Parkinson (Greater Manchester FRS). I continue to serve as secretary. The full minutes of the last meeting will be available soon. Here are some notes of that meeting.
CFOA ICT Management Group Meeting September 17th 2008, Sponsored by Airwave
The event started with an Introduction and presentation of the Airwave network management centre by Malcolm Eastwood, Mark Pearson and Andy Chalk (NMC manager).
Then the CFOA ICT Management Group business: an update on the Fire Gateway by Damian Parkinson, discussion of Communities of practice led by Neil Moore, an update on Government IT Profession by Neil Moore.
Feedback from the May ICT management conference event and planning for 2009 from Damian Parkinson, A session on Firelink/Firecontrol by Bryan Durrant, of Firelink and Damian Parkinson. Neil Moore gave an update on Socitm and Socitm Futures.
Dates of future meetings at CFOA HQ, Tamworth are: 26 November 2008, 25 February 2009, 15 July 2009, 30 September 2009, 25 November 2009
ICT management group focus areas for 2008 are: Communities of practice (CoP), FiReControl convergence, Fire Gateway development and ICT roadmap.
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Delivering service transformation has been the driving force behind Kettering Borough Council’s (KBC) online strategy since the e-Government targets were introduced. This has been enabled by KBC’s ‘Next Steps’ Programme which saw the development of a number of innovative web applications and their integration with KBC’s back office systems. The ultimate objective has been to generate major improvements in customer engagement, usage and satisfaction. By focusing on these key factors during strategy implementation, KBC has been able to successfully transform its service delivery and generate measurable improvements in customer engagement.
Growth in KBC customer engagement and online channel usage is significant with unique monthly visitors during 2008 of 30,000. This represents a doubling of visitors in the previous year. Similar increases in customer usage are seen in other areas of service delivery over the three years period between 2005 and 2008 with:
- 700% increase in online payments and an increase of 24% in the last year
- 300% increase in online service applications and an increase of 25% in the last year
- 400% increase in online job applications and an increase of 65% in the last year
KBC strategy sees the use of a dedicated self service area where customers can now access all council services. This provides a consistent customer service inside and outside of office hours and access to the same level of service that would be received through face to face or telephone support. The self service areas used regularly by customers include the planning portal, the housing exchange register, payment for services and job applications. This online service is so successful that Saturday has now become KBC’s third busiest day of the week for unique web visitors.
“Customers are now getting queries dealt with at the first point of contact. By implementing a new web site and implementing and integrating new computer systems, customer satisfaction levels have radically increased.” Says Marion Goodman, Customer Services Manager.
Kettering BC’s entire web site and intranet architecture (see diagram, lower left), which includes “devolved” content management, online services and payments, online planning and HR, is powered by Jadu*, a market leading Content Management vendor.
KBC has also worked closely in partnership with the County Council, Police, Fire Service and Voluntary Sector Agencies to deliver a wide range of council and partner services in customer services based within libraries surrounding the Kettering Area. A joint anti-social behaviour pilot was launched utilising KBC’s text messaging service to handle customer reports across all partners.
KBC’s success in embracing online services and increasing customer access and satisfaction has already been recognised nationally through a number of awards including being the first council to achieve the ‘Customer Service Excellence Award’ that replaced Chartermark in 2008. They were also winners of the Private/Public Partnership Working (APSE) Award in 2006 (http://www.apse.org.uk/)
Marion Goodman, Customer Services Manager, Kettering Borough Council
The Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) has agreed a partnership with web content management vendor Jadu and Esteiro Business Solutions, who provide the Gold-Vision CRM system. see www.jadu.co.uk.
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Sponsors
Our Major Sponsors are BeCrypt, IBM UK Ltd, interplan® from CAM Management Solutions, Microsoft (also sponsoring the delegate bags), Red Hat and Thunderhead.
Our Key Sponsors are 2bm Limited, sponsoring the Sunday Evening Networking Reception, ComputerWorld Wales, sponsoring the Conference Office & Delegate Services, FrontRange Solutions UK Ltd sponsoring the Sunday Evening Networking Dinner, Nortel, sponsoring the Gala Evening, Notepads and Signage, and Siemens sponsoring the Conference Host Sara Coburn.
