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PublicTechnology.net

Title: PublicTechnology.net
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Category: English Blogs

All the news that fits

03-Feb-12

PublicTechnology.net [ 3-Feb-12 2:50pm ] [ T ]

It's official: Universal Credit will be digital by default [ 03-Feb-12 2:34pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Claimants of the upcoming Universal Credit benefits system will be expected to conduct transactions online - as it will be the first major government service to be ‘digital by default’.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed that the project involves introducing “a new operating model” that will start to phase out its existing telephon

Cloud set to revolutionise public procurement - EU [ 03-Feb-12 1:06pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

“Cloud buyers, including the public sector, will buy more with less and become more efficient.”

That was the not entirely original, but still bold, ambition laid out by Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission, in a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.

“We have already made a start on the regulatory side - the Commission has proposed new rules for data protection in the twenty-first century, including for data in the Cloud,” she also told del

Security fears persist, but Cloud still surging ahead: KPMG [ 03-Feb-12 12:21pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

More than half of UK businesses are concerned about the safety of their data in the Cloud – but that doesn’t seem to be holding back adoption of the approach.

That’s the conclusion of a major survey by consultancy KPMG, which claims 23% of CIOs contacted are already using the Cloud - and a further 53% planning to do so within the next 12 months.

In the publ

MPs say digital by default has to be about 'safe' as much as 'cheap' [ 03-Feb-12 10:14am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A cross party group of MPs is urging the government to do more to help the public understand how to stay safe online.

MPs on the Science and Technology Select Committee say better public information about computer safety could save huge numbers of people the hassle of having their personal details stolen.

Its latest report into malware and cybercrime,

Government needs to dial down the austerity - NIESR [ 03-Feb-12 9:47am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

The UK economy will enter recession in the first half of the year as consumers continue to cut back, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research has today warned.

In response, the government should brake the speed of its austerity measures, the influential think tank believes.

"We forecast a return to technical recession in the first half of this year, as households continue to retrench, credit conditions remain tight, and businesses are

02-Feb-12

Isle of Man's G-Cloud work starting to bear real fruit [ 02-Feb-12 3:12pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

The Isle of Man has slashed more than half a million pounds off its annual operating costs after rolling out a Cloud-based technology infrastructure for more efficient and reliable delivery of public services.

Since it went live at the end of last year, the Isle of Man government has shaved £250,000 in operating costs and a further saving of £290,000 through streamlined administration and automation, it has just announced.

Whitehall yet to figure out how to deliver ordered savings [ 02-Feb-12 12:41pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Axing major IT projects contributed to a 35% reduction in IT capital spend across government Departments down to £3.6bn, according to the first independent analysis of cost cutting across Whitehall since the Coalition's austerity programme started nearly two years ago.

Central government departments reduced their total IT spending by around 10%, equating to almost £800m last year, according to a National Audit Office report published today.

Ofcom: 50% UK now getting 10 Megabits per second Internet [ 02-Feb-12 11:53am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

UK home broadband speeds have increased 22% in the last 12 months, according to the latest audit of national connectivity from Ofcom - and it says not enough broadband consumers know they could upgrade to faster networks for little or no extra cost if they switched package or provider.

The comms watchdog's study found that, for the first time, more than half of UK residential broadband connections now have an advertised spe

01-Feb-12

Why are we struggling to deliver real transparency? [ 01-Feb-12 1:31pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Concerns have been voiced over the ability of public sector IT to support more transparency, following a Cabinet Office-led consultation process.

Last year the Office asked for feedback on issues including how best to gather and make use of data held by the public sector, how to encourage the private sector to make use of it and how to bolster individuals' rights to access their own data held by public sector, a process known as an 'enhanced right to data'.

The Open

Single government domain one step nearer [ 01-Feb-12 1:24pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Government plans to overhaul public sector websites took a step forward today after it launched the first public beta test version of its proposed single Gov.uk portal.

