Government Technology Magazine issue 10.5 by Public Sector Publishing

www.governmenttechnology.co.uk | VOLUME 10.5

SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE

WEB DESIGN Meeting the needs of the user

DATA DESTRUCTION â&#x20AC;&#x201C; A few simple improvements can make all the difference

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GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE www.governmenttechnology.co.uk | VOlUmE 10.5

SECURITY COmmUNICATIONS SOFTWARE

WEB DESIGN Meeting the needs of the user

DATA DESTRUCTION – A few simple improvements can make all the difference

Comment

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY – www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

WELCOME Social media was extensively used in coordinating the riots that plagued the streets of several UK cities the other week, however, it was also being utilised to organise the clean up afterwards, and to help identify some of those responsible, with police posting photos of rioters on Flickr. An e-petition on the government’s recently relaunched website, calling for those involved in the riots and looting to have their benefits cut, received so many hits it crashed the site. Speaking of government websites, is your organisation’s site designed to suit both internet novices and experienced users trying to access your online services? Is the site suited for use on mobile devices? And what about apps? BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT discusses this and more on page 37. Outstanding public sector communication was rewarded at the Good Communication Awards, held last month. Derbyshire County Council won Local Authority of the Year, while the Department for Work and Pensions won both the Internal Communications Campaign and the Strategic Communications awards. Read about all winners on page 15. Enjoy the issue.

Sofie Lidefjard, Editor editorial@psigroupltd.co.uk

P ONLINE P IN PRINT P MOBILE P FACE TO FACE If you would like to receive 6 issues of Government Technology magazine for £45 a year, please contact Public Sector Information Limited, 226 High Road, Loughton, Essex IG10 1ET. Tel: 020 8532 0055, Fax: 020 8532 0066, or visit the Government Technology website at:

www.governmenttechnology.co.uk PUBLISHED BY PUBLIC SECTOR INFORMATION LIMITED

226 High Rd, Loughton, Essex IG10 1ET. Tel: 020 8532 0055 Fax: 020 8532 0066 Web: www.psi-media.co.uk EDITOR Sofie Lidefjard ASSISTANT EDITOR Angela Pisanu PRODUCTION EDITOR Karl O’Sullivan PRODUCTION DESIGN Jacqueline Grist PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Reiss Malone ADVERTISEMENT SALES Justine James, Kylie Glover, AJ Baker PUBLISHER John O’Leary SALES ADMINISTRATION Jackie Carnochan, Martine Carnochan ADMINISTRATION Victoria Leftwich, Alicia Oates GROUP PUBLISHER Barry Doyle REPRODUCTION & PRINT Argent Media

© 2011 Public Sector Information Limited. No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any other means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the editorial content the publisher cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher. ISSN 1362 - 2541

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

Create opportunities for tomorrow by being

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Visit: www.kcom.com/public-sector Or call us on

0800 915 5226 for free impartial advice.

CONTENTS 07 NEWS

41 SOFTWARE

11 DATA DESTRUCTION

The Business Application Software Developers Association looks at budgeting and forecasting systems and their benefits

Information security is one area where local government can’t afford to cut back, says the British Security Industry Association

15 COMMUNICATIONS The winners of the 2011 Good Communication Awards have been announced

29 OPEN SOURCE Dr Graham Oakes looks at the benefits and barriers of open source software adoption in UK public sector organisations

37 WEB DESIGN How can local government ensure their web services are accessible to all, asks the BCS

45 SECURITY Cyber Resilience 2011 offers cyber practitioners a forum in which to come together and discuss the most pressing issues in this contested domain IA11, the government’s flagship Information Assurance event, engaged with the threat cyber attacks present to national security and prosperity

49 EVENTS Service Management Expo offers a wealth of educational content, suppliers and networking opportunities

Contents

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DatacentreDynamics is positioned as the largest and most comprehensive conference of its kind anywhere in the world eWorld Purchasing & Supply focuses on the use of leading-edge technologies and techniques within the procurement and supply chain functions Featuring key industry vendors, distributors and trade associations all exhibiting under one roof, The Netcoms Show is a must attend event for all IT managers The World of Learning Conference & Exhibition is the essential event for all senior learning decision-makers and buyers

xSolutions is the event for professionals who have responsibility for the dayto-day running of audio and video communication technologies

Government Technology

www.governmenttechnology.co.uk Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