Exhibitor Stands
As at 1 October, there are just 5 stands available out of 84 in the exhibition.
This is an excellent opportunity for exhibitors — unlike smaller venues, at Celtic Manor all the delegates stay at the same venue so you have maximum chance to meet them.
Don’t miss out. If your company is in the public sector ICT market, grab one of the last few stands now — contact Elaine without delay.
Information for Delegates
If you are a delegate and want to know who will be there, here’s a run down as at 1 October. You can find out more about what they’ll be offering here: http://www.socitm.gov.uk/socitm/Events/Annual+Conference/Socitm+2008/Exhibitors.htm
Our exhibitors include
Socitm and Socitm Consulting, 2e2 UK Ltd, 4C Strategies Ltd, Adam Continuity Ltd, Affiniti, Agile Solutions, Alcatel-Lucent, Audit Commission, BERR, BlackBerry, Centerprise International, Clearswift, DAMOVO, Danwood, DigiTV, eLINIA WebServices, Experian plc, Experian QAS, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Fusion Workshop, GOSS, Government Connect, Government IT Profession, Hornbill Systems, HP ProCurve Networking, Hytec Information Security Ltd, Imerja Limited, inContext, InTechnology, Interact Intranet, IP Performance Limited, Jadu, JANET(UK), Kaseya International, Lenovo, Limehouse Software, Logicalis UK Ltd, LogMeIn Inc, Mala Communications, Marval Software Limited, NCC Group SecureTest, NEC, Network Extender Technologies Ltd, Pangea Systems, PGP Corporation, PSBA Network — Public Sector Broadband Aggregation, PTS Consulting (UK) Ltd, RMS Services Limited, Salford Software, SmartPoint Technologies, SORCE Intranet, SQS, Star Technology, Stonewood Group — FlagStone Eclypt, Sunderland City Council, SunGard Availability Services, Telindus Ltd, Tibco Software Ltd, TippingPoint, Toplevel Computing Ltd, Touchpaper (Avocent Corporation), Vialtus Solutions, VisionWare and WICK HILL.
Elaine Davis, on behalf of Socitm Events
UK +44 208 123 1294 (diverts at no extra cost to you to the mobile below, or to voicemail)
Mobile: +1 813 210 3683 (BST -5)
Email: elaine.davis@socitm.gov.uk
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Since 1997, Socitm Learning has built upon the knowledge and expertise available within Socitm as a whole to deliver up-to-date short courses and learning experiences that are specifically tailored for local government, the public sector and the Society’s expanding membership.
In order to further improve our support for the professional development needs of members, a new programme of learning and development offerings is being launched with:
- a wider range of courses and workshop-style events;
- an enhanced capability to run on-site courses tailored to the needs of individual or groups of organisations;
- better quality and more accessible venues with a wider choice of locations in all regions;
- more advance notice and a “no cancellation” principle.
It is important that Learning offers unique value to Socitm members in support of their professional development and does not duplicate offerings that are routinely available elsewhere in the marketplace. The Government IT profession/SFIA skills framework are being be used to help identify gaps. The implications for Socitm members can then be assessed and additional courses or workshops developed where appropriate. For all courses we will also indicate the associated SFIA skills.
Future Programme
To allow better planning of professional development, a rolling annual programme will be maintained. At any point in time there will be a firm schedule of events for at least the following 6 months with an indicative programme for the rest of the year ahead. Of course, there will be room in our schedules for additional events on new and emerging needs. There will also be a new “no cancellation” principle — once your booking is taken, the course will run.
Regional Venues
In the past, most courses ran in London or the Midlands. As part of our new programme there will be several instances of each course in other regions at locations chosen for their good public transport links. This will reduce the need for private transport with less harm to the environment, and be more effective overall from the reduce traveling time.
New courses will be supported by high quality notes and support material while nearly all tutors will be in-house to Socitm so will remain accessible after the course to deal with any follow-up questions.
On-site courses and workshops can be tailored to the needs of individual organisations or local groups. These can offer better value for money where several staff require training. Where an authority has a lesser number of potential attendees, it may be possible to run additional public events at a convenient time and location.