Spearheaded by the UK’s Digital Champion, Martha Lane-Fox, the Gov.uk project could save the government £50m a year by making it easier for the public to access government services online and simplifying how the government publishes content on the web.

Whitehall underspent by �3bn last year - IFS [ 01-Feb-12 1:02pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Britain’s economy is heading for slower growth than official forecasts, leaving no room for any giveaways in the Budget, economists have warned.

The latest annual Green Budget produced by influential think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies in collaboration with Oxford Economics, says that the likely disappointing news on the economy in coming weeks would be offset by lower-than-planned public spending.

Facebook's hour of financial glory dawns [ 01-Feb-12 12:57pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Facebook is expected to file an IPO today that could both value the social networking phenomenon at up to $100bn and make it the biggest technology flotation in history.

The world's biggest social networking site is expected to raise about $10bn through the flotation, with the floatation likely to earn Mark Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook from his room at Harvard University in 2004, a paper profit of several billion dollars.

However, the IPO will also

Pubsec ICT job gloom far from abating [ 01-Feb-12 12:52pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

The number of public sector ICT vacancies continued to fall at the end of 2011 - amid a ramping up of demand across private sector roles.

A 16% decrease in public sector technology roles up for grabs in the last quarter of 2011 marked the ninth consecutive quarter of decline across the sector, according to data from specialist IT recruitment website CWJobs.co.uk and JobAdsWatch.

In a year when mobile apps took off in earnest, developers dominated the recruitment space, making up 41% of all IT jobs advertised by the final quarte

How to be a 'ninja' influencer in your organisation [ 01-Feb-12 12:35pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Kate Hanaghan, research Manager of analyst firm K2 Advisory, offers some suggestions on how public sector CIOs can win more friends and influence more stakeholders

Following the recent appointment of Andy Nelson to the position as (part-time) Government CIO, I was reminded of a recent debate I had with a group of CIOs where we spoke about the

31-Jan-12

Vendor survey suggests pubsec better at mobile than private [ 31-Jan-12 3:24pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Public sector management and workforces are working more flexibly than the private sector - both in terms of setting work policies and the communications tools they use, according to research sponsored by a vendor.

The report suggests strongly that public sector is already establishing a “top-to-bottom” culture of versatile working and improving and maintaining services, more effectively than many private companies, to cope with economic austerity but also to deal with events, like the Olympics, that could disrupt the UK workplace.

HMRC tax offices closed today by PCS industrial action [ 31-Jan-12 3:11pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

In something of a reprieve for those of us struggling to file our income tax self assessments online, HMRC offices are closed today by strikes over claimed “privatisation” of call centre work.

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) across the UK dislikes plans to trial the use of private firms at two centres and so is picketing tax offices today.

In response, the taxman says it won’t issue the usual £100 penalty fines to anyone missing Tuesday's deadline for self-assessment returns.

Global cybersecurity report identifies serious gaps [ 31-Jan-12 2:41pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Security vendor McAfee and a think tank called the Security and Defence Agenda (SDA) today revealed the findings from a new global study Cyber-security: The Vexed Question of Global Rules that claims to present a global snapshot of current thinking about the cyber-threat and the measures that should be taken to defend against them, and assesses the way ahead.

The SDA, a defense and security group based in Brussels,

New app launched by Orange to help community care staff [ 31-Jan-12 2:31pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A new app has been released that’s claimed to enable NHS community care professionals to remotely manage patient visiting schedules and information while on the move.

The app, Care in Motion, is claimed to allow community based healthcare professionals spend more time with more patients, cut the need to visit offices and transfer hand-written notes to records and which could release more than one hour per day per person which could be spent providing care to patients in their homes.

Through a secure mobile application,

More questions raised over public sector pension changes [ 31-Jan-12 2:16pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

More claims today that the government’s claims for a need to reform public sector pensions may have a questionable basis, in line with independent pension analyst comments last month.