News

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WEBSITES

Leicestershire councils create website to improve choice, price and range of care services available Leicester City and Leicestershire County Councils have launched a website as a new way of delivering personalised services for people receiving social care. www.choosemysupport.org.uk offers a comprehensive menu of services and products ranging from accommodation and domestic help to local transport and activities. Over 400 services are already registered on the site and this number will grow rapidly over the next few months. Choosemysupport.org.uk aims to greatly improve the choice, price and range of services available to the people of Leicester and Leicestershire. The new system, Assist from System Associates, allows authorities to select functionality from a fixed price list so there are no hidden costs. They are also able to offer a genuinely true marketplace through added functionality such as buy, request a quote or request a call back from a specific provider. Users are also able to rate the services they have received. Tony Dailide, assistant director, Adults and Communities Department at Leicestershire County Council, says: “This is an excellent example of how two local authorities have worked effectively with System Associates. We have taken advantage of the regional funding from Regional Efficiency and Improvement

Programme (REIP) which has enabled us to create a really cost effective solution that will empower adults looking for social care support and service in Leicestershire.” Claire Simpson, director at System Associates who developed the system added: “A major objective of Choosemysupport.org.uk, with its reviews and comparison tools, is to ensure that providers are more competitive and engage professionally with their customers. It also highlights any gaps in the market place.

“To ensure we are completely in tune with the end users’ needs we have established a focus group of local disabled people and their carers. Together they really help us develop the best framework for their needs.” Claire concluded: “Assist delivers a fully integrated adult social care system that meets the needs of the personalisation agenda, delivers efficiencies to local authorities and, most importantly, provides an excellent service to end users.”

RECYCLING Technology to help Harrow save £3.2m in recycling costs The London Borough of Harrow has predicted to save £3.2m over the next decade by using a variety of technologies to identify and change the behaviour of people who do not recycle their rubbish correctly. The borough has deployed GPS information systems, route planning software and CRM technologies working over touch screen computers in its bin lorries. The technology has allowed waste crews to identify which households have not recycled their rubbish correctly. On average, it found, there were 551 contaminated bins daily, leading to 1,653 opportunities each week to target residents about improving their recycling. TO READ MORE PLEASE VISIT...

www.governmenttechnology.co.uk/n/008

INFORMATION SECURITY

SMARTPHONES

Two thirds of organisations have lost data on USB sticks

Security for work smartphones set to increase, report says

More than two thirds of businesses have lost sensitive or confidential data due to the careless use of USB sticks over the past two years, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute and Kingston Digital. Some 70 per cent of firms have traced the loss of sensitive or confidential information back to memory sticks, with some 55 per cent of such incidents linked to malwareinfected devices that introduced malicious code onto corporate networks. About half of featured businesses have policies detailing how employees can use memory sticks to store sensitive or confidential information – but only half of those firms enforce them. Meanwhile, the study

The mobile phone security market is expected to rise by 600 per cent by 2016, according to mobile research firm Juniper Research. Revenue from security software for smartphones and tablets will reach almost $3.7bn (£2.28bn) within five years, by which time enterprise and business sales will account for almost 69 per cent of the market. Security software has failed to take off on mobile devices in the same way it has for PCs and laptops; currently fewer than one in 20 smartphones and tablets have third-party security software installed. However, according to Juniper Research, the recent spate of high-profile security alerts, including the News of the World hacking scandal, has heightened the

found that just 21 per cent of organisations with USB device security policies use data loss prevention tools, and just 13 per cent use network analysis technology to identify the misuse of USB drives. About 743 IT and information security professionals were polled, including employees from government agencies.

public’s awareness of the vulnerability of mobile devices. “Enterprise users are in the front line against potential security breaches through insufficient mobile security and companies need to incorporate mobile network-connected devices into the corporate network since this is the easiest way to enforce policies and audit such devices,” said research analyst Nitin Bhas. TO READ MORE... www.governmenttechnology.co.uk/n/009

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

Emergency Messaging txttools allows you to send and receive txt messages to multiple people in an instant using your computer. simple :) 2 way communication that is quick, to the person, to the point, secure and cost effective. clever ;) SMS is a powerful disaster contingency tool, which enables your organisation to: + Communicate directly with all members of your organisation quickly and efficiently, from individuals & small groups to tens of thousands + You will be able to send safety alerts of areas to avoid, prevent unnecessary journeys and wasted time + Contact ALL customers and staff instantly from your computer + Send a message securely from your mobile via your txttools account to ALL customers or staff instantly, from wherever you are + Provide a route for staff and students to contact you and your team + Works even when network coverage is poor + In an unfolding situation send regular up-dates to advise all vested parties + Pre-write message templates to allow quick, but well thought out messages to be sent by any member of staff