In addition to formal training courses, more workshops will be scheduled to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience especially for new and emerging issues. During 2009 a wide range of e-learning packages will be introduced.
Socitm Learning’s developing portfolio includes courses and workshops in the following subject areas:
- SFIA and the IT profession
- ICT Account management and business development
- Shared services and multi-agency working
- Information assurance
- ICT strategy
- Exploiting Web 2.0
- Document and records management
- Green ICT
The programme and full details of courses and workshops will be available at this new website, www.socitmlearning.co.uk.
Mark Wheatley, Socitm Learning Manager, mark.wheatley@socitmlearning.co.uk
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It’s that time of year again... I need to do a business plan for Socitm Insight in 2009, as do Socitm members.
This makes you stand back and think a little about the service you are planning to offer. At the current time the credit crunch jumps immediately into your mind. You start to think what impact this might have on public sector finances. ‘Freeze the council tax’ says Cameron, and who is to say that Brown might not copy him again as he did last year with the inheritance tax. Whatever happens, it looks like that it might be a bleak time for the organisations that employ Socitm members with public sector cutbacks that make CSR07 look a very tame affair.
Sadly, some, hopefully only a few, will cut ICT budgets, rather than see how ICT might help make the major savings elsewhere. Well, here are a couple of ideas to think about.
Firstly, all councils and others should make self-service a key strategic issue for every application where it is a suitable option. That is easy to say, but what does it mean in practice? Well, one implication is to make sure that the self-service offering really does work in practice quickly, accurately and easily every time for every visitor. The price for getting it wrong is high if people are driven back to the phone, or even worse to making a visit. So do we not need a process for benchmarking the success of the key transactions (eg car parking in cities) by panels of users? How long does the transaction take? How accurate is it? If it fails, just where does it fail?
Secondly, all councils and others should examine their procurement decisions. The Application software index out in September is a reminder of the size of the market. The software market covered by our annual survey is worth in excess of £400 million a year. Our database contains information from more than 400 public sector organisations and covers 140 application categories. Behind each category sits a service manager who probably often knows that ‘mini-market’ better than the head of ICT, especially in larger organisations. Finally, we estimate that there might be 1,000 suppliers of products, and double that if we include the whole of the public sector.
How efficient are we are at procuring this software? How well informed are we are about who uses what? and what colleagues think about a product? From the supplier perspective, how well informed are we about who thinks what about our products? and about our competitors’ products, and who is planning to procure what application?
In both cases, we need to become more scientific and more collaborative. We need to develop much more sophisticated levels of management and performance information in order to drive down costs and drive up efficiencies.
Back to the business plan, and you to yours!
Martin Greenwood, Socitm Insight
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The OGC has published revised guidance it has developed with HM treasury. The guidance replaces that issued in 2006 and it covers the background public procurement regime, the choices of procedure and key stages of a competitive dialogue and detailed points on conducting a dialogue. The guidance is in the main consistent with the best practice we have been promoting in Socitm Consulting Smarter procurement and in our Toolkit.
There are some new points of clarification and warnings of pitfalls. You should make sure any dialogue you are contemplating or involved in takes account of the current guidance. Please contact me if you need support, we can also provide sample documents and material to speed up the process.
Also be aware that compliance with the EU regime is about to get a shake up with a new directive from the EU, so it is vital that your process has a robust audit trail. Increasingly, we find authorities are looking to us to give them the assurance that their process is compliant and that their audit trail is robust. We do not advise that you rely on your suppliers’ assurances that an approach is legitimate.
Terry Street, Product Manager Procurement and Outsourcing, terry.street@socitmconsulting.co.uk
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Conference showcase for new Consulting services
This month’s Socitm conference gives us the opportunity to highlight a number of new services for members and to draw attention to topics of major importance to members.
Consulting will be running three workshops at the conference addressing major issues that all members will need to focus on in coming years. The issues of Green ICT, IT Profession and Digital Inclusion are now mainstream concerns which tie in closely with previous and existing e-government strategies and the Gershon agenda.
