Local Government IT in Use - November/December 2009 issue

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LGITU NovDec 09_LGITU JulAug 06 27/11/2009 09:47 Page 1

November / December 2009On the CoverBudget cuts areinevitable, say chiefexecutives. See ourSolace report onpage 9.

© iStockphoto.com/Marcela Barsse

Comment 2Now it’s time for c-gov: government of cuts.

News Update 2-4

Green News 3ICT could reduce carbon emissions by 25%.

Empowering the e-Union 5Europe’s e-ministers set out their five year plan. Michael Cross reports from Malmo.

Connecting the Public Sector 6Patrick Clark of Government Connect responds to LGITU’s report into GCSX.

e-Forms in a Digital Britain 7-8Helen Olsen reviews the findings from the second stage of LGITU’s research into eForms.

Two Parliaments of Pain 9Chief executives are preparing for cuts. Helen Olsen reports from Solace.

Future Prospects 10Michael Cross reports from Socitm 09, where heads of IT are preparing the ‘council of the future’.

Time to Engage 11 Social media must engage with public sector decision makers, says Helen Olsen.

Digital Divide Splits Parliament 13Tim Hampson reports from Westminster.

Emergency Services 14Mobile empowering the front line; news from police, fire and rescue services.

New Products 15

Contract Round up 16-17

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All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part, storagein a retrieval system or transmission in any form, of anymaterial in this publication is prohibited without prior writtenconsent from the Editor. The views expressed by the Editorsand writers are their own. Whilst every care is taken, thepublishers cannot be responsible for any errors in articles orlistings. Articles written by contributors do not necessarilyexpress the views of their employing organisation. The Editorreserves the right to edit any submissions prior to publication.

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Editorial

The Editors welcome editorial informationon the use of Information andCommunication Technologies in localgovernment and the transformation offrontline services.

Please submit relevant material or ideas inthe first instance by email to Helen Olsen: [email protected]

November/December 20091 Local Government IT In Use

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From as early as next April the public mayhave access to Ordnance Survey (OS)data about electoral and local authority

boundaries, postcode areas and mid scalemapping for use in digital innovation and tosupport democratic accountability.Prime minister, Gordon Brown, made theannouncement in response to “the demandsfor better use and access to data held bygovernment. In this new world, smartergovernment is not an option but anecessity.”Communities secretary, John Denham,added, “Any public service reforms must beopen about what is going on so that thoseoutside it can examine what is happeningand to propose alternative ways of doingthings if necessary... This can only happen ifthe necessary information and data aboutwhat is currently delivered is easily andreadily available.”Minister for Digital Britain, Stephen Timms,who has responsibility for the ‘MakingPublic Data Public’ initiative, said that theannouncement was “an important step inour public data strategy. About 80 percent ofpublic sector data mentions a place. MakingOrdnance Survey data more freely availablewill encourage more effective exploitation ofpublic data by businesses, individuals andcommunity organisations.”

Making public data available also enablespeople to reuse it both commercially and insocial initatives - apart from generating anestimated billion pounds for the economythe move would open up new tools forcitizen engagement and public information.The move is seen as a victory for theGuardian’s three-year Free Our Datacampaign to persuade the government to “abandon copyright on essential nationaldata, making it freely available to anyone,while keeping the crucial task of collectingthat data in the hands of taxpayer-fundedagencies”.

Putting people on the map: Sir StirlingMoss and

Alan Hinkeshelped OrdnanceSurvey launchLocatorz, a newmobile phone-based locatingservice thatallows you to view a person’s position towithin 10 metres. It uses a mobile phone’sGSM connection to transmit its position tothe Locatorz server, which plots theinformation on an OS map and sends it to asecure internet page.

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk

November/December 2009 2Local Government IT In Use

COMMENT

Now it’s time forc-gov

The storms that savaged the country inNovember add a physical backdrop to

the devastation that is Britain’s finances. Climbing out of recession, for the publicsector – which must carry the burden ofboth savage budget cuts whilst picking upthe pieces of a society in recession – willtake much longer than the commercialworld. Indeed, the bankers are alreadylooking forward to Christmas and bonuses. Right now, in the public sector, the talk isall about cuts. This is no longer e-gov, or t-gov. It is c-government – the governmentwhere cuts are king. But don’t let thestandards drop while you do it mind, or thewrath of the great British public, the mediaand your political masters will rain downon your heads. Technology must have a part to play inmaintaining service standards and scopewhilst operating within reduced resource.After all, is that not what technologypromised? Operational efficiency, thepaper-less office, more with less? Somewhere along the line there has beena breakdown in communication – indeed,if there ever was communication.Technologists have promised, leadershave bought, and rarely is either sidecompletely happy with the result. Chief executives say that technologypeople ‘don’t speak my language’. Andtruly, there is a duty for IT to engage. Buttechnology people - both inside andoutside local government - are still notable to translate the bits and bytes, thewidgets and the infrastructures, into plainEnglish that imparts exactly ‘what’ thetechnology will ‘do’ for local governmentand, crucially, what cultural change isneeded to fully deliver these benefits. It has been notable over the years thatSolace draws the chief executives, Cipfathe finance directors and Socitm theheads of IT. And never the three shall mix.Surely there is now a solid case forcommunication across all three as to howthe vision can best be technicallyimplemented within financial constraints –not just within councils but across entirefrontline public services. And how culturecan be moved forward, en masse, to beingperformance driven but value led withenthusiastic uptake of the enablingtechnologies. Socitm has long urged its members to‘take their place at the top table’. So whyhas this never happened? To truly help thepublic sector through the mostchallenging time of its history,technologists must engage with chiefexecutives and finance directors to outlinehow, why and where technology caneffect change.

Helen Olsen, Editor

NEWS UPDATE

LGA is pointing its finger at central government bureaucracy for wasting

public sector money. Simply by relieving local government fromthe data burdens of performance indicatorsand central government reporting, at least£4.5bn could be slashed from the annualpublic sector bill - without affecting frontlineservices.Nicely timed to come out just before thePre-Budget Report 2009 on 9 December, theLGA has published, ‘Delivering more for less:maximising value in the public sector’. Thereport includes examples of unnecessaryactivity, identified by councils through theirexperience of working with Whitehall, whichis ‘taking serious resources away fromfrontline resources’. “Billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money isbeing spent on needless bureaucracy. Weneed a bonfire of red tape so that taxpayers’money can be freed up to protect frontlineservices,” said Margaret Eaton, LGA chair.“We need to make sure there is nounnecessary bureaucracy and that the vastarray of different bodies providing publicservices do not waste money by duplicatingthe work others already carry out.”Eaton said that the recession is forcing“everybody who spends taxpayers’ moneyto think about how they can do more withless… Staying the same is not an option.”

The report suggests that government makeimmediate savings of up to £4.5bn a yearfrom removing unnecessary administrationand red tape before implementing cutsaffecting local services:• £400m from removing the current

performance and reporting data burden;• £250m from halving costs of regulating

local government from the centre,abolishing government offices andreallocating improvement funding to localgovernment;

• £1.5bn from reducing departmentaladministration costs of seven departmentswith close links to local authorities by 20%;

• £1bn saving on departmental resourcebudgets through reducing unnecessarypolicy activity;

• £900m savings from giving councilsgreater spending flexibility;

• £430m from unnecessary spending byquangos on administration.

Over the last ten years the number of fulltime employees working in centralgovernment has increased by 21%.Communities and Local Government (CLG)has reported a 10% increase in permanentstaff in financial year 2008/9. Quangos havealso significantly increased theirexpenditure – by £24bn to £43bn in 2008.

www.lga.gov.uk

Bonfire of bureaucracy

OS data to be set free


Swindon will be the first town to giveall 186,000 residents free internetaccess when its £1m WiFi ‘mesh’

goes live next month. Digital City UK, a partnership between thecouncil and two private companies, willgive every resident free standard wirelessaccess to the internet. Investment in the1,400 secure access point ‘Signal’ will berecouped by offering upgrades for fasteraccess offering higher download speeds. The project was launched today as apartnership between the borough counciland two private companies which willrecoup their investment by offeringupgrades and faster access at a yet to bedetermined price. However, every Swindonresident will receive free wireless accessto all but the highest bandwidth internetsites. Anti-virus software, and popular servicesoffered by Microsoft and Google will beavailable on the network. Plans includepotential delivery of remote CCTV servicesand real-time information on homeelectricity usage and air quality monitoring.

The mesh can also potentially provide freeinternet telephone calls, opening up newtelehealth and telemedicine possibilitiesfor the council.Rod Bluh, Swindon Borough Councilleader, said: ‘’This is a truly groundbreakingpartnership which will have real benefitsfor everyone living in Swindon. ‘’Not only will residents in the borough beable to access the internet for free; thecouncil and its partners will be able to usethe technology to provide cutting edgeservices to the areas or individuals whoneed them. ‘’Digital City will also provide the councilwith a unique funding stream and it is ourintention to use our expertise to help otherlocal authorities follow our lead.’’ Rikki Hunt of project partner, Avidity, said:‘’This is a fantastic opportunity for thewhole of Swindon creating total socialinclusion through our free service and,while others talk, Swindon is delivering aDigital City which will benefit both thepublic and business communities.’’


ICT could reduce carbonemissions by 25%

ICT-based technologies have the potentialto reduce carbon emissions by 25% in the

G20 countries, compared with 2006baseline emissions, says IDC.The analyst has been focusing on whereICT can bring ‘immediate benefit inreducing carbon emissions’. It believesthat significant reductions can be madeacross all the sectors it surveyed: energygeneration and distribution, buildings,transport, and industry. Technologieshighlighted include integrating renewableenergy into energy distribution using smartgrids, ICT-enabled smart building systems,ICT-optimised supply chains, and variablemotor controls in industrial machinery.IDC’s study focused only on technologiesthat are ‘currently mature enough to beimplemented within three years (giveninvestment and government approval);have significant network and processingbandwidth requirements; and arestandalone technologies, applicable tospecific industries and usage patterns.’

www.idc.com/events/climate

Twenty million pounds is to be investedin innovative energy efficiency

measures to cut emissions and energybills in central government departments.The allocation is part of the package of£405m low carbon funding announced atthe Budget in April to help establish the UKas a market leader in renewabletechnology and advance greenmanufacturing.