This time it’s the Institute for Fiscal Studies, whose study, part of its annual ‘Green Budget’ due tomorrow, claims the reforms are unlikely to save mon

Best Practice: Palmer's College, Essex [ 31-Jan-12 9:45am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Would you choose to work direct with a US-based company that had no local representation? Five years ago, probably not – too risky. But for Dan Byne, IT Manager at Palmers College in Essex, that potential risk was outweighed by what he thought he could gain from such a relationship – and in the end, did.

Byne says he came across his new supplier after looking at the market in the UK, including talking to market leaders – none of whom could meet his budget requirements.

30-Jan-12

The ICT Professional: Scott Haddow, Trustmarque [ 30-Jan-12 6:37pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Infrastructure and software solutions Value Added Reseller Trustmarque says its positive full year results last week show how its core message around efficiency and cost savings are hitting home with public sector customers.

“The only conversations we are having with CIOs in the sector is about increasing efficiency and removing cost,” its chief executive Scott Haddow told PublicTechnology.net last week.

“And we are having lots of good conversations.”

Showing off?

Atos wins �74m DoH contract [ 30-Jan-12 6:13pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Atos, an international IT services company, today announced that it has been awarded a five year contract worth £74m by the Department of Health to deliver an integrated IT desktop service.

The deal will also encompass a range of supporting services within the Department and for some of its Arms Length Bodies.

A spokesperson for the DoH told the Guardian today that, “The procurement was conducted against the ASCC framework, using an in-house team and has delivered a flexible contract that will result in savings of aroun

Case management software hits the ground running at Royal Liverpool [ 30-Jan-12 6:05pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A case management system installed just two months ago at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust is already reducing the length of hospital stays and improving communication with patients and relatives.

Implementation of the clinical utilisation management system from a firm called Medworxx, believed by the Trust to be the first case management system in the UK, has already resulted in a reduction in patients who are ready to be discharged but have been delayed, for example.

Best Practice: Cancer Research UK [ 30-Jan-12 3:00pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Cancer Research UK has just invested in Cloud-based applications it says will boost participation and fundraising in its important Relay For Life event.

The charity has unveiled a new website for that initiative designed in collaboration with supplier Convio and built using its TeamRaiser platform as it looks to increase participation and fundraising in its annual fundraising event.

&nbs

ICO not convinced by EU data privacy tightening proposals [ 30-Jan-12 10:34am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Proposals to rewrite EU data protection law will increase users' control of their data and cut costs for businesses, EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding has said.

The Commission is claiming the new law would mean increased responsibility and accountability for those processing personal data.

It also stipulates that companies and organisations are obliged to notify their national supervisory authority of serious data breaches as soon as possible - within 24 hours where feasible.

The proposed cha

Half a billion quid Cloud investment announced by Whitehall [ 30-Jan-12 10:20am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A £500m Cloud services contract has been awarded by government to more than 30 suppliers who have been named on the pan-government framework agreement for hardware and software.

The two year framework, which has a one-year extension option, is for Cloud services, software applications and programming and computer hardware.

The hosting, ongoing operation and support of such services will be expected as part of the deal, according to a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Scotland declares ambition to deliver "world class" broadband by 2020 [ 30-Jan-12 10:04am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Holyrood is poised to embark upon a digital revolution to transform the delivery of public services, respond to the challenges of a low carbon economy and boost broadband access across Scotland tomorrow.

Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment Alex Neil will launch the Scottish government's Digital Future: Infrastructure Action Plan on Tuesday, which sets out the steps to improve speeds for Internet access and downloads north of the border - including the most rural locations.

The plan wi

27-Jan-12

Police in ambitious shared services tie-up [ 27-Jan-12 3:27pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A major shared services deal offering police forces a range of services including CCTVC and command and control could be worth up to £3.5bn.

West Midlands Police is leading a partnership with Surrey for the seven year contract major shared services deal - but according to a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, the contract will be open to other Police authorities in England and Wales.

�200m electronic document storage framework announced [ 27-Jan-12 3:20pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Whitehall is looking for suppliers for electronic document storage in a deal that could be worth up to £200m to successful bidders.