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NEWS IN BRIEF Broadband use in Wales on the rise

The take-up of broadband in Wales has increased from 64 per cent to 71 per cent during the past 12 months, Ofcom research has shown. This rise has narrowed the gap between broadband take-up in Wales and the UK as a whole, which is at 74 per cent. Ofcom’s Communications Market Report provides an overview of communications services across Wales and monitors key trends in the availability and take-up of digital services across the nation. The report also highlights the fact that social networking sites are now used by almost half 48 per cent of adults in Wales.

East Lindsey District Council launches mobile website app enabling residents to access services in a fast and convenient way

A mobile website app that will allow council services to be accessed from mobile phones has been launched by East Lindsey District Council. The mobile website app allows residents to report issues, check their wheeled bin collection dates, access contact details for council customer service centres, tourist information centres and leisure centres and keep up to date with the latest council news, plus much more.

Home Office seeks technology provider for employer checking scheme The Home Office has invited tenders for a range of services worth £40m as part of the Employers’ Checking Service (ECS), run by the UK Border Agency. The four-year contract will include a web-based interface, data storage, biometric chip reading technology and related support services.

News

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY – www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

SMARTPHONES

A nation addicted to smartphones, survey says New Ofcom research reveals the extent to which the UK has become addicted to smartphones, with people confessing to using them everywhere from the dining table to the bathroom and bedroom. Over a quarter of adults (27 per cent) and almost half of teenagers (47 per cent) now own a smartphone, according to Ofcom’s latest Communications Market Report. Most (59 per cent) have acquired their smartphone over the past year. Users make significantly more calls and send more texts than regular mobile users (81 per cent of smartphone users make calls every day compared with 53 per cent of ‘regular’ users). Teenagers especially are ditching more traditional activities in favour of their smartphone, with 23 per cent claiming to watch less TV and 15 per cent

admitting they read fewer books. When asked about the use of these devices, 37 per cent of adults and 60 per cent of teens admit they are “highly addicted”. The research also found that the line between work and social time is becoming increasingly blurred. 30 per cent of smartphone users say they regularly take part in personal phone calls during working hours, compared with 23 per cent of regular mobile phone users. However, smartphone users are more likely to take part in work calls while on holiday or annual leave. 70 per cent say they have ever done so, with a quarter (24 per cent) admitting to doing so regularly, compared with just 16 per cent of ordinary mobile phone users. TO READ MORE... www.governmenttechnology.co.uk/n/010

CLOUD COMPUTING

UK police considers cloud computing programme The Metropolitan Police is planning how to run a variety of front-end systems via the cloud such as managing patrols, operations, investigations, evidence and forensics, as well as collating information, ComputerworldUK. com has revealed. It is understood that if the project goes ahead, the Metropolitan Police would be the lead customer, with other forces buying services through a framework deal.

Under the Strategic Cloud Programme the systems would be supported by collaboration, knowledge management, risk management, information sharing and business intelligence analytics tools. The aim is for them to be standards-based and scalable, with strong security, consumption based pricing and high service level agreements. TO READ MORE... www.governmenttechnology.co.uk/n/012

Scotland councils planning for shared services West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, Glasgow and North Lanarkshire councils have set out detailed plans to share support services valued at £155m. The plans involve sharing the support services of finance, payroll, revenues and benefits, human resources, and IT across the Clyde Valley. Councillor Jim Fletcher, leader of East Renfrewshire Council said: “These are the most ambitious proposals in the UK and the Clyde Valley councils have been one step ahead of the financial difficulties facing the UK public sector. Each council taking part would benefit directly from the shared support services proposals and the more councils involved the TO READ MORE PLEASE VISIT... greater the savings www.governmenttechnology.co.uk/n/011 for each council.”

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

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Document scanning Document scanning, and hosting solutions storing and shredding from Enterprise Consulting from Rapid Reprographics Enterprise Consulting specialises in providing a unique range of cost-effective document management solutions, which aid administration in a variety of organisations. Document management means to create digital versions of paper-based information and subsequently devise a universally accessible, electronic file storage system. ECL Document Hosting has been developed to meet these requirements, thus providing instant online access to all digitised files.