Sixteen English councils are set toreduce their energy bills by nearly £1m

per year and cut their annual carbonemissions by nearly 4,700 tonnes afterreceiving the green light for their energyefficiency projects. The councils havebeen awarded nearly £4m in interest-freeloans from the £51.5m Carbon Trust fund.

Crawley Borough Council is reportingsubstantial savings - averaging 11% on

annual mileage per vehicle - across itsAmenity Services Fleet thanks to livetracking and logging of vehicle movementsover the internet via Masternaut Three X.

Videoconference to cut CO2

Amey has cut 40,000 kilos of carbonemissions and saved £180,000 in its

first year using Tandberg videoconferen-cing systems. VMeetings now enable staffto schedule virtual meetings and registerattendees through its intranet. “Lots ofpeople were driving long distances forfairly short, routine meetings,” said KeithSexton, Amey’s director of health, safety,environment and quality.

NEWS UPDATE

ContactPoint rolls out

The government is forging ahead with theintroduction of ContactPoint to every

English local authority, saying that recenttrials were an “outstanding success”. Supporters of the long-delayed £224mproject say it will make England’s 11 millionyoung people safer by providing a singleregister that can be used by all childprotection professionals.An evaluation report of the initial phase ofthe ContactPoint roll out, ‘Lessons Learnedfrom the Early Adopter Phase’, states thatearly feedback from practitioners is good,with over 75% believing ContactPoint willbe helpful in their future work. In one area a deputy principal has already been able tolocate eight students missing fromeducation for over a year usingContactPoint.However the future of the project remains indoubt as both the Conservatives and LiberalDemocrats have vowed to abandon it.ContactPoint was developed in response toa key recommendation of the LamingInquiry into the death of Victoria Climbiéand has been designed to help frontlinepractitioners work across organisations,arming authorised professionals with aquick and easy tool to find out who else isworking with the same child as early and as quickly as possible.

Privatise to survive: Councils are advisedto prioritise spending and outsource

more services. Councils, rather thanWhitehall, should commission newpartnerships that focus on mutual interestsand pre-determined meaningful outcomeswhich can be achieved ‘using fluidbudgets’, argue think tank, Localis, andKPMG. A new report, ‘The Bottom Line – avision for local government’, states thatsuch a move would allow services to be‘more personalised around therequirements of the end user’. Councils areadvised to reassess their priorities againstcost and innovate. ‘If they are to achievemuch needed expenditure reductions ofaround 20% by 2011’ they will need to ‘looklong and hard at the services they provideand find new ways of managing them ifthey are to cut costs’. www.localis.org.uk

Birmingham chief hits out at barriers tototal place: Radical reforms in public

funding and governance will be necessaryto make the ‘total place’ concept ofintegrated services a reality, says JasonLowther, director of policy and delivery atBirmingham City Council. The city hasidentified seven barriers to organisingservices around individual citizens ratherthan organisations. Top of the list was“short term financial horizons” making itimpossible to create a business case forearly interventions. “We need to talk toTreasury about paybacks over a ten tofifteen year period,” Lowther said.

WiFi first for Swindon residents


NEWS UPDATE


Scotland takes the highroad to online health

As political flak continues to fly over the £13bn programme for IT in the English

NHS, eyes are turning to its Scottishcounterpart to see what can be done. The NHS north of the border has given GPs,health help-line advisers and accident andemergency doctors electronic access tothe summary records of nearly all patients. The service is also about to sign a nationalcontract to modernise hospital software.Nearly all practices in Scotland are nowconnected to the Emergency CareSummary (ECS), a basic set of read-onlydata including drug prescriptions. Dr LibbyMorris, chair of the Emergency CareSummary Board, NHS Scotland, told the E-Health Insider Live conference inBirmingham that the programme hadprovoked little dissent. The system holds 5.4 million patient records (including thoseof deceased patients, which are held fortwo years). Only 1,400 patients, or 0.02%,have opted out. This is in marked contrast to England,where the equivalent Summary CareRecord (SCR) is running years behindschedule because of doctors’ worries overpatient confidentiality and consent. Dr Morris said the record had alreadyhelped saved lives. In one case, a 62-year-old woman admitted in an emergency wentinto a coma and a pharmacist who checkedthe ECS found she should have beenreceiving insulin. The key to success was gaining doctorssupport, and providing systems that auditunauthorised accesses.

Nomad home: The original e-governmentproject to provide mobile and flexible

working for local authorities, due to close inNovember through lack of funding, hasbeen given two new leases of life. ProjectNomad is to split into two: Nomad Northand Nomad Scotland, with Ken Eastwoodof Barnsley MBC and Nomad Scotlandchair, Aberdeenshire’s Mark Baker, to takeover the initiative. www.projectnomad.org.uk

Smith minister for

e-government

It has taken some time since the reshufflein July, but the government has finally

named the minister responsible for e-government and information security -and it is Angela Smith.

The Basildon and East Thurrock MP is alsominister for the Office of the Third Sectorand her work includes working withvoluntary and community groups, socialenterprises, charities, cooperatives andmutuals. The Cabinet Office has confirmedthat to her portfolio has been addedresponsibility for the Office of GovernmentChief Information Officer and informationsecurity and assurance.

Other responsibilities ratified are that workand pensions minister, Jim Knight, will takeon finding ways to include the four millionpeople digitally excluded. He will also takeon the role of webczar for the government’sone click site, Directgov. As departmentalIT and data security minister, he will sipfrom the poisoned chalice of being heldresponsible for senior politicians and civilservants who lose laptops and memorysticks with sensitive information on them inthe backs of cabs...

At the Department for Children, Schoolsand Families, schools minister DianaJohnson’s responsibilities include ICT andthe digital curriculum. And ContactPointhas been given to Baroness Morgan in theHouse of Lords.

ICO gets teeth: The cost of storing andmanaging electronic data could rise as

the government consults on £500,000penalties for serious breaches of dataprotection principles. ‘Civil MonetaryPenalties: Setting the maximum penalty’,seeks views on government plans to fineorganisations which mismanage data or failto comply with the Data ProtectionPrinciples set out in the Data Protection Act1998. Justice minister, Michael Wills, said,“We want to ensure that the InformationCommissioner’s Office has the powers itneeds and is able to impose robustpenalties on those who commit seriousbreaches of data protectionprinciples.”Consultation closes on 21December 2009: www.justice.gov.uk

Britain Works Microsoft is offering £18m worth of trainingvouchers for the community in its BritainWorks Challenge.The software giant has put its money where itsmouth is by backing up its ‘Britain Works’campaign with a competition offering £18m of training and exam vouchers for the bestlocal authority programmes addressing unemployment and digital skills in the community.Three councils will share the prize; however, all entrants will receive complementary ITAcademy membership to support local activity. Closing date 18 December:

www.microsoft.com/uk/challenge

Stop thief: Police forces from SouthYorkshire and Nottinghamshire tookjust 30 minutes to intercept and

recover a stolenNottinghamshireCounty Councilpick-up truck.The vehicle hadrecently beenequipped with aThatchamCategory 5satellite trackingdevice fromMasternautThree X.

Local partnerships will end

power of big IT vendors

Adam Afriyie, shadow minister for scienceand innovation, says that a future

Conservative government would reduce thepower of a small number of large ITsuppliers.The Tories are considering the use ofmultiple proof-of-concept pilot projects: “Ifseveral suppliers are asked to come up withworking solutions, they can then be piloted,and the most successful can be scaled upand rolled out nationally.” This would, he said, “reduce reliance on ahandful of big vendors and increase theproportion of IT budgets spent withinnovative young companies.”He added, “By using standard data formats,like XML, government can open up theprocurement process to the widest possiblebase of suppliers. With inter-operability,large projects can be split into manageable,modular chunks... The outcome is a moreflexible procurement process where it iseasier to change suppliers and resolveproblems as they emerge.”

Lansley pledges telecare advances: “NHS investment in telecare benefits local

authorities by reducing their domiciliarycare costs,” said shadow minister, AndrewLansley. “So we will require PCTs topromote joint working with local authorities.That means budget pooling and jointcommissioning.” Lansley said that telecare,mobile technology which identifies risk andmonitors patients electronically, has beenshown to work - a project in north westSurrey reduced the number of peopleentering residential care by 11% in a year.

Recession begins to bite local authorities:Many local authorities are sitting on a

financial time bomb as the true cost ofrecession - in terms of job losses, bad debt,fraud and the consequent demand on publicservices – has yet to impact on publicfinances, according to Experian’s QuarterlyInsight report. The full costs will occurseveral months after unemployment peaksand continue after economic growthresumes. Authorities in the north east willamong the be hardest hit. London boroughssuch as the City of London, Westminster andKensington and Chelsea will see relativelyless impact.


