Today, along with a number of other Newham colleagues, I was at the funeral of Paul Bull, our Printing & Reprographics Manager who had bravely fought cancer for the last 14 months. Gary Sussex gave a eulogy, mentioning Paul’s vision for the Council’s printing service that has now been realised at Newham Dockside. Paul and his wife Evonne, who worked alongside him at Newham, shared a love of Ballroom and Latin American Dancing, Gary said, as well as of travel. Paul will be sadly missed, and our thoughts are with Evonne.
On a more cheery note, there will be at least a 400% increase in public sector representation at this year’s Byte Night London Sleep-out in aid of Action for Children, as Geoff Connell, Gary Sussex, Shane Mills and John Friend will be joining me in a Team.
Private sector companies’ work on behalf of the public sector will become subject to FOI, Legal experts have warned.
With the publication of this story – IT leaders oppose large-scale outsourcing – I feel I, too, can finally speak openly. I agree with David Tidey and Phil Pavitt, and would go further; I don’t think it’s possible to identify any successful IT outsourcing (when compared to the same operation run by an efficient internal service)! “I’m a serial insourcer”, says Phil; “I run things cheaper than any outsourcer can”. He should know, as he was involved in setting-up ITNet (now part of Serco) when at Cadbury Schweppes!
Well, the sun’s out, and the forecast for the weekend is great. Have a good one.
Friday 29 May 2009
Wednesday 27 May 2009
Onwards & Upwards!
Well, I completed a first draft of updated Newham ICT Strategy, yesterday, but I’m anticipating a lot of feedback requiring more work on detail…
The Socitm Board of Directors met today. Steve skilfully chaired, keeping us to topic and time.
The budget is looking pretty healthy, with Consulting and Insight both performing well. There was a fair amount of discussion about the presentation of financial data (a bugbear of mine is that we don’t have commitment accounting, which would simplify analysis) financial regulations, and “banding” of reserves investment, which are to be resolved online.
Thankfully, now that the finances are looking to have stabilised, we can start to take the brakes off investment in much-needed resources.
Steve Hopson fed-back on member consultation he has undertaken on our behalf (all non-attributable) which reflected a fair amount of negativity about developments. Communications is clearly a continuing problem area, which was born-out by our own monitoring of whether broadcasts are opened or links are followed, which we’re able to monitor from the new CRM. We agreed the need for a properly crafted communications strategy (i.e. crafted by a communications expert – which ruled us out) and, probably, the creation of a Communications Manager post, but will be commissioning some professional work to shape these requirements.
Rose, who couldn’t make today’s meeting, is being asked, as Chair of the Membership Board, to tell us what resources are required to complete the work on professional development and member services. Adrian and Steve Hopson were authorised to agree a proposal for the latter to pick-up work on product development and sales, reporting to the Commercial Board.
Between us, we get a great many invitations to speak or participate in events, supply editorial or be interviewed. We need to co-ordinate these better, and Pam agreed, initially to undertake this role.
Mark Brett’s appointment as Head of Information Assurance was confirmed. We are asking Martin Ferguson (Head of Policy) to the next Board meeting to greet him, and discuss how we can help one another.
Adrian was authorised to conclude negotiations with GBTV and e-Learning to create a pilot “Socitm TV” and social media service.
Revised Socitm Director monitoring roles were agreed, covering Events, Information Assurance, Insight, Green IT, IST, Marketing, Membership, Professionalism, HR, Regions, International, Management, External Relations, Finance, Consulting, Commercial Oversight, Audit, Business Development, Third Sector and Social Responsibility.
Adrian and David Houston are half-way through updating Socitm Strategy.
We need to change our constitution to enable electronic voting at AGMs, which we agreed to do (at the October Conference EGM) and are considering its use, which may, or may not be in conjunction with a 2010 Spring event.
Frances Kettleday, last year’s Graham Williamson Award Winner, attended the Socitm Board to take-up her role as our new Board Advisor. She wrote a Blog of the Microsoft-sponsored Study Tour of Sweden, awarded as her prize, which she said, and obviously, was hugely enjoyable. Didn’t understand references to “Ice Queen”, ‘though!
Frances will write-up her thoughts about our meeting, and post them to our GovX space for discussion. She did, however, re-emphasise her views about the need to support personal development.
The Socitm President’s Blog, I am pleased to say, has now become the “Socitm Blog”. I had always intended for mine to be a team blog, and hope that the new incarnation will be well-supported.
Socitm is also on Twitter!
Finally, here’s another report of a report on how many see investment in IT as the way to weather, and survive beyond, the recession, which I certainly hope the new Newham ICT Strategy will facilitate.
The Socitm Board of Directors met today. Steve skilfully chaired, keeping us to topic and time.
The budget is looking pretty healthy, with Consulting and Insight both performing well. There was a fair amount of discussion about the presentation of financial data (a bugbear of mine is that we don’t have commitment accounting, which would simplify analysis) financial regulations, and “banding” of reserves investment, which are to be resolved online.