The Government Procurement Service (GPS) this week published a tender for a pan-government framework for electronic document storage software and electronic scanning and tracking services.

The service has established the four year framework, worth between £102m and £200m, on behalf of a range of authorities

Civil servants told to stay at home to help ease Olympics load [ 27-Jan-12 3:12pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Staff across Whitehall may be forced to telecommute during the Olympics and Paralympics to ease the pressure on London’s public transport network.

Civil servants will be ordered not to commute to work for up to seven weeks to prevent the public transport network in the Capital from becoming over-congested.

MPs blast government ICT strategy [Update] [ 26-Jan-12 1:43pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

The government has come under fire for wasting an “obscene amount of public money” because a lack of accurate information about government IT made it impossible to identify potential overcharging.

Mobile outlay by Police failing to achieve benefits - NAO [ 27-Jan-12 12:00am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Police nvestment in mobile technology have failed to offer value for money and have done little to enhance operational processes, a scathing report from the National Audit Office [www.nao.org.uk] has said.

26-Jan-12

Local government urged to move to more impactful website approach [ 26-Jan-12 2:48pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Councils are being encouraged to produce simpler, more focused websites to up their ratings in an annual ranking of all local government websites.

G-Cloud App Store set for mid-Feb launch? [ 26-Jan-12 2:38pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

The Government Cloud App Store may launch a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, in mid-February, not the March deadline originally laid down in last October's Strategic Implementation Plan.

That at least is the impression the man in charge of the 'Catalogue Network' - to give the Store its official Whitehall name - gave delegates to this week's Cloud Expo Europe in London Olympia.

MPs blast government ICT strategy [ 26-Jan-12 1:43pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

From Open Data To Linked Data [ 25-Jan-12 8:38am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Anwen Robinson, Managing Director of this Agenda sponsor UNIT4 Business Software Ltd, maps out the route from 'Open' to what could be really powerful - 'Linked' Data...

We live in a connected society, where devices and data are being pulled together to profoundly change business, our personal lives, society and even nations.

25-Jan-12

Wealden upgrades its customer contact channels [ 25-Jan-12 12:27pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Wealden District Council has centralised its customer service function into a single Contact Centre using Microsoft Dynamics CRM after admitting that its previous system had resulted in a ‘silo’ approach to customer service.

Microsoft reseller Optevia was used to implement the new system using its Local Government Essentials tool, which provides generic functionality (including streamlined navigation, an enhanced customer entity, GIS integration, LLPG lookup) and specific business processes

UK Councils Set Benchmark for Public Sector Shared Services in the Cloud [ 25-Jan-12 11:39am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Stockton & Darlington Borough Councils announce major milestone completed with 10 Academy schools live in less than six months

Schools and councils see potential for cost savings and operational efficiency

Underpinned by UNIT4’s flexible Shared Journey cloud shared services platform

UNIT4, the world’s leading provider of business software for Businesses Living IN Change (BLINC™), today announced the shared services joint venture between Stockton & Darlington

LAS threatens to dump Northrop Grumman [ 25-Jan-12 11:36am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

London Ambulance Service NHS Trust could abandon its contract with American supplier Northrop Grumman if a second attempt to go-live with a new dispatch system scheduled for March fails.

Implementation of the CommandPoint computer aided dispatch system was due to go live in early June last year.

Windsor & Maidenhead looking for �2m business out of document management [ 25-Jan-12 11:31am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead is looking to turn document management into a £2m revenue generating exercise over the next five years - and is confident of a 100% return on investment within 18 months by opening up services to external customers.

The implementation is part of a council-wide business transformation project designed to reduce outsourcing, centralise printing but also secure new external revenue across the organisation. The Borough has installed a Xerox iGen digit

Mobile Internet access promised for Tube stations for the Olympics [ 25-Jan-12 11:27am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A supplier for Wi-Fi across the London Underground network will be announced this spring, promises Transport for London.

TfL says the Wi-Fi implementation across 120 underground stations will be completed in time for the 2012 Olympics.