With the help of our team of experts, digital versions of your documents are produced in our state-of-the-art Scanning Bureau. Quality control and confidentiality lie at the heart of ECL’s operations and with over ten years of experience and a varied repertoire of clients we can accommodate to the needs of your organisation. FOR MORE INFORMATION Martina Leithner Tel: 01223 303300 martina.leithner@ecukl.com www.ecukl.com

Rapide started in 1992 as a microfilming bureau and we still retain the ability to provide this service. In 1996 we were pioneers to start document scanning. We offer bespoke software with latest security to allow our customers to retrieve documents from CDs, DVDs or internet from archived records. At present we scan in excess of one million documents per month for various clients on a regular basis, helping them to cut costs, retrieval time and avoid recurring charges. Rapide also stores boxes of archived documents. Each storage box is individually identified with a unique barcode label. Our van will deliver the required files to your organisation in case you need them. Rapide is an ISO Certified Company that specialises in on-site or off-site shredding of documents. We are registered with the Environment Agency

for proper disposal. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and comply with the Data Protection Act. Secure destruction is carried out to BS 15713:2009 Standards as we are members of BSIA. Members of staff are security vetted and CRB checked. We provide secure bins and also lockable consoles in a variety of finishes for office environment. We also supply sacks and ties for your confidential documents for shredding offsite. FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 0845 2570022 Fax: 0845 2570033 faxback@rapide-repro.co.uk

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GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE Volume | 10.5

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although by some estimates up to 99 per cent of fraud in the public sector goes undetected and the same may be true of offences resulting from the improper disposal of data. If confidential information is stolen from a business, the personal details of customers and suppliers can also be put at risk. Furthermore, businesses are running the risk of significant losses, not to mention the loss of reputation and client confidence if they are not taking preventative measures to protect their business’ confidential information during the disposal process. Almost any kind of personal information is valuable to criminals whether it be residents’ records, financial reports, payroll information and personnel data. The unlawful use of such information has contributed to an explosion of identity theft crimes, which allows criminals to obtain goods, credit or services in someone else’s name. Offenders target both public and private sector providers, including the use of stolen identities to fraudulently obtain prescription medicines and state benefits.

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

AVOIDING THE PITFALLS OF DATA DESTRUCTION Russell Harris, chairman of the Information Destruction Section of the British Security Industry Association, explains how simple improvements to data destruction can make all the difference With the public sector facing the deepest budget cuts in 25 years, security is often one area of expenditure where organisations look to make immediate savings. However, with large quantities of personal data to protect and the information commissioner imposing increasing fines for data loss, information security is one area where local government can’t afford to cut back. Generally speaking, public sector organisations hold large quantities of confidential data, making them vulnerable to data breaches. By taking simple steps internally, organisations can reduce the risk of data breaches occurring. Measures include ensuring all unwanted documents, CDs and DVDs are being properly shredded, wiping clean the information held on old computers

before disposing of them and regularly changing network as well as PC passwords. However, leaving shredding to individuals can compromise security as the document is not always thoroughly destroyed and can often be pieced together. Therefore, employing a professional data destruction company will ensure legal compliance and the highest standard of service, giving organisations the peace of mind that the interests of their clients, staff or patients are protected. PUBLIC SECTOR FRAUD Identify fraud is an issue that has become increasingly prevalent in recent years and can have a huge effect on businesses. The volume of crime that occurs in this way is unknown,

Employing a professional data destruction company will ensure legal compliance and the highest standard of service, giving organisations the peace of mind that the interests of their clients, staff or patients are protected.

Data Destruction

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INFORMATION SECURITY AND THE LAW The law, under the Data Protection Act, imposes legal obligations on any organisation that processes personal information, whether this relates to employees, customers or members of the public. The Data Protection Act essentially does two things. It tells organisations what types of information they may hold and how it must be safeguarded. It does this through key principles for data protection, including the need for data to be processed and kept securely. The data must be accurate, updated where necessary and kept no longer than needed. These principles also include the use of effective means to prevent misuse by destroying personal information at the point of disposal. Many infringements of the Act relate to the way in which data is disposed. The problem can only be overcome by treating all personal information in the same way as sensitive financial or medical records, by employing a professional information destruction service. Despite the stark realities behind identify theft and misuse of information, only a small fraction of the annual tonnage of paper waste and data processing products such as hard drives, CDs, memory sticks and DVDs, is destroyed by professional information destruction companies. By far the majority of such material continues to be disposed of via municipal refuse collection or waste paper reprocessing. FINES The law governing the destruction of confidential information is becoming tougher. Changes to the law in 2010 gave additional enforcement powers to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which can now issue penalty fines of up to £500,000 for breaches of the Data Protection Act, meaning that all organisations in E

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

Data Destruction

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DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT vetting of all staff members, and the security of collection vehicles and on-site data destruction vehicles and machinery.