E-UNION


English local government provided twoof the three UK finalists at this year’sEuropean e-government awards,

announced at a ministerial meeting inMalmo, Sweden, in November. Theprojects were Kent TV, the web TV channelled by Kent County Council, and LiverpoolDirect, the joint venture multi-channelservice organisation set up by LiverpoolCity Council. (The third was the ScottishExecutive’s e-procurement project.)Both English projects chimed very muchwith the emphasis on empowerment set bythe next e-Europe action plan. Howeverthey were beaten to the prize by the Danishmunicipality of Gentofte, which hasdeveloped a one-stop shop to onlineservices provided by national and regionalagencies as well as private organisations. That is a vision of future e-governmentlikely to be emphasised heavily in the nextEuropean e-government action plan, whichwill be drawn up by the EuropeanCommission to implement the philosophiesof a ministerial declaration signed at theMalmo meeting. Unveiling the declaration, Sweden’s e-government minister Mats Odell (hisformal title is minister for local governmentand financial markets at the FinanceMinistry) stressed that a central aim of theplan is to underpin the mobility ofindividuals and businesses across the EU.“The aim is to make it as easy to study inLondon, retire in Italy and work in Swedenas it would be to do all three in onecountry,” he said. However, no matter how desirable thatlifestyle, the vision may be difficult to sell inthe highly Euro-sceptic atmosphere of UKpolitics. Significantly, the UK’srepresentative at the meeting, CabinetOffice minister, Angela Smith, stressed theextent to which the declaration “reflects”British ideas. Up to a point, this is true: the ‘power ofinformation’ idea of encouraging the re-useof public sector information is very much aUK idea. But, although ministers are loathto admit it, Britain’s e-governmentprogramme has tended to follow, ratherthan lead, the EU’s ‘information society’agenda. Ever since the e-Europe plan of2000 – which first set the 2005 target for e-enabling public services – UK officialshave been fighting guerrilla actions toensure that pan European e-governmentplans are based on ideas that their

ministers (and the tabloid press) willstomach. Hence the i2010 action plan’semphasis on digital inclusion – it wasinserted at the 2005 Manchester ministerialsummit by a UK Cabinet Office desperate todeflect attention from ideas about pan-European identity cards. However an official evaluation of the i2010action plan, released without fanfare atMalmo, concedes that the approach todigital inclusion was flawed. The plan wasthat member states would identify flagshipe-government initiatives and exchangeinformation on them. In reality, “Theidentified flagships have been somewhatdisappointing, probably because of theuncertain quality of many of them, whoselected them, why and how, even thoughthey have had some awareness raisingvalue. This approach should not be thepriority for the future.”Significantly, digital inclusion makes only afleeting appearance in the Malmodeclaration. The pledge is that: “We willdevelop inclusive services that will help tobring down barriers experienced bydigitally or socially excluded groups.” However there is no indication of how suchbarriers might be tackled, or targets fordoing so. The Malmo declaration is deliberatelypitched at a higher level than itspredecessors, eschewing targets in favourof general directions of travel. The declaration sets out four ‘policypriorities’ for 2010-15. These are: • Empowering citizens through services

designed around users’ needs anddeveloped with third parties. Thisaspiration includes access to publicinformation and freedom to re-use it,more transparency and ‘effective meansfor involvement of stakeholders in thepolicy process’.

• Mobility enabled by ‘seamless e-government services’ for setting up abusiness and living, working and retiringanywhere in the EU. The stated target isto create ‘noticeable and positivechange’ in the ease with which abusiness can be set up and run, and‘noticeable and positive change’ in theease of moving to another member stateto study, work and retire.

• More efficient and effectiveadministration, reducing administrativeburdens and carbon emissions.

• Underpinning these priorities by puttingin place ‘appropriate key enablers’ and‘legal and technical preconditions’.These include electronic identities andelectronic signatures as well as a ‘jointinfrastructure’ based on interoperability.Here there is strong support for theadoption of ‘open specifications’ but lessfor open source, which the declarationmerely suggests ‘could be promoted foruse in e-government projects’.

Technically, it is only a statement of intentand an invitation for the EuropeanCommission to create a new action plan.However officials are already at workturning these pledges in to specific pointsfor action.Will anyone take any notice? Up to now,the record of pan-European e-governmenthas been patchy. The i2010 progress reportreveals plenty of ‘challenges’. Specific targets for e-enabling ‘highimpact’ services are likely to be missed, theevaluation says. Particularlyembarrassingly, the low-hanging fruit ofpublic e-procurement remains out of reach.Despite ‘considerable progress... it is notlikely that all countries will have reachedthe 100% online availability and 50% usagetargets by 2010,’ the report states. As foridentifying Pan-European high impactservices, only ‘a minority of countries’ havebothered; most national and regionaladministrations have other priorities. On the 2010 plan’s proposals for efficiencyand effectiveness, the report finds thatevidence for actual achievements is‘mostly anecdotal’ - for example theAustrian government’s 38% savings fromdigital archiving. The review recommends that the next planshould concentrate on the demand side ofthe e-government equation. This willinvolve ‘more open, engaging and porousforms of governance which permit aplurality of stakeholders, intermediariesand channels in the service value chain’.Such ideas figure strongly in the Malmodeclaration, which promises to ‘strengthentransparency of administrative processes’and ‘involve stakeholders in public policyprocesses’. Such sentiments are easy toinsert in a ministerial declaration butdifficult to translate into specific measures,let alone those with measurable outcomes.The 2015 action plan, when it appears,should make interesting reading for all, notjust for e-government wonks.

Empowering thee-UnionEurope’s e-government ministers have set out their next five-yearplan for e-government. Michael Cross reports from Malmo.

Cabinet Office minister, Angela Smith (right),with Liverpool Direct in Malmo.


In a remarkable example of successfuljoint working, local authorities, the DWP,DCSF, DCLG, the LGA and SOCITM, have

implemented the Government ConnectSecure Extranet (GCSX). As LGITU goes to print all local authoritiesneeding access to DWP systems areconnected to a secure, pan-public sectorcommunications infrastructure, offering anew platform on which to build joined up,effective and efficient public services. Local authorities are now ideally positionedto take advantage of GCSX and use it innew ways that are beneficial and helpful tothem and the citizens they serve. However, whilst the technical foundationsfor secure and cost effectivecommunication and joint working are nowlaid, the cultural perception of theimportance of data, and the consequencesof unauthorised use or access, lagssignificantly behind. As can be seen in thisreport, senior officers are well versed in theneed to follow appropriate Data HandlingGuidelines, yet practice – and training - onthe front line is not consistent. Councilsmust work now to deliver the culturalchange necessary to ensure the physicalsafety of sensitive information. Clear identification of data ‘assets’ andownership is needed, along with consistenttraining on the duties of data handling andprocedures in case of breach. That 63.8%of survey respondents did not knowwhether their organisation had suchpolicies and training programmes suggeststhere is much work yet to do on this front. GCSX, by dint of requiring proven andtrusted security protocols, supportsfrontline implementation of the DataHandling Guidelines. As a ‘first choice’conduit, secure electronic transmissionavoids the danger of frontline decisionstaken in haste - or for reasons ofexpediency - that put sensitive citizen dataat risk. Indeed, it is encouraging to see thatthe programme rolling out GCSX wascredited in many cases with raisingawareness of such issues.

From Place Shaping to Total Place, customerinsight to preventative services, the ability tosecurely share information and open trustedchannels for joint working has obviousbenefits. With the ‘perfect storm’ brewing,where spiralling demand for public servicesand support in a recessionary Britain meets

dramatic decreases in available resource,now is the time for frontline organisations tolook carefully at driving maximum benefitfrom their current infrastructures. As can be seen from the BenefitsRealisation Fund projects (right) GCSXrepresents a major opportunity to makefundamental step changes in deliveringimproved, cost effective services. With GCSX in place the barriers to jointworking are no longer financial or technical.Pioneering work joining up officers indifferent organisations to improve servicesis under way in these pilots - exploring thebenefits in, for example, trading standards,joint asset recovery, tackling crime andantisocial behaviour, business crime, placeshaping, civil contingencies andsafeguarding children. Indeed, GCSX couldn’t come at a bettertime. Following recent industrial actionpublic and business’ confidence in thepostal service has been severely damaged. In this brave new electronic world thecitizen expects secure, efficient joined uppublic services - accessible to them in theway that they choose, but poweredseamlessly behind the scenes by provenand secure technology. I believe that GCSX provides the securecommunications required to support thedelivery of truly joined up, citizen-centric,front line services across the public sector.

GCSX, Central and Local Government:Developing opportunities for joint

working and secure information sharingbetween central and local government:• DWP and councils - housing and counciltax benefit, In and Out of Work and Tell UsOnce.

• Youth Justice Board, HM Courts Serviceand local authority Youth Offending Teams.

• Trading Standards, the Serious OrganisedCrime Agency and JARD.

• Police, fire & rescue services and councilstackle crime, improving community safety.

• Patient identifiable data with NHSmailusers (PCTs, acute trusts, GPs etc) andcouncils.

• Contact Point, the Common AssessmentFramework (eCAF) and Free School Meals(FSM) plus secure email partners such asthe Family Courts.

• A secure communication platform forshared emergency planning and response.

www.govconnect.gov.uk

Connecting thePublic SectorPatrick Clark, head of programme management at Government Connect,DWP, responds to LGITU’s report, ‘Connecting the Public Sector’.

GCSX


To download the full report or an executivesummary visit: www.ukauthority.com/connecting

I&DeA GCSX BenefitsRealisation Projects

Bristol City Council: Trading Standards andintelligence sharing in the South West(SWERCOTS)

Conwy County Borough Council: JointAsset Recovery Database (JARD)

Dartford Borough Council - Kent Connects:Kudos, tackling crime and antisocialbehaviour

Devon County Council on behalf of theDevon ePartnership: Flexible Working

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council:Business Crime Partnership

Great Manchester Public ProtectionPartnership (GMPP): Business Compliance- Regulatory Services

Halton Borough Council: ‘Place shaping’through GIS data sharing

Hampshire County Council on behalf of theHampshire and Isle of Wight Partnership:Exploring a regional approach to employeeauthentication

Lancashire Council (LancashireConstabulary & Police): Antisocialbehaviour data sharing in Lancashire

Lichfield District Council: Business datasharing in the West Midlands

London Borough of Islington: No Recourseto Public Funds

London Trading Standards Authority(LOTSA): Trading Standards and RegionalIntelligence in London

North Kesteven District Council on behalfof the Lincolnshire Public Sector WorkingGroup: Customer Data Hub

Plymouth City Council on behalf of DevonePartnership and Isles of Scilly: CivilContingencies/Emergency Planning

Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council:Blue Badge Scheme

South Lakeland District Council:Information sharing to facilitate a needs ledapproach to older people

Sunderland City Council: Births - Tell UsOnce

Torbay Council on behalf of DevonePartnership: Safeguarding Children - GC Mail

www.idea.gov.uk

INTELLIGENT FORMS


The most important finding theresearch team took away from theinitial qualitative exercise (reported