Thankfully, now that the finances are looking to have stabilised, we can start to take the brakes off investment in much-needed resources.
Steve Hopson fed-back on member consultation he has undertaken on our behalf (all non-attributable) which reflected a fair amount of negativity about developments. Communications is clearly a continuing problem area, which was born-out by our own monitoring of whether broadcasts are opened or links are followed, which we’re able to monitor from the new CRM. We agreed the need for a properly crafted communications strategy (i.e. crafted by a communications expert – which ruled us out) and, probably, the creation of a Communications Manager post, but will be commissioning some professional work to shape these requirements.
Rose, who couldn’t make today’s meeting, is being asked, as Chair of the Membership Board, to tell us what resources are required to complete the work on professional development and member services. Adrian and Steve Hopson were authorised to agree a proposal for the latter to pick-up work on product development and sales, reporting to the Commercial Board.
Between us, we get a great many invitations to speak or participate in events, supply editorial or be interviewed. We need to co-ordinate these better, and Pam agreed, initially to undertake this role.
Mark Brett’s appointment as Head of Information Assurance was confirmed. We are asking Martin Ferguson (Head of Policy) to the next Board meeting to greet him, and discuss how we can help one another.
Adrian was authorised to conclude negotiations with GBTV and e-Learning to create a pilot “Socitm TV” and social media service.
Revised Socitm Director monitoring roles were agreed, covering Events, Information Assurance, Insight, Green IT, IST, Marketing, Membership, Professionalism, HR, Regions, International, Management, External Relations, Finance, Consulting, Commercial Oversight, Audit, Business Development, Third Sector and Social Responsibility.
Adrian and David Houston are half-way through updating Socitm Strategy.
We need to change our constitution to enable electronic voting at AGMs, which we agreed to do (at the October Conference EGM) and are considering its use, which may, or may not be in conjunction with a 2010 Spring event.
Frances Kettleday, last year’s Graham Williamson Award Winner, attended the Socitm Board to take-up her role as our new Board Advisor. She wrote a Blog of the Microsoft-sponsored Study Tour of Sweden, awarded as her prize, which she said, and obviously, was hugely enjoyable. Didn’t understand references to “Ice Queen”, ‘though!
Frances will write-up her thoughts about our meeting, and post them to our GovX space for discussion. She did, however, re-emphasise her views about the need to support personal development.
The Socitm President’s Blog, I am pleased to say, has now become the “Socitm Blog”. I had always intended for mine to be a team blog, and hope that the new incarnation will be well-supported.
Socitm is also on Twitter!
Finally, here’s another report of a report on how many see investment in IT as the way to weather, and survive beyond, the recession, which I certainly hope the new Newham ICT Strategy will facilitate.
Tuesday 19 May 2009
Please don't put the kibosh on transformation
The Cabinet Office published its annual Transformational Government Progress Report, last week. It has produced this useful poster to highlight examples of progress made in 2008. I do think that last year saw some real progress, but I am by no means convinced that progress is yet sustainable.
Government Connect finally delivered, thanks to very robust programme management, with strong support from Socitm and the LGA, and considerable goodwill from Local Authorities despite proscribed timescales being completely out of kilter with their budgetary planning constraints, and frequent problems of contradictory and inconsistent technical advice.
The Public Sector Network tantalises with the promise of genuinely transformative infrastructure to join-up the whole of the public sector, but I already have concerns about resourcing and whether the opportunity is realisable in the absence of clear vision and demonstrable commitment to provide the level of resourcing that’s required.
Although late, Contact Point is now operational, and good progress is being made with Employee Authentication Services, but had we started with a vision and strategy, I think we could have made things rather easier for ourselves.
Transformational Government strategy must be guided by an over-arching vision of public sector security, enabling role-based access to services across a single public sector infrastructure.
The other key lesson, I think, is – if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well and you must stick with it. I really like the idea of the “Dragon’s Den” approach to seeking innovation and ensuring good ideas are taken-forward. “Monitoring the situation to see that the plan maintains momentum and making sure it’s implemented on the frontline” is vital; the reality, to date, has been that there has been no commitment to nourish and sustain new ideas, and it seems Government bores quickly if radical results aren’t immediately delivered. Hence we have seen ideas like “Tell Us Once” hailed in the Transformational Government Report, and also cited as innovation in the Innovators Council announcement, recycled time and again in different guises.
Although Martin Read is worried whether there is the political will to carry-through the reforms proposed in the Operational Efficiency Programme report, also published last week, I worry that it will, and that will put the Kibosh on sustainable transformation of Government services. There’s a lot of common sense in the report but I do worry about the approach to execution of the recommendations. We can’t afford to be led by hype, assume that one size fits all, top slice budgets or realise all the savings without making the investments, or that will inevitably derail transformational government. The commitment by Socitm to engage with Government, to be “inside the camp” lobbying for effective policy is, I am convinced, the right one.