E both public and private sectors should be looking towards the services of a professional information destruction company more often to avoid such incidents. The law sets clear rules for the destruction of personal information, and there are hefty fines in place for companies in breach of these rules. In January this year, the Information Commissioner’s Office released a warning to local councils, confirming that councillors who handle personal data must check whether they need to register as a data controller or risk a fine of up to £5,000. Following this warning, the ICO wrote to councillors across the country to urge them to check if they are fulfilling their legal requirements under the Data Protection Act. Over 6,000 councillors are currently registered with the ICO, but a further 13,000 are potentially not fulfilling their obligations. THE RISKS OF POOR DATA MANAGEMENT In recent years, financial institutions in particular have been criticised for the careless way in which they were disposing of sensitive personal information, but such criticism has also extended to public sector organisations, including those dealing with health, child welfare and pensions. This type of data breach can not only have a negative impact on consumer confidence, but also have serious financial implications. Each individual record lost cost UK organisations an average of £64 in 2009, according to the third annual UK study sponsored by data protection firm PGP Corporation. According to an annual study by the Ponemon Institute, the cost of UK data breaches increased by 7 per cent between 2008 and 2009, and has risen by a staggering 36 per cent in the past two years. Furthermore, an experiment carried out by IT consultancy Navigant Consulting revealed that secondhand PCs contain enough personal data to be a security threat to the previous owner.

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE Volume | 10.5

Data found on second-hand PCs included names, addresses and photos, staff budgets and payroll schedules including names and salary details, bank account standing order payments and receipts. Consumers, as well as businesses, face hefty financial consequences when their personal data security is breached, each facing the expensive and time-consuming process of safeguarding or restoring their finances and credit ratings. It has also been known for fraud to be committed as an inside job by staff or ex-employee, so confidential waste must therefore be placed in a lockable bin with a paper slot or a tamper-proof coded sack. An information destruction supplier should be able to provide sacks that cannot be tampered with and bins to match your office furniture that can only be accessed by key. To provide further protection, each collection and sack should contain a unique code so that customers can access a full audit trail of their paper once it has left the building. THE ROLE OF EUROPEAN STANDARDS To avoid making such costly mistakes, public sector organisations should choose a trusted information destruction supplier who will dispose of their data correctly and in accordance with current laws. Compliance to European standards such as EN15713 is a basic thing to look for in prospective information destruction providers. Only by using an information destruction company that complies to EN15713 will customers be able to rest assured that their confidential material is in safe hands. The BSIA was at the forefront of developing this standard, and BSIA members were among the first to work to it. The EN15713 standard requires that each material is destroyed to specific shred sizes, that providers should install a monitored intruder alarm and CCTV systems to protect the data while on their premises, security

A NEW ERA OF DATA DESTRUCTION When selecting a data destruction provider, procurers should also ensure that suppliers have procedures in place to safeguard data throughout its whole life cycle. Despite the economic downturn, environmental issues and corporate social responsibility remain high on the national business agenda, while cost savings within the public sector are of particular importance. Recycling plays a huge part in delivering both of these priorities, and plays an essential part in demonstrating an organisation’s green credentials. A new scheme, pioneered by a BSIA member, ensures compliance with data protection regulation while implementing sustainable waste management services that can result in multiple business benefits, not least significant cost savings. The scheme, known as ‘closed loop recycling’, ensures ultimate data security by returning recycled paper back to the client after processing. Closed loop recycling works like this: the information destruction company collects confidential waste paper from the client, shreds it and bails it. Next, the paper is sent to a collaborating paper mill, where it is recycled and turned into ‘new’ office paper. This is then sold back to the client company at a competitive rate. The success of the scheme is largely due to the positive cooperation between all parties, and to date 325 tonnes of paper have been shredded and recycled, saving 5,514 trees and helping 729m3 of waste avoid landfill. Moreover, the client company is granted peace of mind, knowing that its waste is being handled in line with European and UK regulation, and is benefiting from considerable return on investment due to the savings made by buying back the original paper once it has been recycled. More than half of the paper used by the client firm’s 2,500 partners and staff in its London office is now in fact recycled paper acquired through this scheme. CHOOSING A QUALITY PROVIDER Using a professional information destruction company is a safe and effective method of disposing confidential data, which is compulsory for public sector organisations in order to protect their staff, customers and reputation. Members of the BSIA’s Information Destruction section adhere to strict quality standards, such as EN15713, and are inspected to ISO:9001. To locate a supplier in your area, visit the BSIA’s Company Finder on our website. L FOR MORE INFORMATION www.bsia.co.uk/companyfinder www.bsia.co.uk/shredding