LGITU Sep/Oct 09) was that many peoplebelieve that eForms were “done” underthe local e-government and wider e-government programmes of the earlypart of this decade. However, in the landscape of the DigitalSwitchover of Public Services Programmein 2012, the latest generation of eFormstechnologies look like useful tools for thisprocess of delivering digital-onlychannels.Bob Kamall, senior policy advisor, publicservice reform, at the Cabinet Office saysthat eForms “could indeed play a key partin delivering on the Digital Britain promiseto switch to digital channels from 2012”.He is keen to point out that the switchoverprogramme is still in its early days andthat the current economic conditions “willimpact on any plans that departmentsmay have for eForms, whether new orexisting initiatives“.Indeed, cost savings in the face ofinevitable cuts – whichever political huethey are dictated by – will be fundamentalto public service delivery for theforeseeable future and will inevitablyinfluence the direction of developments.Solutions that remove layers of complexityand process – and therefore cost – willundoubtedly find favour.Projects that the Cabinet Office is lookingfor to ‘trail-blaze’ the digital switchovermust be easily replicable by other parts ofgovernment, and must demonstrate theircontribution to streamlining of processesand efficiency. They must also, inevitably,deliver significant savings on currentmeans of service delivery. The future ofpublic sector services leaves no room for‘add-on luxuries’ – the future is efficient,streamlined and cost effective. Less,rather than more.It is in the context of digital switchoverthat the key message coming back fromthis project’s initial interviews wassurprising: eForms were “done” in the e-gov programme. Indeed, it becameevident that many views on thetechnology are stuck in that era. However,

those using the latest technology werekeen to highlight just how far thetechnology and its capabilities had movedon since then.A subsequent ‘quick survey’ elicited 200responses from across frontline andcentral government services, from whichtwo findings leap out:

96%believe that eForms cancut the cost of processing

customer transactions

58%believe that eForms can beeasily integrated with

existing back office systems

It is interesting to see that so manybelieve that eForms can deliver savings;even when so few believe that back endintegration is easy. Indeed, many of thecomments revolved around this issue,suggesting that the real benefits ofeForms “would only be realised whenback end systems were integrated” –indeed, the benefits were being“underestimated”. These results suggest that if back endsystems and process workflow integrationwas achievable there could be a dramaticstep change in service delivery and cost. This belief about the difficulties of back-end integration mirrored the in-depthsample – where the issue scored anaverage of 2.9, but had the widest rangeof answers of all questions. Some stronglyagreed and others strongly disagreed withthe statement.

Benefits

Many respondents in the quick surveyreported successful developments. Saidone “It has been one success story in myorganisation being rated as one of thebest 30 local authority websites forcustomer experience in the UK.”Explained another, “We use eForms quitea lot now and have integrated with ourother e-channels to present one customerportal to our citizens.One reported that, “Increasingly we aremoving over to their use in deliveringfrontline services to the public.”

Leaving out the belief that eForms can cutprocessing costs, other benefits identifiedin the quick survey were:

95%think that eForms couldreduce error rates by

removing the need to re-keyinformation and by being able tovalidate information as it is entered onto a form

91%say that eForms can speedup the process of service

application/delivery

84%believe that eForms canpull together/send

information to multiple back-endsystems from one form

74%feel that intelligent eFormswere highly accessible and

easy for the citizen or business to use

74%feel that eForms offered ahigh quality customer

experience for the citizen or business

72%believe that eForms canstandardise delivery of their

organisation’s services via thirdparty/agencies

71%think that eForms couldenable secure joint working

for their organisation with other partsof the public sector

71%think that eForms couldenable the secure sharing

of information where appropriate

Use, cost anddevelopment

In the in-depth survey, most used bothpaper and electronic forms. Said one:“We can use paper, but we preferelectronic forms. We have made it easyfor service providers to use the electronicforms.”

eForms in a Digital Britain– Intelligent forms and efficient service deliveryCan the latest generation of intelligent forms help transform public services? Helen Olsenreviews the findings of LGITU magazine’s survey into this often misjudged technologyand looks at its potential to unlock savings in public service delivery.


INTELLIGENT FORMS


The sample was not large enough to statestatistics. However, of those who knewhow many electronic or paper forms wereused in their organisation (approximatelyhalf) the numbers ranged from less than10 to over 100 for both types of form. Interestingly, not one respondent knewwhat the cost of processing eitherelectronic or paper forms was to theirorganisation. And only two respondentswere able to estimate the cost ofdeveloping either electronic (range £0 to£10,000) or paper (£0 to £25,000). This finding was backed up in the quicksurvey:

83%did not know the cost ofdeveloping an eForm

88%did not know the cost ofdeveloping a paper form

Interestingly the expectation in the in-depth exercise was that paper forms weremore expensive to develop. In the quicksurvey this was reversed, with thoseputting a figure to the estimate fordevelopment assuming that paper formswere cheaper in general to develop thanelectronic forms.Of note too in the quick survey was thatmany of those commenting about the costof eForm development were clearlyfactoring in the overall integration andbusiness process re-engineering.Plans for future development were hazy,with varied estimates of expected formdevelopment – ranging from ‘less than 10’to ‘over 350’ on either electronic or paperforms. However, one central governmentrespondent said that their organisationhad no plans to develop further paperforms, but intended to develop 80electronic forms. Accessibility was seenas important, with requirements for newform developments and plans to make

existing eForms compliant with AAAaccessibility standards.

In-house developmentcapabilities

Just four of the central governmentorganisations (33%) in the in-depthsample had the ability to develop eFormsin-house. The others did not knowwhether their organisation had thiscapability or would “Look to the privatesector for help”.In contrast, almost three quarters (74%) ofthe quick survey among central and localgovernment and other frontline serviceorganisations said that they had the abilityto develop eForms in house.

Barriers to eFormdevelopment

The impression that eForms ‘had beendone’ under e-government may hurtfuture developments – the fact that theseinitial implementations had not delivered‘end to end service transformation’ orintegration into back-office systems maybe perceived as a limitation with thetechnology of today, rather than thetechnology available in the e-gov era. The parlous state of the economy and thepublic sector purse will also inevitablyimpact development. However, this maywell be mitigated with solid metricslooking at the latest achievements ineForm projects. Problems with past back-officeintegration techniques and workflow inboth the in-depth and quick surveysamples had left an impression that thiswas a limitation of the technology.Security of forms has also been seen as amajor barrier in the past – but this maychange with advent of the governmentsecure extranet, GCSX, and the latest

eForm technology security capabilities. However, culture change, legalities ofdigital signatures and the ability ofapplicants to satisfactorily identifythemselves are seen as barriers of today’stechnology. Referring to culture, said one respondent,“Authorities are used to working in acertain way in the paper world and wantto translate it wholesale into theelectronic world.”Another added that “the public sectortendency to try to cover everyconceivable eventuality in online servicesdelivery” would be a major barrier: “Thisleads to public sector screens often beingcomplicated with guidance... with notesregarding exceptions/exclusions.”

Positive outlook

In the quick survey these themes wererepeated. However, repeated referrals tothe “complexity” of processes thateForms needed to accommodate weretempered by acknowledgement of theopportunities their implementationpresent for re-engineering businessprocesses.Key themes to the comments in the quicksurvey emphasised the importance of endto end integration if benefits were to bedelivered. The enthusiasm of those thathad encountered early success waspalpable; as was, equally, thedisappointment of those who hadstruggled in recent years with earliertechnology. Indeed, encouragingly, respondentsappeared to be actively seekingopportunities for cost savings andstreamlining processes for the servicestheir organisations deliver. Some shining beacons of excellencewere highlighted by respondents. Awardwinning council websites, the PlanningPortal and the EU Services Directivewere all cited as evidence that thetechnology had much to offer. So, can this latest generation of eFormstechnology help deliver the nextgeneration of online government citizenservices? Key to the success of engaging thosewho are digitally able but not yet usingonline services, plus those currentlyexcluded from the digital world, will beuse and integration of widely availabletechnology to deliver engaging, intuitiveand trustworthy services. The stark truth is that the public sectormust deliver more with less. Andcommon sense dictates that harnessingtoday’s ubiquitous low cost technologiesto deliver engaging, efficient services isa necessity.

The ‘eForms in a Digital Britain – Intelligent forms and efficient service delivery’research project was undertaken by LGITU magazine with the support of theTomorrow’s Town Hall newsletter, UKauthorITy.com and Adobe. To request a copyemail Helen Olsen: [email protected]


Two things struck hard at the Solaceconference this year for a publicsector techy journalist.