The announcement of the chosen bidder had originally been scheduled for the end of 2011, but is now expected in early spring.

Gareth Powell, director of strategy and service development, said: "London U

Government advertising for new DWP CIO and Deputy Government CIO posts [ 25-Jan-12 11:10am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Whitehall has begun the search to fill two senior IT posts as a new Government CIO prepares to step into the role.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has published an advertisement for a new chief informati

Turning Data into gold [ 25-Jan-12 9:21am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Open Data’s biggest UK fan?

From Linked Data To Open Data [ 25-Jan-12 8:38am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Anwen Robinson, Managing Director of this Agenda sponsor UNIT4 Business Software Ltd, maps out the route from 'linked' to truly 'Open' Data

We live in a connected society, where devices and data are being pulled together to profoundly change business, our personal lives, society and even nations.

The accessible face of Open Data [ 24-Jan-12 11:27am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

If anyone is the public 'face' of UK Open Data, Professor Nigel Shadbolt of Southampton University fits the bill. The artificial intelligence expert and former president of the British Computer Society is at the forefront of efforts to open up public sector data, it seems.

His interest is not just in publishing large amounts of information but also in how best to exploit it.

Publish and be praised: Open Data in Windsor & Maidenhead [ 24-Jan-12 11:17am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

As befits a local authority that is home to some of the leading IT companies in the UK, the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead is ahead of the game when it comes to technology.

The council was the first local authority in the UK to publish data, for instance.

Will the Open Data Institute create a new UK industrial sector? [ 24-Jan-12 10:57am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

It is not often that public sector ICT is branded a crucible of innovation. But that is how World Wide Web inventor Time Berners-Lee and Nigel Shadbolt, the UK’s front men for Open Data, describe the release of millions of Terabytes of state info into the public domain.

To make that vision a reality, the government has invested real money to try and make it happen.

Open Data: a mine of information? [ 24-Jan-12 10:46am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Veteran ICT journalist and editor John Lamb reflects on the promise of Open Data

What about this for a notion.

Open data - not always an 'open' question [ 24-Jan-12 10:37am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

For Jon Collins of independent advisory group Inter Orbis, open data is very far from being an ‘open’ or ‘shut’ case…

Who wouldn't want data to be open? In IT circles, the usual opposite of 'open' is 'closed'.

24-Jan-12

Work Programme's IT wasn't ready before launch - NAO [ 24-Jan-12 1:30pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

The National Audit Office has expressed concern over some of the risk management and ICT aspects of the government’s new Work Programme.

For a start, the IT project to support the Programme was “not fully functional when the Programme was launched,” it alleges - a consequence of which is that the Department for Work and Pensions won&rsq

23-Jan-12

Local government ICT leaders must lead rural broadband charge - Socitm [ 23-Jan-12 3:45pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Socitm, the association for ICT professionals in local public services, is urging local CIOs and Heads of ICT to take a leading role in council initiatives to bring broadband to the UK’s ‘not-spots.’

ICT leading the way in putting user first - Cabinet Office [ 23-Jan-12 3:28pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

ICT profesionals in the public sector are “leading the way” when it comes to putting the user first in everything the public sector is doing, according to Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude.

Maude made the observations as part of his keynote speech at last week’s very successful UK Public Sector Digital Awards 2011, an event he said celebrated “work done to ensure our public sector delivers world class public services”.

Pictures of the UK Public Sector Digital Awards 2011 now up! [ 23-Jan-12 2:47pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A glittering night all round: please check out our special Flickr microsite for pix from last Thursday’s first UK Public Sector Digital Awards:

Is your team there? Go and check!

New Government Chief Information Officer announced [ 23-Jan-12 12:44pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Andy Nelson is to take the reins as Government CIO on the imminent retirement of incumbent Joe Harley, the Cabinet Office has just announced.

The government has repeated what it did with its current head of ICT; appoint a civil servant already in post at a major Department but get them to do it alongside that job.