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VIRTUALISATION

TAP INTO YOUR PC’S UNUSED CAPACITY NComputings Office in a Box virtualisation solution offers public sector organisations and departments access to state-of-the-art technology at a fraction of the cost

The proliferation of PCs has become a financial and management constraint for organisations. Office in a Box utilises our virtualisation technology to address these challenges so that organisations can deploy solutions that help them focus on business advancement, not technology issues. Today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of applications only use a small fraction of a PC’s capacity. Why not tap the unused capacity and share it among other users? Desktop virtualisation provides an excellent alternative to the traditional “one PC per user” model enabling any business to design an IT infrastructure at significant cost savings while still meeting the computer performance demands of a growing business. OFFICE IN A BOX NComputing, a global leader in desktop virtualisation, has recently launched Office in a Box in response to the growing need of small and medium sized offices to have access

to their state-of-the-art office productivity solutions at a fraction of the cost. ALL INCLUSIVE SOLUTION The Office in a Box solution trumps the typical PC solution by enabling each end user to have a computing session without having to dedicate a desktop PC at each user’s desk. Office in a Box is an all-inclusive, pre-tested, and easy to deploy solution that can be right-sized to the requirements of an organisation, office or department and expanded in the future with modular addons like virtual desktop failover, storage and server virtualisation infrastructure. Assessment and deployment services are also available

through NComputing’s experienced partners. The advanced desktop virtualisation products that comprise Office in a Box provide an alternative to the traditional one PC per user model by allowing a single server to simultaneously support up to 60 users – with each running their own independent set of applications. The value that Office in a Box can bring to offices includes: • reduced up-front PC acquisition costs by 75 per cent • lowers maintenance and support costs by 75 per cent • reduced power and cooling requirements by 90 per cent • reduced risk resulting from device loss and theft • simple access to advanced cloud based applications and technology. BUSINESS ADVANCEMENT Jim McHugh, SVP marketing for NComputing, said: “The proliferation of PCs has become a financial and management constraint for organisations. Office in a Box utilises our virtualisation technology to address these challenges so that organisations can deploy solutions that help them focus on business advancement not technology issues.” Office in a Box includes Host Server(s), vSpace™ Virtualisation Software, OS licenses, NComputing virtual desktops and basic peripherals such as monitors, keyboards and mice. Solution add-ons are available for larger deployments such as virtual desktop failover, storage, and server virtualisation infrastructure for scaling to support large populations. NComputing Office in a Box is available immediately from leading technology distributors. ABOUT NCOMPUTING NComputing, Inc. is the fastest growing end-to-end desktop virtualisation company in the world with over 20 million daily users in 140 countries. The company’s award-winning, patented technology lowers desktop computing costs, improves manageability, and reduces both energy consumption and e-waste. It is the perfect solution for leveraging the power and potential of PCs and cloud computing. L FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: +44 (0)1753 708862 sales-emea@ncomputing.com www.ncomputing.com/oiab

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

Change the Conversation with Your Citizens Deliver the service they expect today Social media, mobility and smart devices are changing how your citizens communicate, and how they expect to interact with you. Award-winning Genesys customer service from Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise offers the solutions you need to meet this expectation and deliver ideal service through citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; preferred communications channels. With Genesys solutions, you can increase service by streamlining your processes. Unify your view of interactions across all channels. Create a single history from a citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cross-channel transactions. Seamlessly manage interactions within the contact centre or across the organization to streamline service delivery. Learn how other local governments and agencies are using Genesys to change the conversation with their citizens at alcatel-lucent.com/enterprise