Firstly, the society of local authority chiefexecutive’s annual shindig wasovershadowed by the inevitability of deepcuts in public spending. In a straw pollconducted around the delegate hall, chiefexecutives were unanimous in expectingsavage cuts to their council’s budgets: “Up to 30% over the next two years.” Delegates are agreed that the colour ofthe next government is irrelevant - theyare preparing for ‘two parliaments of pain’;the budget cupboard is bare.Secondly, despite approximately a third ofthe exhibitors being technology-relatedorganisations, technology was not a hottopic. Why? Chief executives, again unanimously in thesample spoken to, felt that technologypeople “did not speak their language”.Setting up a meeting with technologypeople and suppliers was not top of the listof their concerns. Technology was “a toolwasn’t it?”; we all “know what it can do”. Moreover, unfortunately for the technologyindustry, phrases such as “dramaticallyover sold and under-delivered” were oftrepeated. That notwithstanding, all agreed thattechnology, as a tool, had the ability todeliver real benefits to servicetransformation. It is just that, so far, it hasn’t delivered thepromised goods. Everyone has experienceof IT projects that are over budget, ofsystems that don’t work, of efficiencydreams never delivered. And all are waryof the large scale, high profile centralgovernment IT disasters. Add in the

unending stream of data losses and it isunderstandable that chief executives arenot looking to technology ‘above all’ tohelp them through the recession.Meanwhile, technology people - bothinside and outside local government - arestill not able to translate the bits and bytes,the widgets and the infrastructures, intoplain English that imparts exactly ‘what’the technology will ‘do’ for localgovernment and provide a solid (andcredible) business case to prove it. This lack of engagement by the technologycommunity with the wider council has longbeen discussed. In recent years Socitmhas urged its members to ‘take their placeat the top table’. So, why has this never happened? To trulyhelp the public sector through the mostchallenging time of its life, technologistsmust engage with chief executives andfinance directors to outline how, why andwhere technology can effect change. Andprovide the evidence - and the businesscase - to prove it. Meanwhile, chief executives were urgedto see the recession as an “opportunity toexcel” by speaker and business guru,Rene Carayol. Difficult times, he said,could provide “a moment” to be radical.Success, he said would depend onchanging culture, on bringing theorganisation with them. He urged chiefexecutives to shift their organisations’cultures to ones that were “performancedriven but values led”. More than ordinary organisations, Carayolreminded his audience, local governmenthad the power to “make a tangibledifference to people’s lives”. Carayol suggested that councils could

learn much from companies like Virgin –which always collaborates on newventures, never invests; and always looksto partnerships to deliver new services. Indeed, the airlines were much revered atSolace, with Barnet chief executive, NickWalkley, later outlining the ‘EasyJet’ modelof local service delivery in a livelyworkshop entitled, “Beyond Efficiency,Leadershp through Two Parliaments ofPain’. Solace Enterprises director, Martin Horton,said that the sector was good at innovationbut unable to react in the same way as theprivate sector: “There is so much politicaland emotional effort invested in innovationby the time you’ve pressed it through.” The political challenge facing chiefexecutives, he said was “the killing ofthings that we’ve invested in. Difficult, butsomehow we must get past that.”One chief executive said that her councilwas “reframing our questions. What do weactually have to do as bedrock? Whilst weare talking about efficiency we areeffectively cutting back on staff capacity.We need to ask, why are we providing pestcontrol? Not, how do we provide pestcontrol.”Indeed, said another, “We must ask, whatwould our organisation look like with 20percent less cash?“We are going to have to go back to the bigsuppliers (BT etc) and have discussions ofhow they are going to work with the publicsector and contribute to the changes –input versus output.” The next two parliaments are going to bepainful indeed - for local government,citizens and suppliers to local government.

SOLACE

Two Parliamentsof PainChief executives are under no illusions as to the challenges ahead. Helen Olsen reports from Solace 2009.

© iStockphoto.com/Marcela Barsse



SOCITM

Edinburgh in October can be bracing –but at least two workshops at thisyear’s Socitm conference were literal,

as well as metaphorical, hot-houses.Sessions on social media and the councilof the future both drew more-thancapacity audiences.The main certainty about the council of thefuture is that, given the looming pressuresof the next spending round (not to mentionthe next government) it will be with us verysoon. Doug Maclean, manager of SocitmConsulting, warned that managers wouldbe living with cuts in budgets not on themildly belt-tightening Gershon efficiencyscale of 3%-5% but “twenty to thirtypercent - or even more”.In response, councils will become muchmore virtual organisations, having ridthemselves of expensive and constrainingoffices and grand buildings. There cannot have been anyone in theroom, whatever the colour of their rulinggroup, who had not already consideredwhat that might mean. Maclean assured the workshop that hehad the recipe for making such atransformation. It obviously includescutting transaction costs by 90% byboosting the use of e-channels (andrealising the benefits - for example bythrowing out redundant paper rather thanpaying to store it). But the real savings hesaid would come from cutting the costs ofcentral offices and of key services.And there’s no point in being half-hearted,he said. “You can’t pick and choose, youhave to do the whole picture.”Socitm Consulting was not the onlyorganisation promoting wholesaletransformation. IBM, meanwhile,presented a vision of a ‘smart’ council inwhich the commoditisation of sensorsmakes it affordable to measure thecondition of everything. ‘Through sensorsembedded in cars, appliances, roads,pipelines, even medicine and livestock, wecan know where they are, their conditionand even see what they are seeing.’That possibility isn’t new – the 2009 touchis to connect the electronic municipalpanopticon with its citizens through socialnetworking techniques. “Streetlamp HB43is now following you on Twitter,” perhaps?But first, more basic uses of socialnetworking need to be embedded in localgovernment.

The feeling from another packed workshopwas there is still some way to go. Thesession heard that, if the council of thefuture is a Twitterer and Facebooker, aboutone in 10 local authorities is already there.That is the percentage allowing staffunrestricted access to social networks,according to a preview of Socitm researchto be published shortly. However,attendees suggested that any surveybased on a self-selecting sample may bebiased towards social media enthusiasts. The society’s Vicky Sargent told aworkshop entitled ‘Social media - are ICTmanagers blocking modern ways ofworking?’ that 49% of councils blockaccess entirely. And yes, ICT managersare often to blame. Leading concernsinclude security, time-wasting andreputational risk, the survey will show. Notto mention the sheer strain on the network,delegates added. The conference’s plenary speakerscertainly reflected the new enthusiasm forWeb 2.0. Opening the event, Geoff Mulgancalled on the public sector to make abreak from “over-engineered and under-delivered” projects by exploring Googleand Wiki-type initiatives.David Cameron could not have put itbetter. The Socitm conference coincidedwith a refreshing new interest by front-ranking politicians in the power of settingdata free. As Socitm was meeting adistinctively Tory local government policywas emerging around the power of freedata to encourage experiment – and audit. As Cameron put it last month: “Anecessary counterpart to decentralisationis greater transparency. That’s becauseinformation is power, so by giving peoplemore information we give them morepower. This is true internationally, whereour plans for aid transparency will allowpoor people in developing countries to seewhether what has been promised is beingdelivered. And it’s true back home, whereour plans to publish details of all centraland local government spending will notonly provide a powerful check on waste,they will help open up the provision ofstate services to small businesses, socialenterprises or charities as they see whatis being done by the state and how theycould do better.”However one significant Conservative-controlled council provided a reality checkto the possibilities for local innovation.

Birmingham city’s experience of pilotingthe government’s Total Place concept hasrevealed the need for radical reforms inpublic funding and governance, JasonLowther, director of policy and delivery,told a plenary session. He said the city hasidentified seven barriers to organisingservices around individual citizens ratherthan organisations. Top of the list was“short term financial horizons” making itimpossible to create a business case forearly interventions. “We need to talk toTreasury about paybacks over a ten tofifteen year period,” Lowther said. Every pound Birmingham spends on earlyintervention in child welfare saves £4 over15 years, he added, “But three quarters ofthose savings will accrue to organisationsother than the city.” Meanwhile, a “plethora of conflictingperformance management regimes ishindering joint working”. Lowtherdescribed as “a betrayal of trust” theHome Office and Department of Health’sretention of specific performancemanagement measures, rather thanrelying on the local area agreement. He said that the administration is “veryupfront” about reducing the city’s £7.5bnannual expenditure. “Unashamedly this isabout saving money as well as aboutimproving services.” Cameron and his policy makers might dowell to examine Birmingham’s experienceclosely before setting too many newpolicies in stone. The council of the futuremay emerge through the dynamics ofdrastic budget cuts coupled with free dataand new technologies. But it will also needsome strategic helping hands from thecentre.

Future ProspectsTechnology has much to offer the council of the future but policy from the centre will determine whether or not that potential delivers, says Michael Cross, reporting from Socitm 09.

Local Government IT Excellence Awards 2009

Service Transformation Award - Cheshire Westand Chester Council for its Revenues andBenefits Systems Convergence project.

Sustainable ICT Award - Hampshire CountyCouncil for the Green IT Action Plan.

Customer Access Award - London Borough ofHackney for its Citizen Index project.

Highly Commended - Flintshire County Councilfor its Green, Agile and Efficient project.

Highly Commended - Crawley Borough Councilfor its Streamlined Customer Transactionsthrough Integration and Tracking project.

Graham Williamson Challenge Award IT assistant, Scott Mansfield, from Leeds CityCouncil’s web team, won this year’s award.


SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is at a cross roads. Likemany on the web frontier, social mediaadvocates are beginning to realise

that ‘free’ as a business model is notalways sustainable. Yes, the internet is free. Unfortunately, thatmeans that no one wants to pay for it. Forany of it: for its creation, its use or itsmaintenance. And with savage publicsector budget cuts on the horizon the publicsector funding pot is drying up too. All councils now have websites. All areaiming to move service delivery to the mostcost effective e-channels whereappropriate. All will now have to makedifficult decisions about where futureinvestment is made. And the business casethat is so far missing in the social mediatool box could be a major block to gainingfuture funding. Chief executives at Solace last month thatwere interested in technology were fewand far between. However, those that werehad a surprisingly laissez-faire attitude. When the topic came up in a workshop,under Chatham House Rule, one chiefurged colleagues: “Don’t build your ownweb 2.0 community. Don’t bother. Someoneelse in the community will do it for you.”Delegates were interested in how theycould re-use, or hook into, alreadydeveloped resources without fundingdevelopment in their own councils. “Takethe fix my street website, it’s already beendeveloped and works. We should be able todrive that forwards and pump theinformation into all the relevant agencies –

to generate our own works orders - ratherthan reinvent our own solution.” Many were dismissive of current councilwebsites, branding them “little more thanvirtual town halls replicated on the web.The real version doesn’t work, so whywould the ‘e’ version of the corridors andthe cliques?”The chief executives’ conference obsessionwith airlines – EasyJet and Virgin werementioned daily – has an interesting under-lying point. The business of flying hasn’tchanged, but the model for its provision has.Ergo British Airway’s devastating losses(and subsequent merger with Iberia) clearlyhighlighting the danger in adhering to the‘traditional model’ in times of change. Interestingly, the two lessons taken fromVirgin and EasyJet are radical steps awayfrom traditional models – partnerships notinvestments for new services; and strippingservices down to the essentials to deliverefficiency and open up access to all. Social media has enormous potential. It canbuild relationships and networks andcommunities. It has the potential to addvalue to many public services and becomea key part of service delivery such as takingthe burden off frontline workers of foreverproviding the same information. But like any other community it can becomeinward facing. It is striking that the same,incredibly talented and, well, thoroughlynice, people attend the same social mediaevents – that are always bursting with thesame ideas and potential. It is also strikingthat there is a lack of council heads of IT,