I was therefore pleased that Martin Ferguson, our new Head of Policy (although he doesn’t start formally until 1st June) led a session to start planning our response to the OEP at Monday’s Socitm Futures meeting held in Siemens offices in the Old Bailey. We split into pairs to discuss ideas, then captured them on a flip-chart back in plenary. I’ll provide a summary within the next few days.
Craig Pollard, of Siemens, presented on the NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency) Identification and Access Management contract won by our hosts. The contract is effectively in two lots – the first providing the central service, and the second the access framework to appropriately connect all other stakeholders. There will be a single route to access any of the 20+ applications, which include the new Police National Database, ensuring that all access is fully audited. It will be possible to search across all the applications and, ultimately, across all local intelligence systems to provide aggregated results.
Colleagues’ main concerns and questions were around the fit with emerging national infrastructure and, of course, PSN. We were advised that it will work with other security infrastructure, but provide an additional authentication overlay to ensure it isn’t possible to bypass the central logging and auditing. We agreed this is something we need to keep an eye on; here, again, clarity is required within an overall Information Assurance vision.
Paul Davidson, from Sedgemoor District Council and LeGSB, presented the approach that Sedgemoor has taken to the development of an Information Asset Register (IAR). Few public sector organisations yet have anything that could reasonably described as an IAR, but it’s a logical requirement stemming from information reuse regulations and the Power of Information Taskforce as well, of course, as good housekeeping and the facilitation of corporate knowledge management – so well done to Sedgemoor for a very constructive and realistic approach.
Richard Quarrell from “Psiphon” attended and, in the afternoon, we discussed how “Psikey”- which is aimed at automating the production of a basic IAR – might work, and could align with the requirements identified by Paul. The planned pilot, by a number of Socitm member organisations, will take place over the next three weeks.
On Tuesday, Glyn Moody and Mark Taylor again visited to further our review of Newham’s ICT infrastructure with a view to proposing how the same can be achieved using non-proprietary technology. This time I’d arranged for Chris Losch to join us as my technical adviser. We spent a couple of hours in quite enjoyable discussion, and I have come to understand some of their points of view – not at all fanatical - but still doubt they’ll be able to convince me of realistic alternatives for Newham.
Government Connect finally delivered, thanks to very robust programme management, with strong support from Socitm and the LGA, and considerable goodwill from Local Authorities despite proscribed timescales being completely out of kilter with their budgetary planning constraints, and frequent problems of contradictory and inconsistent technical advice.
The Public Sector Network tantalises with the promise of genuinely transformative infrastructure to join-up the whole of the public sector, but I already have concerns about resourcing and whether the opportunity is realisable in the absence of clear vision and demonstrable commitment to provide the level of resourcing that’s required.
Although late, Contact Point is now operational, and good progress is being made with Employee Authentication Services, but had we started with a vision and strategy, I think we could have made things rather easier for ourselves.
Transformational Government strategy must be guided by an over-arching vision of public sector security, enabling role-based access to services across a single public sector infrastructure.
The other key lesson, I think, is – if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well and you must stick with it. I really like the idea of the “Dragon’s Den” approach to seeking innovation and ensuring good ideas are taken-forward. “Monitoring the situation to see that the plan maintains momentum and making sure it’s implemented on the frontline” is vital; the reality, to date, has been that there has been no commitment to nourish and sustain new ideas, and it seems Government bores quickly if radical results aren’t immediately delivered. Hence we have seen ideas like “Tell Us Once” hailed in the Transformational Government Report, and also cited as innovation in the Innovators Council announcement, recycled time and again in different guises.
Although Martin Read is worried whether there is the political will to carry-through the reforms proposed in the Operational Efficiency Programme report, also published last week, I worry that it will, and that will put the Kibosh on sustainable transformation of Government services. There’s a lot of common sense in the report but I do worry about the approach to execution of the recommendations. We can’t afford to be led by hype, assume that one size fits all, top slice budgets or realise all the savings without making the investments, or that will inevitably derail transformational government. The commitment by Socitm to engage with Government, to be “inside the camp” lobbying for effective policy is, I am convinced, the right one.
I was therefore pleased that Martin Ferguson, our new Head of Policy (although he doesn’t start formally until 1st June) led a session to start planning our response to the OEP at Monday’s Socitm Futures meeting held in Siemens offices in the Old Bailey. We split into pairs to discuss ideas, then captured them on a flip-chart back in plenary. I’ll provide a summary within the next few days.
Craig Pollard, of Siemens, presented on the NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency) Identification and Access Management contract won by our hosts. The contract is effectively in two lots – the first providing the central service, and the second the access framework to appropriately connect all other stakeholders. There will be a single route to access any of the 20+ applications, which include the new Police National Database, ensuring that all access is fully audited. It will be possible to search across all the applications and, ultimately, across all local intelligence systems to provide aggregated results.