UK Public Sector Digital Awards 2011 - The Winners [Update] [ 19-Jan-12 10:45pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

As promised last week, here are more details of the winners of the 2011 UK Public Sector Digital Awards.

read more

EPR key to improvement planned at Princess Alexandra [ 23-Jan-12 11:33am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Investment in a £10m electronic patient record system is key to the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s goal to become one of the best local hospitals in England, its IT director has said.

The trust has gone out to tender for the electronic patient record system, which it hopes to have in place by March 2014.

HP and DWP ink major desktop outsourcing deal [ 23-Jan-12 11:25am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

The Department for Work and Pensions has awarded a five year £316m desktop management deal to its incumbent supplier - HP.

The five-year 'Desktop 21' deal covers a range of desktop services including security, print, service desk and device provision and support, and will see the DWP move to HP's WorkPlace360 desktop management platform from 2013.

The ICT services giant will begin work immediately to put in place the infrastructure needed to support Desktop 21, before m

Advanced Business Solutions wins �17m NI outsourcing contract [ 23-Jan-12 11:18am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A £17m deal with software company Advanced Business Solutions has pledged to streamline finance, procurement and logistics across Northern Ireland’s health and social care services.

Northern Ireland's Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety has awarded a 10-year contract for finance, procurement and logistics systems for the country's Health and Social Care Board to the supplier.

�1bn London outourcing contract up for grabs [ 23-Jan-12 10:21am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

An outsourcing contract across three London boroughs worth up to £1.2bn is setting out to streamline back office services, improve efficiencies and slash costs.

Westminster Council is leading procurement of the four-year tri-borough back office deal covering HR, business intelligence and disaster recovery.

According to a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union published last week, the deal - on behalf of Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Ch

Unite and Fujitsu settle dispute involving ICT staff [ 23-Jan-12 9:59am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A long-running dispute between union Unite and Fujitsu centred on pensions, pay and overtime at the IT services provider has ended after union members accepted a new offer from the employer.

the body, the UK's largest union, ended industrial action on Friday (20 January) after members welcomed the agreement - ending a long running dispute that has affected sites in Crewe and Manchester since June last year.

ICT Leader Of The Year Expresses Her Pride And Thanks! [ 23-Jan-12 9:47am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Scotland’s CIO Anne Moises was named ‘ICT Public Sector Leader 2011’ at The UK Public Sector Digital Awards.

read more

Best Practice: Westgate School and Dell [ 23-Jan-12 8:58am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A Berkshire school says it has reduced downtime and realised direct cost savings after investing in a new IT infrastructure that includes virtualised servers, desktop PCs and storage and backup from supplier Dell.

The Westgate School in Slough says the new ICT solution will also enhance education, enabling it to satisfy storage requirements for capacity-hungry subjects, in particular A-level Media and the video editing components of A-level IT courses.

The School,

Councils turning to technology to bridge cuts - Socitm [ 23-Jan-12 8:45am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Public sector IT managers are exerting even more influence as local public services turn to technology to bring service delivery costs down and cope with dramatically reduced budgets.

A new report from public sector ICT leadership group Socitm highlights growing emphasis on strategic, rather than utility use of IT, amid the largest reduction in IT staff numbers across the public sector in 25 years - a headcount drop of over 5,000.

Its IT Trends 2011/12 report, publis

19-Jan-12

UK Public Sector Digital Awards 2011 - The Winners! [ 19-Jan-12 10:45pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

The results are in!

Viewpoint: Adrian Simpson, SAP UK & Ireland [ 19-Jan-12 12:21pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

For Adrian Simpson of SAP UK & Ireland, big data in the public sector is all about “thinking big but starting small”

Big data is a term we are starting to hear more and more about across all industries. However, there is no doubt that the public sector was the first to face the big data challenge.

Environment Agency prepares to invest �25m to boost flood warnings [ 19-Jan-12 12:06pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

The UK's Environment Agency is looking to plough up to £25m in an outsource deal to provide the public with multichannel access to extensive flood risk information and advice.