finance directors and chief executives inthe audience at these events. Indeed, almost half (49%) of all councilsblock social media use entirely, accordingto Socitm. Only nine percent allowunrestricted use. Councils’ – aka councilheads of IT – main concerns were security,time wasting and reputational risk. It is painfully apparent that the social mediamessage is not getting through to those withthe power to effect change. They don’t ‘get’it. But that is not their fault. ‘It’ has never laidout its case in convincing and engagingterms. If the social media community doesnot start to network externally - and build acommunity - with the chief executives,finance directors and traditional councilheads of IT, there is a very real danger thatthe enormous potential of social media willnever be realised. Enthusiasm and commitment will alwaysbuild communities. Hyperlocal bloggingdoes indeed have its own drivers. And allonline communities have massive benefitfor their members. But only a solid businesscase and engagement will deliver fundingfor the creation of sustainable communitiesthat deliver real citizen engagement andtwo-way communication between theelectorate, civil servants or politicians - thatgive value to both sides of the provider/userdivide. The internet may be free, but time andresource is not. Until the banks give out freemoney and the supermarkets free food,people still have an economic imperative tobe paid for their time.

Time to EngageSocial media must engage with public sector decision makersif projects are to survive the recession, says Helen Olsen.

With its class-leading GIS and gazetteer software, GGP Systems is playing a vital role in improving public services.

Providing the very latest solutions for managing and delivering spatial information, GGP has an unrivalled 16-year track record in successful system implementation and support across the UK public sector.

Call us now on 020 8686 9887

www.ggpsystems.co.uk

Transforming Britain’s public services

© iStockphoto.com/Mark Rakocy


Citizens have always enjoyed airing their views. But now, social networking has created a wider forum for them to share their thoughts and opinions regarding your service delivery. Something that is being put more under the microscope each and every day.

To ensure that you address the ever evolving expectations of your citizens you need to deliver great experiences across their web, social and contact centre interactions to transform rigid customer service processes into dynamic real-time dialogues.

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In keeping the citizen experience at the centre of everything you do, RightNow CX allows you to deliver real citizen-centric services by concentrating on the three experiences that matter most to them. The web experience, the social experience and the contact centre experience.

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Visit www.rightnowtech.co.uk/social and download the white paper Customer Service Meets Social Media.

With RightNow’s innovative new CX (Customer Experience) suite, you can ensure that citizens’ minor irritations never become major revolts.

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RightNow Contact Centre Experience seamlessly integrates your contact centre channels, to allow citizens to access your services in the way, and at the time,that suits them best.

© 2009 RightNow Technologies, Inc.


VIEW FROM WESTMINSTER


They say that a house divided is anunhappy house. Well there cannot bemany people unhappier than most of

the current occupants of the Houses ofParliament.In particular the Commons is amelancholic place. Members are internallyseething about the new rules on expenses,and most are still unable to grasp thepublic’s anger at their claims. Add to this the fact that half of them arecounting the days either to retirement orunemployment and even the most hardnosed cannot be unmoved by the sight ofcolleagues shuffling down the corridors ofpower, muttering, “I’ve done nothingwrong”.However, if anything unites evendespondent MPs it is a statement by agovernment minister, not in the Commonsbut in the other house.

One of the curiosities of what was onceperceived as a radical government is thatthere are now more members of the Houseof Lords acting as government ministersthan in the Cabinet of the silver spoonedAlexander Frederick Douglas-Home, BaronHome of the Hirsel who was prime minsterfor 12 months from October 1963.

Douglas-Home was the only prime ministerto have played first class cricket. Howeverif around today he could have watchedBaron Peter Mandelson bowling a googlyin a statement on internet file sharing. Thebusiness minister wants to cut off illegalfile sharers’ internet connections.

The twice resurrected minister says thatthe government plans to look at increasedaction against illegal down-loaders,including potentially suspending theaccounts of persistent offenders. FromJuly 2011 if a 70% reduction in onlinepiracy is not achieved by sending“warning letters”, customers will havetheir connection subjected to technicalmeasures. Which to you and me meansthey will be cut off.

Quite how this will be done remainsunclear. The idea of disconnection wasseemingly ruled out by the government’sDigital Britain report published in June. Butif a week is a long time in politics thensummertime is an eternity – more thanenough time for music and film industrybarons to bend the ear of the businessminister while sharing a water cooler

moment with him in one of parliament’scorridors. Unsurprisingly the statement has angeredthe internet service providers. CarphoneWarehouse, which has more than fourmillion customers and owns the Tiscali andAOL brands, said that the government’splan was based on file-sharers being“guilty until proven innocent” and cons-tituted an infringement of human rights.BT shrugged a massive corporateshoulder, yawned, and said it would takeaction if the government could outlinewhat legal action would be taken againstits customers. Other antagonists shouted, “What aboutthe ‘human rights’ of file sharers?” Suchstatements meet little sympathy in theCommons – too many MPs are stillsmarting at having their expenses filesshared with the Daily Telegraph and thencruelly exposed to the oxygen of publicity.But while the MPs procrastinated, fewtook much note of the series ofparliamentary questions asked by formere-minister, Tom Watson.The technologically aware MP asked aseries of written questions on civil serviceplans to upgrade their web browsers fromInternet Explorer version 6. The WestBromwich MP laid 18 questions before thehouse – asking different secretaries ofstate for their departments’ upgrade plans.On the face of it a simple question. The IE6browser is widely regarded as technicallyinsecure and at least 10 years out of date.However, forget upgrading andmodernisations, say its proponents, “Weare happy with what we got and what wehaven’t got won’t cost us.”Both central government and localauthorities are still big users of IE6 eventhough government advice is that it is aninsecure medium. However, the way thingsare going the London Olympics will havecome and gone and most governmentdepartments will still be using old legacyIE6 browsers.Tom Watson wasn’t happy. “Many civilservants use web browsers as a tool oftheir trade. They’re as important as pensand paper. So to force them to use themost decrepit browser in the world is arare form of workplace cruelty that shouldbe stopped,” he said.The government’s advice seems

unequivocal; it says companies shouldupgrade from IE6. So why are governmentand local authorities not practicing what isbeing preached? Shouldn’t more be usingFirefox or Chrome or Safari?Mandelson seems more concerned withhoodies and silver surfers downloadingillegal music files than the fact that theBritish government and local authoritiesare underperforming because they areusing a web browser first developedbefore Tony Blair was spun into life andbecame prime minister.Perhaps the MPs about to leaveparliament should ponder this - when theysit at home surfing the web, the chancesare their home computer will have themost up to date browsing software, unlikethe public servants they have denied it to.

Digital DivideSplits ParliamentTim Hampson reports from Westminster.

Broadband tax

Scant details of what will be in thedigital economy Bill were announced

in the Queen’s speech.“My government will introduce a Bill toensure communications infrastructurethat is fit for the digital age, supportsfuture economic growth, deliverscompetitive communications andenhances public service broadcasting,”the Queen said.But details of the expected phone line tax,to raise the money so that 90% of thepopulation can access governmentwebsites from home by 2017 usingbroadband, were absent.But that doesn’t mean the idea is dead.The announcement will be made in thegovernment’s pre-budget statement with50p charged on everyone with a fixed-linetelephone.However, will a government counting thedays towards a general electionintroduce a tax for surfing the web?The Tories are certainly against the idea.Tory MP John Whittingdale says he isconfident the Conservative party willoppose it.But don’t discount the idea of Labourpushing on with the mouse tax, butsetting a date for its introduction after theelection.By then the next government will needevery penny raised in tax – and themeasure will probably stay in place.

©iStockphoto.com/S. Greg Panosian


EMERGENCY SERVICES


Incident reporting rolls out nationally:National deployment of the Fire and

Rescue Service Incident Recording Systemis complete, with FRS able to use it to log,store and disseminate attended incidentdata. Developed by Informed Solutions incooperation with CLG, the fully automateddata capture and data sharing systemenables data on all incidents attended byFRSs to be collected and verified at source.

Best use of technology: CambridgeshireConstabulary and Forensic Pathways

scooped the Orange Best Use ofTechnology in Business category at theNational Business Awards for using FPL’sForensic Phone Analyser system todrastically increase and improve its abilityto manage intelligence. The system canmanage billions of items of data relating tomobile phone and telecommunicationsnetworks, helping investigators make senseof, and use, it to identify and catch criminals.

Lincolnshire Police has implemented IT service management software

Sostenuto, from Sunrise Software. It isworking towards ITIL accreditation, in linewith the NPIA ‘Information Systems Strategyfor the Police Service’ directive, which laysdown a framework to improve policeperformance and efficiencies.