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EVENT REVIEW

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Communications

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Strong and innovative communication between the public sector, its citizens and its workforce was recognised at the 2011 Good Communication Awards at Emirates Stadium, London The Good Communication Awards took place on 14 July at the Emirates Stadium and recognised the public sector’s efforts towards effective and diverse communication with its citizens and workforce. Former newspaper editor Eve Pollard presented the awards after a champagne drinks reception and four course dinner. The Government Communicator of the Year, sponsored by Best Companies, was Tina Chawner from HMRC. Tina Chawner became head of HMRC’s IT Communications in 2008, at an early stage in her career. Dealing with controversial and sensitive campaigns, she has tirelessly directed her teams across disciplines towards encouraging senior leaders to accept their responsibilities as communicators, and driving a move to a more open culture. Prior to her appointment, the 1,300 people working in the IT department felt there were too many channels, that messages were inconsistent and had a low opinion of leadership communications. Within 12 months Tina made huge progress resolving these issues by centralising the communications resource to form a small, professionally trained team. In October 2010 Tina’s role expanded to encompass all departmental communication about change as part of the biggest Change Programme in HMRC’s history. MULTIPLE SUCCESS FOR DERBYSHIRE Derbyshire County Council celebrated triple success, scooping the Local Authority Of The Year Award, sponsored by 2e2, Council Publication Of The Year, sponsored by Big Green Book, and Contact Centre of the Year Award, sponsored by Genesys.

The council’s b-line Youth Magazine won the prize for Council Publication of the Year. Expanding on its existing young persons’ travel and discount card (b_line), the complimentary magazine features real-life stories about issues such as drugs, alcohol, domestic violence, eating disorders and problems with body image. These are backed up by nonjudgemental contributions from local experts. The result is a publication that wouldn’t look out of place on a newsagent’s shelf. The council’s Call Derbyshire service won the Contact Centre of the Year Award. It deals with over 300 council services and is now the first point of contact for all new social care referrals. In 2010 the centre responded to 563,000 phone calls and 36,000 e-mails, texts and contact forms. Despite periods of severe weather which led to an increase in call volume, the centre maintained business continuity thanks to staff working longer hours. Call Derbyshire, an established 24/7 service, is playing a major role in how it provides residents with a central point of contact and integrated service for the vulnerable. DOUBLE SUCCESS FOR DWP The Department for Work and Pensions’ Personal Data Campaign scooped the Internal Communications Award and the Strategic Communications Campaign, sponsored by Callcredit Information Group. Following high profile data losses across government, DWP developed a successful character driven campaign to build staff awareness and essentially change their data security behaviours. Campaign branded messages featured across a mix of channels including a takeover of the DWP intranet homepage. DWP created a visually engaging ‘I’ graphic character, personifying individual responsibility with its ‘I will do my bit’ tagline. A series of 90-second videos illustrated real-life scenarios, with volunteers selected through a ‘Have you got the i-factor?’ competition. Staff inclusion ensured the films remained credible, and significantly reduced costs. The campaign exceeded all expectations reporting 96 per cent staff awareness of information security. Alice Gledhill, internal comms manager for Campaigns and Products at DWP Internal Communications, said: “To win

the first award was a great achievement but when our work was awarded the Strategic Communications award too it was an amazing feeling. To have our hard work and successful campaign recognised by your peers is a fantastic feeling.” PRINT INNOVATIONS The Council Publication Award for Journalism, sponsored by Argent Media, went to East Riding of Yorkshire Council for Your East Riding. Given the decline in newspaper circulation figures and the fact that councils are now restricted to producing quarterly publications, up to 12 of the 32 pages of Your East Riding are localised to six defined areas of the East Riding. Residents feature heavily and there is a good mix of stories from across the council. Localised pages give local ward members a voice and visibility and events specific to that area are also highlighted. Members of the communications team write all the editorial in-house. Ealing Council’s publication Around Ealing scooped the Council Publication Award for Design, sponsored by Argent Media. Around Ealing is a completely refreshed publication, with a switch to a more compact, handbag-sized format (245mm x 190mm) and a change to 100 per cent recycled paper, meeting the council’s drive for sustainability. The new format E

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

EVENT REVIEW E allows for more two-page feature spreads, improving the look and flow of the editorial. It has also allowed a larger pagination (48pp minimum) by balancing the weight ratio for distribution costs and has also meant a lower page rate for advertisers, which has encouraged sales. By clever use of column grids and a minor reduction in point size, the word count was hardly compromised. The Print Innovation Award, sponsored by Argent Media went to the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) and its Staying legal materials. The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency has for many years produced material aimed at operators for dissemination to their drivers. Research has shown that while operators want to read all the information that will affect their business, drivers just want to find out what they need to know in order to comply. VOSA’s design team developed an A3 folded pocket guide which focused on diagrams rather than words, and can be used by non English speaking drivers and those with lower levels of literacy. Printed on durable paper, the folded format mean a driver can carry it in their cab. The pocket guide has been distributed to over 50,000 drivers in four months, with very positive feedback from industry in the UK and across the EU. PR CATEGORIES Stockport Council won the award for Local Authority PR Team Of The Year, sponsored by Amaryllis. At Stockport, research has become a priority for every area of activity. All campaigns are aligned to the strategic objectives of the council, with the impact carefully monitored to evaluate success. The Stockport team committed to delivering no-nonsense campaigns that cut through the jargon. The Stockport Boost campaign looked at ways to tackle the recession, providing businesses and