An online tender notice says the fully outsourced contact centre will include a live agent call centre and "interactive communication media," including interactive voice response, SMS and instant messaging.

Care provider slammed for losing memory stick [ 19-Jan-12 11:56am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A care provider with offices in Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man is beefing up its data protection practices after losing an unencrypted memory stick containing sensitive personal information relating to individuals’ care and mental health.

Praxis Care Limited lost the memory stick on the island in August 2011 and was found to have breached both the UK Data Protection Act and the Isle of Man Data Protection Act by failing to keep user data secure.

The device was never recovered.

CIOs struggle to deliver more for less - Gartner [ 19-Jan-12 11:31am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

CIOs must use technology to strengthen the customer experience and eliminate costly internal distortions, analyst group Gartner has warned.

A global survey of more than 2,300 CIOs in 45 countries found that IT organisations will have to deliver on multiple priorities without an increase in their IT budget.

Technology leaders who concentrate on ICT as a force of operational automation, integration and control will lose ground to those who see technology as a business amplifier and source of innovation, the analyst warns.

Computacenter in line for major council outsourcing win [ 19-Jan-12 11:20am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Computacenter has been named as the Preferred Bidder for a five year contract to deliver ICT services to Cumbria County Council when its existing contract comes to an end on 31st March 2012.

Cumbria announced it decision to move away from a large outsourced contract in August 2010 and split procurement of its ICT contract into two lots; one for the provision of ICT services to the council worth around £60m and another for the support of a county-wide initiative to provide public sector

18-Jan-12

Big telehealth pilot fails to deliver cost benefits [ 18-Jan-12 12:33pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Anticipated high payback from a massive telehealth pilot has failed to materialise after delays to the project’s rollout.

NHS North Yorkshire and York introduced a pilot telehealth scheme in 2009, the largest telehealth scheme outside the Whole Systems Demonstrator Programme.

Betagov.uk 'on track' - GDS [ 18-Jan-12 12:22pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Enhancements to the new single central government public services portal have been well received by participants in a study, which seems to sugegst citizens find 'Betagov' quicker and less frustrating than Directgov.

The Government Digital Service (GDS) said that participants in a study found information an average of 43 seconds faster using the pilot site compared to Directgov - and Betagov completion rates reached nearly 70%, compared to about 60% in past tests.

Nick Breeze, a senior manager at GDS, said

Heart of England makes big digitisation push [ 18-Jan-12 11:57am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A five year, £7m contract to digitise patient records at Heart of England Foundation Trust will offer “anytime, anywhere” access to patient notes, the Trust says.

The contact to digitise its patient records was awarded to EDM Group last year to convert millions of paper records from three trust sites into electronic format.

Once digitised, the records can be accessed through the trust's online workflow system, and following data quality check, paper-

UNIT4 results show impact of Cloud [ 18-Jan-12 11:53am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

A move to the Software as a Service (Saas) model is putting pressure on profits at software company UNIT4, which warned that profits for the year would be down despite a record month in December.

Additional investments in the FinancialForce SaaS business unit, and lower profits on SaaS/subscription sales contributed to the drop, the company warned. It also blamed the impact of reorganisation costs.

London sees big new NHS shared services cluster [ 18-Jan-12 11:48am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Two more London-based NHS organisations have signed up to a managed ICT services platform from 2e2 in a series of contracts worth £4m to the supplier.

Haringey Community Services (now part of Whittington Health NHS Trust) and NHS North Central London Cluster (NCL, the commissioning arms of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington PCT’s) will join Camden PCT, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and Islington PCT to create one of the largest managed shared services offerings in the UK.

As part of the deal, 2e

Viewpoint: Enable Public Sector Efficiency Through Open Source [ 18-Jan-12 9:31am ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]

Dries Buytaert, CTO, Acquia, on what Open Source could offer the UK public sector - if we let it

With European countries experiencing unprecedented levels of social, political and economic change, reducing 'national overheads' is now a top priority. IT decision makers are constantly looking for faster, more efficient and innovative solutions to cut costs.