Digital inclusion is a particularly good example. When a minister comes to address the Socitm conference it’s a sure sign that s/he has an agenda to promote and sees local government IT people as key agents for delivering that agenda. Back in 1997, digital exclusion barely existed and no remedial policies existed. Eleven years on, it’s become a significant problem and one which government policy (in the form of the drive to e-government, and the move to digital broadcasting) has helped to exacerbate.
It will be interesting to hear what the minister has to say on the subject, but for a closer view don’t miss Jenny Brogden’s workshop (Digital inclusion — what has it got to do with me? 12:00 and 14:55, Monday 13 October). Jenny will be sharing the insights gained from Socitm Consulting’s research project for the CLG into exactly what the problems are and how some local authorities are addressing them successfully.
Terry Street (the august editor of this publication) has parallel existences as a procurement specialist and as a Green ICT expert. Terry’s workshop (Green ICT: we all want to save the planet, but how best? 10:00 and 12:00, Monday 13 October) will focus on how ICT departments can best contribute to the Green agenda, and Terry will also be presenting Socitm’s purpose-built toolkit — the Greener ICT Maturity Model.
Finally, for those who were unable to attend this month’s IT profession training courses, Mary Wintershausen and Mark Wheatley’s workshop (Government IT Profession and the Aspire Partnership, 12:00 and 14:55, Monday 13 October) will show how the Government IT Profession and SFIA frameworks can help organisations meet their transformation goals, drawing on results of the recent UK IT profession pilots sponsored by the Aspire Partnership.
As well as the workshops, Consulting personnel will on the Socitm stand to demonstrate the new online jobs service, to unveil new Learning courses and to discuss a new range of benchmarking modules designed to measure and help business managers improve service delivery beyond the ICT department. We look forward to seeing you there.
Doug Maclean, Consulting Manager, doug.maclean@socitm.gov.uk
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Senior public sector managers must overcome their status as ‘digital immigrants’ and embrace Web 2.0.
Senior public sector managers should overcome their natural scepticism about Web 2.0 — born of their status as ‘digital immigrants’ — and embrace this latest revolution in the information age.
This is the key message of Web 2.0: what it is and why it matters — a briefing for public sector managers, the latest report from the Society of IT Management, published on 10 September.
The report describes the wide range of practices and technologies collectively known as Web 2.0, which it groups into the following eight categories: user-generated content; interactivity; re-use of information; use of rich content; business networking; search and retrieval of information; mobile access; and e-learning.
The report goes on to discuss the contribution each of these could make to transforming services and enabling engagement with communities, and sets out the findings of a survey UK public sector organisations to explore their awareness of Web 2.0 facilities and usage and attitudes towards them. The survey results indicate that the UK public sector is currently adopting a cautious approach.
Report author Chris Head provides a possible explanation for this caution: ‘Web 2.0 challenges the very roots of the public sector ethos’, he says. ‘As if the retreat from paternalism and recognition of the citizen as a customer were not enough, Web 2.0 provides the facilities to put citizens in control. This turns public sector thinking upside-down. It means marketing services, not rationing them. It means being proactive, and not responding defensively to criticism.’
In a departure from Socitm Insight’s usual publishing practice, Web 2.0: what it is and why it matters will be made available exclusively through a microsite —www.socitmweb2.net — designed as a Web 2.0 resource that includes a blog, forum and other facilities to encourage discussion, feedback, information sharing and networking.
Web 2.0: what it is and why it matters is written for any public sector manager who has an interest in innovation and a desire to understand the potential of the next wave of web technology, including directors of customer service; transformation managers; web managers, communications professionals and those concerned with e-democracy and citizen engagement.
The report is available free of charge to Socitm Insight subscribers and costs £195 to others (£175 to Socitm members who are not Socitm Insight subscribers).
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Closing date for items for the next issue is 30 November 2008. Please send your letters and items of interest including interesting case studies, details of promotions, moves, etc to Terry Street, Editor.
Note: Comments published in Socitm News are those of individuals and may not represent Socitm’s corporate views.
Terry Street
Tel: 07785 916060
Email: terry.street@socitm.gov.uk
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