Colleagues’ main concerns and questions were around the fit with emerging national infrastructure and, of course, PSN. We were advised that it will work with other security infrastructure, but provide an additional authentication overlay to ensure it isn’t possible to bypass the central logging and auditing. We agreed this is something we need to keep an eye on; here, again, clarity is required within an overall Information Assurance vision.
Paul Davidson, from Sedgemoor District Council and LeGSB, presented the approach that Sedgemoor has taken to the development of an Information Asset Register (IAR). Few public sector organisations yet have anything that could reasonably described as an IAR, but it’s a logical requirement stemming from information reuse regulations and the Power of Information Taskforce as well, of course, as good housekeeping and the facilitation of corporate knowledge management – so well done to Sedgemoor for a very constructive and realistic approach.
Richard Quarrell from “Psiphon” attended and, in the afternoon, we discussed how “Psikey”- which is aimed at automating the production of a basic IAR – might work, and could align with the requirements identified by Paul. The planned pilot, by a number of Socitm member organisations, will take place over the next three weeks.
On Tuesday, Glyn Moody and Mark Taylor again visited to further our review of Newham’s ICT infrastructure with a view to proposing how the same can be achieved using non-proprietary technology. This time I’d arranged for Chris Losch to join us as my technical adviser. We spent a couple of hours in quite enjoyable discussion, and I have come to understand some of their points of view – not at all fanatical - but still doubt they’ll be able to convince me of realistic alternatives for Newham.
Sunday 17 May 2009
Not "nil points"...
There were several good news tidbits to round-off my week.
On Thursday, I was at an IAEAB meeting (which I’m not allowed to report) and was heartened to find signs that the requirement of pan-Government security vision is starting to be recognised in high places.
It’s great that, finally, Alastair Darling has committed the government to bringing digital broadband communications to most communities in Britain. Coincidentally, further research was published, this week, demonstrating that computer technologies can help people move out of poverty. At the very least, we should ensure that ICT is equally accessible to all our communities, and not just another advantage for the affluent.
Well done to Kent Connects for becoming the first partnership to connect all its sites to Government Connect (especially as they will have had to bring the network monitoring that was undertaken from BT’s 24 hour facility in Sao Paulo back to the UK in order to do so).
When I was at GBTV, a few weeks back, the Executive Producer, Dominic Moran, proposed developing a customised programme for Socitm – Socitm TV. Adrian called me on Friday afternoon to let me know he has followed-up in a very positive meeting with Dominic and, subject to Board approval, we will soon be able to get the project up and running.
On Friday, Chris and I spent a lovely evening with Britta Karin and Gert Olson. Their daughter is Anna Karin Jönbrink, who I I first met in her home country, Sweden, where she presented on Green IT at the Kommits Conference. Anna was accompanied by Britta to New Zealand where she presented at the ALGIM event, Chris and Britta palled-up while Anna and I were working, so when Britta and her husband were planning a break in London, she got in-touch. New we’re looking forward to arranging a visit to their remote holiday cottage!
Well done to Newham’s own Jade Ewen. It was always going to be hard to win-over a Eurovision audience that voted Lordi a winner, but you did a great job, and you’re the champion in my eyes.
On Thursday, I was at an IAEAB meeting (which I’m not allowed to report) and was heartened to find signs that the requirement of pan-Government security vision is starting to be recognised in high places.
It’s great that, finally, Alastair Darling has committed the government to bringing digital broadband communications to most communities in Britain. Coincidentally, further research was published, this week, demonstrating that computer technologies can help people move out of poverty. At the very least, we should ensure that ICT is equally accessible to all our communities, and not just another advantage for the affluent.
Well done to Kent Connects for becoming the first partnership to connect all its sites to Government Connect (especially as they will have had to bring the network monitoring that was undertaken from BT’s 24 hour facility in Sao Paulo back to the UK in order to do so).
When I was at GBTV, a few weeks back, the Executive Producer, Dominic Moran, proposed developing a customised programme for Socitm – Socitm TV. Adrian called me on Friday afternoon to let me know he has followed-up in a very positive meeting with Dominic and, subject to Board approval, we will soon be able to get the project up and running.
On Friday, Chris and I spent a lovely evening with Britta Karin and Gert Olson. Their daughter is Anna Karin Jönbrink, who I I first met in her home country, Sweden, where she presented on Green IT at the Kommits Conference. Anna was accompanied by Britta to New Zealand where she presented at the ALGIM event, Chris and Britta palled-up while Anna and I were working, so when Britta and her husband were planning a break in London, she got in-touch. New we’re looking forward to arranging a visit to their remote holiday cottage!
Well done to Newham’s own Jade Ewen. It was always going to be hard to win-over a Eurovision audience that voted Lordi a winner, but you did a great job, and you’re the champion in my eyes.
Wednesday 13 May 2009
More Engagement, please...