GGP Systems has launched aninnovative route planner for UK fire

and rescue services. Designed to reducetravelling times and costs and maximisethe number of building inspections madeby fire safety inspectors, GGP Routingutilises the most up to date street maps toensure optimal routing taking into accounta range of user defined options, roadnetwork characteristics and othervariables. www.ggpsystems.co.uk

Reducing travel tomaximise inspections

Mobile devices, says Bedfordshirepolice inspector, Jim Hitch, aremerely the next step in police

communications – following on from thewhistle, police box and the 2-way radio. Hedoes not see their introduction so much as atechnology project but as a cultural change:“It’s about getting people to workdifferently.”At a roundtable organised by Research inMotion (RIM), Hitch reported thatBedfordshire officer ‘time-in-station’ haddropped by nearly a quarter to just 36% ofduty time following introduction ofBlackBerry mobile technology – and thateach device cost just £270 a year per officer. This impressive improvement in efficiencywas echoed by Keith Gough, mobileinformation manager at Thames ValleyPolice, who said that introduction of thetechnology had saved the equivalent to“one hundred extra officers on the street”.Gough pointed out that PNC checks overAirwave take an average of three minutesand involve two members of staff - one backat the station doing the check - while thoseon mobile devices could run the checkthemselves, instantly.The National Police Improvement Agency’s(NPIA) mobile information programmemanager, Gary Cairns, says that NPIA islooking at whether one mobile device canmeet voice and data comms requirementsafter the current Airwave police radionetwork agreement expires in 2015. Whatthat device may be is still underinvestigation, but it is safe to say it will be adevice that combines the qualities of bothtoday’s mobile data devices and Airwaveradio communications. Indeed, the longterm aim of the NPIA’s FutureCommunications Programme is to convergeaccess to police ICT systems to enable oneaccess point for officers to the information

they need, when they need it, where theyneed it. David Davies, Conservative MP forMonmouth and, pertinently, a specialconstable with the British Transport Police,sits on the Home Affairs Select Committee.He confirmed that a future Conservativegovernment would undoubtedly overseecuts in public sector spending. Therefore aconvincing business case for mobiledevices demonstrating that they can savemoney in the long term would be needed, hesaid, to secure short term investment.However, he added that as a specialconstable “I have seen the benefits ofmobile data and it is something I would wantto support.”Mobile devices such as the BlackBerry,approved by CESG to carry data up to‘restricted’ levels, allow quick and secureaccess to information from the PoliceNational Computer (PNC), the warrantsdatabase, intelligence briefings, and theDVLA database. To date the government has handed out£80m via the NPIA to enable forces to trialsuch devices. NPIA says that around half ofall police officers currently carry one. RIMestimates approximately 39,000 devices arein use today by UK police forces – aroundhalf of these are Blackberry smartphones. Culture, however, is a major issue. Hitchestimates that around 80-85% of deviceshanded out are heavily used. The remainderare not. When pressed, he confirmed thatlack of uptake was more prevalent amongolder officers who were not comfortablewith the technology. Encouraging universal use of newtechnology is a major block to deliveringpromised efficiency savings – the police arenot alone in encountering this problem.

Mobile - empowering the front line Police can keep recordsfor 100 years

Five police forces which challenged aruling that they should delete records on

criminal convictions from their databasehave won their appeal. The court of appeal said that convictions,however old and however minor, can be ofvalue in the fight against crime and could bekept for 100 years. If the forces had losttheir appeal they may have been forced todelete details of as many as one millionpeople – effectively creating a “liars’charter” where people would be able todeny criminal convictions on jobapplications if they knew the deletiondeadline had passed. The appeal was madeby the chief constables of Humberside,Staffordshire, Northumbria, West Midlandsand Greater Manchester.

Union and Tories criticise plans for fireservice reorganisation: Plans for nine

regional hi-tech fire control centres basedon the Government Office Regions,replacing 46 local control rooms, will lead toa worse service, fire fighters and theConservatives have warned. The move willlead to the loss of local knowledge, whichfire fighters warn could lead to delays. TheFireControl project, originally established byJohn Prescott, is years behind schedule,beset by technical problems and more than£400m over its original £1bn budget. TheTories have called for it to be scrapped andalternatives investigated - such as the tri-service centre model used in Glouces-tershire which draws together all threelocal emergency services under one roof.

Crime maps to ward level: The HomeOffice has launched a new interactive

national map collating data from the 43individual police force crime maps - givingthe public access to local statistics anddetails on crime in their area. Developed bythe NPIA, the online map allows people toview figures for all crime as well asburglary, robbery, violence, vehicle crimeand anti-social behaviour in their area at thetouch of a button. It also enablescomparisons of one force’s figures withanother, and provides details ofneighbourhood police teams and localpolicing priorities. http://maps.police.uk


NEW PRODUCTS


Handheld for harshenvironments

Mobexx has launched an ultra ruggedand powerful hand held computer

designed for use in harsh public safety,security and field engineeringenvironments. The 2T Hydrus providesreliable computing for the harshest ofenvironments and offers a wide range ofexpansion options, including RFID readers,custom configuration and colours. AXenon flash equipped version - HydrusLuna – is also available for taking highquality photographs in poorly lit premises,dark warehouses and even underovercast skies. The Hydrus has one of thelargest capacity batteries available on themarket, providing up to 40 hours ofworking time for field-based applications.

www.mobexx.co.uk

Shiny clean Windows 7: The newversion of Microsoft’s PC operating

system, Windows 7, has launched to muchacclaim, being cited by The Guardian as“the best version of Windows you canget”. Indeed, “like Vista, but good”. It usesfewer resources than Vista and is moresecure than XP. A reduced footprint andoptimisation also means it boots, sleepsand wakes up faster than previousversions. Microsoft has tried hard to makeWindows 7 deliver on a simple premise:make it easier for people to do the thingsthey want on a PC. The new operatingsystem offers a streamlined user interfaceand significant new features that makeeveryday tasks easier and allow people toget the most out of computers of all stylesand sizes. www.windows.com

Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 2: The latest version of Adobe’s LiveCycle

rich internet application frameworkincludes mobile access, Flash basedworkspaces and cloud deployment todeliver applications for business-criticalcustomer interactions. Organisations candeliver personalised experiences thatconnect to automated processes andembed real-time collaboration inapplications to improve customerexperience and boost employeeproductivity. www.adobe.com/livecycle

Scalable licence for NLPG: The NationalLand and Property Gazetteer can now

be licensed for smaller geographicalareas, which brings down the costconsiderably for organisations such ashousing associations and primary caretrusts. Until recently, subsets of thedefinitive national address database wereonly available commercially byGovernment Office Region. NLPG data cannow be licensed based on local authorityboundaries with pricing based on thenumber of BLPUs (Basic Land andProperty Unit) in the area. TraffordHousing Trust is the first to take advantageof the new pricing structure.

www.intelligent-addressing.co.uk

Housing market analysis: The AuditCommission has launched a user-

friendly online tool to increaseunderstanding of housing market issuesand trends in local areas. The HousingMarket Analysis Tool provides a range ofindicators, allowing users to look at issuesin local housing markets, as well asdemographic change, levels ofdeprivation, the local economy and localenvironment. www.audit-commission.gov.uk

Heat loss maps: Bluesky has launchedan easy-to-use property heat loss

mapper to help local authorities viewthermal data collected during airbornethermal imaging surveys. The HELIOS(Heat Loss Investigation System) webbased reporting tool, developed byManchester Geomatics, will help energyand environment teams understand theresults of thermal surveys and allow crossreferencing of data with other information.

www.bluesky-world.com

MapMechanics has launchedGeoXploit, a complete mapping

software and data package with powerfulpresentational, thematic and analyticalcapabilities. Using a range of inclusive,pre-configured digital map data, andsupporting business and demographicdata, users can bypass the usual learningcurve of such products. GeoXploit costs£3,495 + VAT - including ready-to-use UKstreet mapping and licensed access toaerial photography, plus a range of map-related data such as population and socialclass data, postcodes and businessdelivery points. www.geoxploit.com

Unisys is to use Enigmatec’s run bookautomation software to power a key

infrastructure component of its SecureCloud Solution. It will form the foundationfor Unisys uOrchestrate solutions, whichpowers the real-time infrastructuresupporting Unisys Secure Cloud Solution.This will enable enterprise clients tosecurely move conventional businessapplications – including those with secureor sensitive data – into a managed, sharedcloud service without costly, time-consuming rewrites or other alterations.

www.unisys.com www.enigmatec.com

Gritting in real-time

Masternaut Three X and GRITIT havedeveloped a unique web-based

solution for gritting operations. VisuLiveuses Masternaut’s real-time vehicletracking and telematics plus PDA-basedmobile field service software and real-time business intelligence solution togenerate jobs in response to MORST (MetOffice Road Surface Temperature)reports. www.masternaut.co.uk

Seek and ye shall find

Simplexo has launched SimplexoMobile, a new way to search for data

held on back office computers when outon the road. Available now for theiPhone, Windows Mobile 6 devices andBlackberrys, Simplexo Mobile cansimultaneously search across allenterprise environments includingSharePoint, live and archived email,word processing documents, images,spreadsheets, databases, applicationssuch as CRM and SAP.

Web based GIS

GGP Systems has launched the latestversion of its web based geographic

information system, eGGP 2009. Designedto make up to the minute local authorityservice information readily accessible viathe internet, it provides access to data heldin spatial database formats and has a new-look user interface with advanced mappingfunctionality. A faster more refined onlineexperience is underpinned by a reworkedmap rendering engine. eGGP 2009 alsoprovides improved security with sophis-ticated user authentification and accountmanagement. www.ggpsystems.co.uk


CONTRACT ROUNDUP


Anglesey and Gwynedd Local Health Boards have launched a joint Tunstall

telehealth monitoring home service torecord vital signs, such as blood pressureand O2 levels for patients with chronicobstructive pulmonary disease.

Brent Council is the first local authority toimplement UKMap for key location and

base map data for a number of coreapplications, including planning andtransportation. Savings have already beenidentified in the first year to make thepurchase cost-neutral.

Bristol City Council is achieving 60%operational cost reductions using ASG

Software’s tape management and consoleautomation for its IBM infrastructure.

Business Link West Midlands hasdeployed Datanomic’s dn:Director data

management application to improve theaccuracy of data held in its CRM. Thesystem is central to BLWM’s reportingprocesses with central government.

Calderdale Council residents can soongo online to see the heat loss from their

properties, following airborne surveys byaerial mapping firm, Bluesky.

Cardiff Council expects to save £1.3m inits transport of children with special

education needs after adopting CapitaChildren’s Services’ One Transport andusing the information to renegotiate contracts with transport providers.

Cardiff Council has asked TataConsultancy Services to provide

workflow and business processes toaugment information and knowledgemanagement organisation-wide and helpbuild operational intelligence.

Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT hasspearheaded a new shared IT solution,

MedisecNET, to cut delays between apatient leaving hospital and their GPreceiving detailed discharge notes. It isbeing used by three acute trusts to providedischarge documentation to 92 GPs.