There are often complaints about late distribution of papers for meetings but, I’m sorry, Andrew - 1.00am for a meeting later in the morning takes the biscuit! :-)
The meeting, at Admiralty Arch, was the second meeting of the Public Sector Infrastructure Team (PSIT) Executive Board. I managed not to know I was on this select group, and missed the first meeting! The HMRC’s Andrew Bull chaired, and there were half a dozen colleagues from the NHS, Home Office, Ministry of Justice, OGC, Cabinet Office and myself.
In introducing the meeting, Andrew explained that the PSIT had some success over the last three years and had achieved good cross-government representation, with a network of participants who now knew one another and were able to work together but, over the last year, progress had been slow, with response to data losses and Public Sector Network plans taking most of its time. We need to involve more of our teams and to clarify components, descriptions, definitions, ensuring clear boundaries to facilitate procurement of commodity services that would make-up the evolving PSI..He had circulated draft terms of reference, which were broadly agreed and, I was pleased to see included “engaging in the creation of the vision and development of strategy that PSIT is responsible for”. We discussed this at some length, clarifying that, at the highest level, vision must be about the purpose and required outputs, and the criticality of role-based access though ID management and authentication to enable appropriate access to information held in purpose-built systems, obviating the need for file transfers.
I enlarged upon the Local Authority context – that although Councils are sovereign organisations, and not subject to Central Government decree on how they should organise and operate - through Socitm, we seek to assimilate Government policy and standards in areas such as security and information assurance, if we can substantiate that they represents best practice – but will do so only once. At present, there are different protocols for each department that we deal with.
We also discussed “Turkeys and Christmas” – that our success in driving greater efficiency through common infrastructure and standards would mean reduced requirements for the technical architecture roles that presently exist – but noted that there already are not enough good people to go ‘round, and our tasks include change management and people development – generating the capacity to exploit common infrastructure to support service transformation. That led to consideration of what other representation and skills, such as HR, we should bring onto the Board.
Public Sector Teams to be overseen by the PSIT Executive Board cover:
· Infrastructure
· Application
· Process
· Information
· Channel
· Strategy
· Service Management
· Integration
· Information Assurance
The Board is responsible to the Architecture Review Board (ARB) (see “Enterprise Architecture for UK Government”) and the CTO Council. Terms of reference for the ARB and, generically, for each domain team were also circulated.
The Infrastructure Maturity Model used by the NHS was posited as a basis against which to measure our progress.
Today’s meeting covered a lot of ground, which I won’t attempt to report in detail. There were concerns around resourcing, however – both the adequacy of resourcing key commitments, such as Ocean/ PSN, and of the engagement of public sector colleagues in the work that needs to be done. We discussed how to tackle these issues and regarding the latter, accepted direct responsibility for ensuring the engagement of both our peers and own teams in supporting PSI developments.
I think that our discussion of “G-Cloud” is also worth reporting. I am concerned that we need to develop the understanding and strategy for the development of what will essentially be a shared services infrastructure across the PSN, before colleagues, particularly in Local Government, commit themselves to generic Cloud services that will make it hard to comply with cross-Government architecture requirements. A report has been produced for the CTO Council, but is to be further refined.
Congratulations to Andrew Stott, who has been appointed as the Government’s first Head of Digital Engagement. I was told that his job as Deputy CIO was advertised yesterday, and also that a Government CTO position is being advertised, but couldn’t find them anywhere in the brief time I was prepared to spend searching.
In case you missed it, up to 800 frontline practitioners will start to use ContactPoint from next week.
The meeting, at Admiralty Arch, was the second meeting of the Public Sector Infrastructure Team (PSIT) Executive Board. I managed not to know I was on this select group, and missed the first meeting! The HMRC’s Andrew Bull chaired, and there were half a dozen colleagues from the NHS, Home Office, Ministry of Justice, OGC, Cabinet Office and myself.
In introducing the meeting, Andrew explained that the PSIT had some success over the last three years and had achieved good cross-government representation, with a network of participants who now knew one another and were able to work together but, over the last year, progress had been slow, with response to data losses and Public Sector Network plans taking most of its time. We need to involve more of our teams and to clarify components, descriptions, definitions, ensuring clear boundaries to facilitate procurement of commodity services that would make-up the evolving PSI..He had circulated draft terms of reference, which were broadly agreed and, I was pleased to see included “engaging in the creation of the vision and development of strategy that PSIT is responsible for”. We discussed this at some length, clarifying that, at the highest level, vision must be about the purpose and required outputs, and the criticality of role-based access though ID management and authentication to enable appropriate access to information held in purpose-built systems, obviating the need for file transfers.
I enlarged upon the Local Authority context – that although Councils are sovereign organisations, and not subject to Central Government decree on how they should organise and operate - through Socitm, we seek to assimilate Government policy and standards in areas such as security and information assurance, if we can substantiate that they represents best practice – but will do so only once. At present, there are different protocols for each department that we deal with.