City of Westminster has upgraded toAxiell’s fully managed CalmView service

to manage its archives collection. This alsooffers internet access to its WestCatarchives collection comprising books,pamphlets, directories, newspapers,journals, maps and plans, drawings,photographs, local government records from1460, electoral registers, census returns,parish registers, and business archives.

Clyde Valley Learning and DevelopmentGroup, covering eight Scottish councils,

has asked Brightwave to deliver a new e-learning service over the next three years.

Corby Borough Council has deployed anew voice and LAN infrastructure based

on an Alcatel-Lucent Omni PCX Enterprisesystem from Indigo Telecom Group.

Coventry City Council buyers are testingnew single-click access through their

existing PROACTIS system to contractors’PQQ data on Constructionline.

Derbyshire County Council has askedLumension to help it gain complete

visibility of the security of its 8,000 ITendpoints across 430 locations.

Dundee City Council has tightenedsecurity for remote workers with

SecurAccess from SecurEnvoy. Passcodessent to workers’ mobile phones are nowentered alongside usual login details toaccess networks and emails remotely.

East Sussex County Council has bought Nuance Communications PDF Converter

Professional Enterprise 6, gaining a‘procurement saving in excess of £16,000’,and negating the need for the council toinvest in separate redaction software.

Glasgow Housing Association hasinstalled an advanced network from

ntl:Telewest Business, providing customerswith a single number to call its new contactcentre as well as arming frontline staff withup-to-date information to answer queries.

Great Western Hospitals NHS FoundationTrust has used InterSystems’ Ensemble

integration platform to link nine applications,including Electronic Discharge Summaryand Theatre systems, with data from itsPatient Administration System.

Hammersmith and Fulham Primary CareTrust has asked Fordway Solutions to

design and install a new storage anddisaster recovery infrastructure to handleanticipated data growth - whilst reducingboth server space and power consumption.The server count has been reduced by 60%.

Hampshire Primary Care Trust hasselected Real Asset Management’s

Asset4000 to manage its £150m worth ofassets and provide a centralised register.

Havering Council has asked Civica tohelp an internal team implement an

organisation-wide efficiency savingprogramme using the workflow andelectronic document managementcapabilities of Civica’s W2 product.

Herefordshire Council and NHSHerefordshire’s Herefordshire Connects

transformation programme has delivered anew integrated environment and regen-eration system from Civica. The solution isstreamlining the delivery of wastemanagement, planning, environmentalhealth, trading standards, licensing, buildingcontrols, conservation and housing, amongother services. It is the biggest projectundertaken by Civica in 20 years.

Highland Council has awarded Fujitsupreferred bidder status for a new five

year, £66m ICT services contract. Fujitsuwill manage the council’s entire ICT estate,including additional scope for curriculumICT to schools.

Hounslow Council is working with Plan-Net to identify current areas of good

practice and compliance and provide thecouncil with an opportunity to map outclearly defined IT improvement objectives.

Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and SouthAyrshire councils have entered into five

year agreements to promote high qualitybenefits services to over 331,000 citizenswith Northgate. Northgate’s revenues andbenefits system is to be integrated with thecouncils’ implementations under theScottish National Framework Agreement.

Ipswich Borough Council is usingOptimum to deliver user training around a

major upgrade of its finance system. “Wedid the mass user training ourselves whenwe went live in 2007 but we recognised thatit was a struggle because we lacked theresource and we weren’t professionaltrainers,” said Adrian Powell, Ipswich’sproject manager.

Dorset County Council-commissionedBuro Happold used Bluesky 3D

mapping to help prepare a feasibilitystudy into bypass options for Bere Regis.The detailed terrain model enableddesigners to minimise any impact on theenvironment, particularly the associatedcosts of cut and fill operations, for thethree proposed options.

NHS Shared Business Services, a jointventure between the Department of

Health and Steria, has announced afurther eight new contract wins withNHS organisations, totalling 17 newcustomers since April 2009. Thepartnerships will deliver finance andaccounting and payroll shared serviceswith a combined value of more than £12mand extend the payroll service toapproximately 25,000 more NHSemployees.


CONTRACT ROUNDUP


Knowsley Housing Trust has chosen 1stTouch to deliver mobile solutions

integrated with IBS OPENHousing andOPTI-TIME scheduling systems. Itinterfaces in real-time with an Xmbracescheduling system OPTI-TIME and IBSOPENHousing system currently in use.

Lewisham Borough Business Against Crime is using National Business

Information System, web-based datasharing technology from Hicom, enabling itto track and produce detailed reports andanalysis on criminal activity in the area.

Mole Valley District Council hascontracted Becrypt to provide a range

of security solutions, enabling it to meetGCSX CoCo requirements. Currentlyundergoing pilot projects, the councilintends to roll out to all remote homeworkers across the district once complete.

NHS Cheshire and Wirral PartnershipFoundation Trust has asked the ANS

Group to implement an external emailencryption system.

NHS City and Hackney has chosenEgress Switch to protect information

wherever it goes using strong encryptionand identity based access rights withoutintroducing complex procedures for users.

NHS Dudley is installing telehealthsystems from Tunstall to help monitor

people’s health at home. The new service isbeing offered to patients with long-termconditions and allows them to have theirhealth managed remotely by nursing staff.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde HealthBoard has implemented Orion Health’s

electronic health record solution usingConcerto Portal technology. The trust’sScott Hendry said, “People see the benefitin moving away from paper but, to work, aportal needs to be as effective and easy asa paper-based system.”

NHS Hounslow has appointed Capita ITServices its ICT managed services

provider in a three year £3.3m contract.Capita will deliver end-to-end outsourcedICT service to over 1,200 users across NHSHounslow’s commissioning and providerservice arms and general practitioners.

NHS Kensington and Chelsea PCT haschosen Siemens Enterprise

Communications’ single voice and securedata network to provide communications toeight PCT and partner locations.

NHS Oxfordshire has selected INOVEM’sInclusionware software, a secure

online environment accessed using variouslevels of role-based access control, toensure that consultation managers,administrators and stakeholders see onlywhat is appropriate and relevant to them.

NHS South West Essex CommunityServices has deployed 21c’s Microsoft

Business Intelligence solution. Byenhancing the existing Microsoftinfrastructure and leveraging the nationalNHS agreement with Microsoft, it hasimproved the efficiency, cost and accuracyof the trust’s reporting.

NHS West Midlands Ambulance Serviceis using BlockMaster’s USB SafeSticks

from Softek to provide staff with completesecurity through automatic hardwareencryption. It is also using the SafeConsoleweb based management solution tomanage, audit, reset passwords and applycustom policies to all SafeSticks.

Nottingham University Hospital Trust hasdeployed a customised CNodes

reporting solution across 15 specialisttumour departments.

Oxfordshire County Council has askedPirean Compliance:One to securely

manage access to software applicationsfor over 100,000 students and staff and helpit meet critical GCSX and DPA targets whilststreamlining access to digital resources atthe county’s 285 educational facilities.

Plymouth City Council has gone live withsix ITIL disciplines and is introducing

improvements to existing and newprocesses using elements of both ITIL v2and v3 with Hornbill’s Supportworks ITSM.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Councilhas signed up for Liquidlogic’s children’s

system, PROTOCOL ICS, and is currentlymigrating data from existing children’s casemanagement systems to PROTOCOL.

Royal Borough of Kensington andChelsea has bought Hornbill’s

Supportworks ITSM to improve servicedelivery.

South Ayrshire Council towns will be thefirst to benefit from super fast fibre optic

connectivity via a Fibrezone ring being builtby H2O Networks.

South Lanarkshire Council is using Jaduto replace its existing web infras-

tructure and future proof its investment.“Web technology, design, functionality andaccessibility standards have all moved onsignificantly in the last few years and ourcurrent web development products havenot kept pace,” said Andrew Proctor,project manager at South Lanarkshire.

South London Healthcare NHS Trust isdeploying business intelligence tools

from Ardentia - Data Warehouse, PathwayManager and NetSearch - in order tosupport merger activities and help improvetrust performance.

South Oxfordshire District Council hasbeen working with Ocella during the

development phase of the first Connectorfor the Planning Portal e-Consultation Hub.Angie Paterson, cabinet member forplanning, said that the council was lookingforward to reaping the benefits of thee-Consultation Hub. “We are proud to beleading the way as the first fully connectedLPA using the Hub.”

South West Regional Library Service isworking with OCLC to enable seven

public library authorities in the South Westto use WorldCat Local as their shared enduser discovery service in 2010.

Torbay Council has upgraded itsoperations with a high capacity

broadband connection from EclipseInternet. The Eclipse 30Mbps DIA is anupgrade from the council’s old 4Mbps DIA,and can be increased to 100Mbps.

Trafford Housing Trust is to adopt Lagan’sEnterprise Case Management solution

to support its strategic transformationprogramme. Using NDL’s universalintegration platform to access core centralapplications the trust will integrate frontand back office operations, thusstreamlining interaction with customers,contractors and other agencies.

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council hasasked GOSS Interactive to design and

build its new website. Ongoing, the site willbe managed in-house by the council’s webteam using GOSS iCM.

West Sussex County Council has optedfor Atos Healthcare for its Occupa-

tional Health department. The company willprovide a range of on and off-site servicesthat will include pre-employment,management referrals, vaccinations, healthpromotion and the appropriate support forFire and Rescue teams.

South Wales Trunk Road Agency, in abid to keep the traffic moving

smoothly, is using software from MayriseSystems to manage inspections, monitorand coordinate ongoing road works andplan for special events.

Thurrock Thames Gateway DevelopmentCorporation’s CIO, Jason Oliver (right), is

looking forward to using Equiniti ICS’sElectronic Document Record ManagementSystem to deliver greater operationalefficiencies for the corporation and securecompliance with Data Protection and FoIrequirements.


Bluesky MAYRISE

GGP

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Documents

Local Government IT in Use - November/December 2009 issue