We also discussed “Turkeys and Christmas” – that our success in driving greater efficiency through common infrastructure and standards would mean reduced requirements for the technical architecture roles that presently exist – but noted that there already are not enough good people to go ‘round, and our tasks include change management and people development – generating the capacity to exploit common infrastructure to support service transformation. That led to consideration of what other representation and skills, such as HR, we should bring onto the Board.
Public Sector Teams to be overseen by the PSIT Executive Board cover:
· Infrastructure
· Application
· Process
· Information
· Channel
· Strategy
· Service Management
· Integration
· Information Assurance
The Board is responsible to the Architecture Review Board (ARB) (see “Enterprise Architecture for UK Government”) and the CTO Council. Terms of reference for the ARB and, generically, for each domain team were also circulated.
The Infrastructure Maturity Model used by the NHS was posited as a basis against which to measure our progress.
Today’s meeting covered a lot of ground, which I won’t attempt to report in detail. There were concerns around resourcing, however – both the adequacy of resourcing key commitments, such as Ocean/ PSN, and of the engagement of public sector colleagues in the work that needs to be done. We discussed how to tackle these issues and regarding the latter, accepted direct responsibility for ensuring the engagement of both our peers and own teams in supporting PSI developments.
I think that our discussion of “G-Cloud” is also worth reporting. I am concerned that we need to develop the understanding and strategy for the development of what will essentially be a shared services infrastructure across the PSN, before colleagues, particularly in Local Government, commit themselves to generic Cloud services that will make it hard to comply with cross-Government architecture requirements. A report has been produced for the CTO Council, but is to be further refined.
Congratulations to Andrew Stott, who has been appointed as the Government’s first Head of Digital Engagement. I was told that his job as Deputy CIO was advertised yesterday, and also that a Government CTO position is being advertised, but couldn’t find them anywhere in the brief time I was prepared to spend searching.
In case you missed it, up to 800 frontline practitioners will start to use ContactPoint from next week.
Tuesday 12 May 2009
Showing-off Newham Dockside
On Monday I attended an Equality Impact Assessment Training course, in the City, with other colleagues from across Newham and Waltham Forest Councils. The main case study was on the EQIA conducted for Newham’s proposed Queens Market redevelopment.
This morning I hosted a party of visitors from Brent Council, which is planning its own development of new corporate accommodation, to Newham Dockside. It’s nice to be able to show-off such a nice working environment, and I felt rather proud of the ICT infrastructure, which was favourably commented upon by everyone we met on our tour. I’m learning a lot myself, too; especially from the questions I couldn’t answer, but concerning which promised to check upon and to respond by e-mail with the requested information!
Recession brings-out innovative CIOs, analysts claim. I certainly hope so, as I’m working on our updated strategy!
In a similar vein, I was also interested in this report of a report from Intellect, which I think is a positive move and certainly reflects some of the thinking I’ve heard from suppliers when I’ve been at Intellect for meetings.
This morning I hosted a party of visitors from Brent Council, which is planning its own development of new corporate accommodation, to Newham Dockside. It’s nice to be able to show-off such a nice working environment, and I felt rather proud of the ICT infrastructure, which was favourably commented upon by everyone we met on our tour. I’m learning a lot myself, too; especially from the questions I couldn’t answer, but concerning which promised to check upon and to respond by e-mail with the requested information!
Recession brings-out innovative CIOs, analysts claim. I certainly hope so, as I’m working on our updated strategy!
In a similar vein, I was also interested in this report of a report from Intellect, which I think is a positive move and certainly reflects some of the thinking I’ve heard from suppliers when I’ve been at Intellect for meetings.
Saturday 9 May 2009
ICS to be fixed!
On Thursday, I took a day's holiday to attend Linda Griffith's funeral. It was "standing room only" at the moving service for this lovely lady who will be sadly missed by many, many people.
Newham colleagues who saw me in the office this week may be reassured to know that this wasn't a figment of your imagination! I'm now officially back with the Council, but taking a little time to get up-to-speed with developments, handover Socitm commitments, and use the luxury of some time to review strategy before I get back into the thick of things.
Problems with ICS to be fixed. Well - that's alright, then! But, really, this looks like very encouraging news.
George. Thanks for your comment. There is comprehensive information about the Microsoft Agreement at http://online.ogcbuyingsolutions.gov.uk/mou/softwarelicence/microsoft You need to be registered to access the commercially restricted information, but I believe that anyone with a valid public sector address can register.
The site includes a statement about maintaining competitive pricing There is a cost calculator to enable you to model your own package, and FAQs, which will, no doubt be updated with any, as yet, unasked questions. Among the questions is "Can I still buy packages in the old format? i.e. MS Desktop Pro." (Yes you can. However, we would encourage you to look at who you are purchasing products for and see if there is a more economic way of selecting your software.)
Newham colleagues who saw me in the office this week may be reassured to know that this wasn't a figment of your imagination! I'm now officially back with the Council, but taking a little time to get up-to-speed with developments, handover Socitm commitments, and use the luxury of some time to review strategy before I get back into the thick of things.
Problems with ICS to be fixed. Well - that's alright, then! But, really, this looks like very encouraging news.
George. Thanks for your comment. There is comprehensive information about the Microsoft Agreement at http://online.ogcbuyingsolutions.gov.uk/mou/softwarelicence/microsoft You need to be registered to access the commercially restricted information, but I believe that anyone with a valid public sector address can register.
The site includes a statement about maintaining competitive pricing There is a cost calculator to enable you to model your own package, and FAQs, which will, no doubt be updated with any, as yet, unasked questions. Among the questions is "Can I still buy packages in the old format? i.e. MS Desktop Pro." (Yes you can. However, we would encourage you to look at who you are purchasing products for and see if there is a more economic way of selecting your software.)
Wednesday 6 May 2009
A New Deal for the Public Sector
Hurrah! This afternoon, Andrew Gibson 'phoned, as he promised he would, to let me know that the new Public Sector Licensing Agreement with Microsoft had just been signed. I won't go into the details that I've been itching to report, here, as they will have been reported on the Buying Solutions, and other, websites, by tomorrow, when you read this, but I do want to make the point that I think this marks a step-change in collaborative UK public sector IT procurement.
The agreement incorporates a number of "firsts", including licence transferability within the wider public sector (i.e. including most of the voluntary sector) and more granular licensing. For the duration of the contract, if anyone gets a better price, we all get a better price.
Congratulations to the Buying Solutions Team - and also to Microsoft, which has now set the benchmark for future public sector deals with major software suppliers to Government. This is the first of these new deals, but negotiations with another major supplier have already started.
Yesterday, together with John Jackson, Camden’s Head of Corporate IT, I met Moira Gibb, the Camden CE who chairs the Social Care Task Force set-up by the Government post “Baby P”. The Task Force was set-up to look at the barriers faced by Social Workers that prevent them from doing their jobs properly. A review of IT systems, which Lord Laming said in his report hamper the progress of the Integrated Children’s System project, was prioritised, and it’s in that connection that John and I were consulted.
I think there’s little doubt that IT systems for Social Care are complicated – both to use and to maintain. As each new piece of Government legislation comes along, new facilities are bolted-on to comply with the new requirements. The systems, which are now far removed from what they started-out as, would ideally have been redeveloped from scratch, but issues such as time pressure, maintaining continuity of service and cost invariably mean suppliers (the few of them that specialise in this complicated market) try to adapt.
It seems that the complication is added to by the fact that, whereas Social Workers mainly work with family groups, the “Every Child Matters” agenda requires child-centred record keeping, and trying to fulfil both objectives entails extra documentation and duplication, and the feeling that too much time is spent filling forms, and too little looking after children.
My Hobby Horse – the need for a single pan-Government security infrastructure - is also relevant, particularly when dealing with disabilities or special needs requiring extensive multi-agency working. Here the DCSF development of EAS, linked to Government Connect is helpful but, again, if you wanted to start-out on the development of well-integrated, secure, effective and easy to use systems you wouldn’t start here – you’d start with a single comprehensive enabling infrastructure.
My own experience has been that Heads of IT have been slow to engage in understanding and meeting the requirements of ICS and CAF (the Common Assessment Framework). Social Services has been one of those services that tended to rely on in-business ICT support, rather than the corporate service, and this inevitably encouraged silo working. It’s an example of how CIO’s and Heads of Corporate ICT needed to pop their heads above the parapet to advise executive colleagues of the cross-cutting and integration issues based on their helicopter view of Authority’s services.
Lord Laming called for a feasibility study into a single national integrated Children’s System. Newham’s own Kim Bromley-Derry, President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said such a move would backfire. "It is right that professionals should have quality recording systems and share information effectively. The integrated children's systems are not delivering for us. Some are working better than others. They are a barrier rather than an enabler to effective work - but experience of national IT systems is not good. The several years we would need for a national roll-out would repeat the teething problems of ICS locally but on a national scale."
I’m afraid I agree. We need a period of consolidation, to refine and effectively implement current initiatives, whilst working on a properly thought through strategy that enables tactical development, where appropriate, informed by an agreed vision, rather than knee-jerk tactics in the absence of a guiding strategy. The starting point is a comprehensive enabling infrastructure.
Plans for stress-testing Newham ICT Remote Access Portal, which can support 1,000 concurrent users and unlimited Outlook Web Access, ensuring that we are well-prepared for the impact on working arrangements of any 'flu' pandemic are well-advanced.
Julie Holden sent me the group photo taken at the IRRV function she hosted at Claridges on Red Nose Day, so I thought I'd post it here. Where's the waiter's red nose; that's what I want to know!
The agreement incorporates a number of "firsts", including licence transferability within the wider public sector (i.e. including most of the voluntary sector) and more granular licensing. For the duration of the contract, if anyone gets a better price, we all get a better price.
Congratulations to the Buying Solutions Team - and also to Microsoft, which has now set the benchmark for future public sector deals with major software suppliers to Government. This is the first of these new deals, but negotiations with another major supplier have already started.
Yesterday, together with John Jackson, Camden’s Head of Corporate IT, I met Moira Gibb, the Camden CE who chairs the Social Care Task Force set-up by the Government post “Baby P”. The Task Force was set-up to look at the barriers faced by Social Workers that prevent them from doing their jobs properly. A review of IT systems, which Lord Laming said in his report hamper the progress of the Integrated Children’s System project, was prioritised, and it’s in that connection that John and I were consulted.
I think there’s little doubt that IT systems for Social Care are complicated – both to use and to maintain. As each new piece of Government legislation comes along, new facilities are bolted-on to comply with the new requirements. The systems, which are now far removed from what they started-out as, would ideally have been redeveloped from scratch, but issues such as time pressure, maintaining continuity of service and cost invariably mean suppliers (the few of them that specialise in this complicated market) try to adapt.
It seems that the complication is added to by the fact that, whereas Social Workers mainly work with family groups, the “Every Child Matters” agenda requires child-centred record keeping, and trying to fulfil both objectives entails extra documentation and duplication, and the feeling that too much time is spent filling forms, and too little looking after children.
My Hobby Horse – the need for a single pan-Government security infrastructure - is also relevant, particularly when dealing with disabilities or special needs requiring extensive multi-agency working. Here the DCSF development of EAS, linked to Government Connect is helpful but, again, if you wanted to start-out on the development of well-integrated, secure, effective and easy to use systems you wouldn’t start here – you’d start with a single comprehensive enabling infrastructure.
My own experience has been that Heads of IT have been slow to engage in understanding and meeting the requirements of ICS and CAF (the Common Assessment Framework). Social Services has been one of those services that tended to rely on in-business ICT support, rather than the corporate service, and this inevitably encouraged silo working. It’s an example of how CIO’s and Heads of Corporate ICT needed to pop their heads above the parapet to advise executive colleagues of the cross-cutting and integration issues based on their helicopter view of Authority’s services.
Lord Laming called for a feasibility study into a single national integrated Children’s System. Newham’s own Kim Bromley-Derry, President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said such a move would backfire. "It is right that professionals should have quality recording systems and share information effectively. The integrated children's systems are not delivering for us. Some are working better than others. They are a barrier rather than an enabler to effective work - but experience of national IT systems is not good. The several years we would need for a national roll-out would repeat the teething problems of ICS locally but on a national scale."
I’m afraid I agree. We need a period of consolidation, to refine and effectively implement current initiatives, whilst working on a properly thought through strategy that enables tactical development, where appropriate, informed by an agreed vision, rather than knee-jerk tactics in the absence of a guiding strategy. The starting point is a comprehensive enabling infrastructure.
Plans for stress-testing Newham ICT Remote Access Portal, which can support 1,000 concurrent users and unlimited Outlook Web Access, ensuring that we are well-prepared for the impact on working arrangements of any 'flu' pandemic are well-advanced.
Julie Holden sent me the group photo taken at the IRRV function she hosted at Claridges on Red Nose Day, so I thought I'd post it here. Where's the waiter's red nose; that's what I want to know!
Saturday 2 May 2009
My Generation
On Thursday evening I attended a BCS “Thought Leadership Dinner Debate”, on "IT Futures: the death of the IT Profession, as we know it?" - at the Royal Society, in Carlton Terrace. I argued “yes”; IT is a one generation thing that starts and ends with my own generation. How conceited is that?! IT is an artificial construct mixing a science and an art – engineering and information management – it’s really two professions. We talked about the tremendous rate of change, and made analogies with other professions, such as farming and medicine, which have all been driven by technology – but we don’t have a Faming Technology profession? In my sector – government – the emphasis is on information, but in manufacturing, say, it’s on engineering.
Not everyone agreed with me but, if they had, I may have argued something else!
Friday was a catch-up day, working at home.
Janet de Rochfort brought my attention to a piece of work being undertaken by the “Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology” on Technology for the Olympics, of which I was unaware. Many thanks, Janet. I’ve got in-touch with the Leading Adviser, and we’re arranging to meet.
I finished at 4.30, planted a tree that was delivered in the week, cut the grass, and had a beer in the evening sunshine; a nice way to start the holiday weekend.
Not everyone agreed with me but, if they had, I may have argued something else!
Friday was a catch-up day, working at home.
Janet de Rochfort brought my attention to a piece of work being undertaken by the “Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology” on Technology for the Olympics, of which I was unaware. Many thanks, Janet. I’ve got in-touch with the Leading Adviser, and we’re arranging to meet.
I finished at 4.30, planted a tree that was delivered in the week, cut the grass, and had a beer in the evening sunshine; a nice way to start the holiday weekend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