residents with advice and support on how to cope during the year ahead. It surpassed all of its objectives, generating over 100 weeks of coverage in the Stockport Times and £20 million in benefits for Stockport residents. The Mixed Media Campaign Award, sponsored by Daryl Willcox Publishing, was awarded to the Christie NHS Foundation Trust for its Treatment Centre Campaign. In November 2010, the Christie opened a £35 million patient treatment centre. The opening campaign, at a cost of £12,000, maximised publicity and was split into different sections. These covered pre-publicity, a preview tour week, media activity and postpublicity, and included the use of TV, radio and print, social media, leaflets, newsletters, films, celebrity and VIP visits and preview tours. Media coverage achieved had an advertising value of £750,000 which was all positive. The Government To Citizen Communication Award, sponsored by ProtoCall One, went to Durham County Council for its Safeguarding Adults Campaign. The ‘See it, Report it’ campaign was developed to create a greater public understanding of vulnerable people who are neglected, abused or taken advantage of. The two-week campaign featured stories based on real-life experiences, directing people to a newly-created regional website (www. safeguardingadultsne.com) and designated 0844 number to report abuse. Funded externally by the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (RIEP), the campaign highlights the benefits of partnership working. TELECOMS AWARDS The Mobile Technology Award, sponsored by Box Technologies, was taken home by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council for its SARAH Mobile working initiative. SARAH was developed in an inclusive manner led by Barnsley Metropolitan

Borough Council in partnership with CACI and in consultation with home carers, unions and IT staff to design a product that would allow the removal of paper timesheets. The homecare management software solution is deployed on smartphones allowing carers to download their specific service user schedules whilst also providing them with contextual information and prompts for each visit. As changes occur, these can be relayed immediately to the carer and vice versa. The Contact Centre Technology Award, sponsored by Clement Clarke Communications, went to South Staffordshire Council. The dilemma for South Staffordshire Council was how to improve the service by using technology whilst not increasing cost. The decision was made to develop an in-house customer queuing and handling system. Whilst the council does not employ any developers, existing internal, home grown skills were utilised. A technical assistant whose main responsibilities are hardware and systems support used his self developed skills to write a software system to support customer queuing and handling. The assistant went through the entire software development lifecycle. Not only did the system improve upon the previous software that was running but it also saved the council a considerable amount of money in licensing and maintenance costs. Surrey County Council was awarded the Contact Centre Training Award. In 2010 Surrey County Council developed its ‘Delivering the Customer Promise’ training, which is in the process of being rolled out across the organisation. So far 209 have attended the course and delegates have rated the course highly. The training is interactive and focuses on the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills of customer service – managing customer expectations, how to design and deliver customer-driven rather than governance-driven processes, and how to empower and encourage teams E

Communications

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Audio visual solutions for the public sector Simply AV has been providing audio-visual install solutions for a number of years throughout the private and public sectors in the UK. In this time our team has accrued a vast amount of knowledge when it comes to providing an excellent service from the first contact. We have a reputation for delivering unique and tailored equipment and service coupled with the latest in audio-visual techniques to ensure the solution is cost-efficient, whilst not compromising the highest of industry standards. At Simply AV we understand what the public sector expects, and strives to meet the demands of budget, quality and time restraints. Our staff pride themselves on being polite, diligent and professional workers who care about their job unconditionally. We specialise in professional commercial

technology installations, and have pretty much covered every AV job you could imagine, from projector mounts, interactive whiteboards, PA systems, video conferencing and a host of other specifications matched to your individual requirements.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 0845 3881185 Mob: 07823 330759 sales@simply-av.com www.simply-av.com

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Be part of the UK’s largest workplace engagement survey

THE 2012 PROCESS IS NOW OPEN To find out what your employees say it’s like to work for your organisation, call 01978 856222 or register online

www.bestcompanies.co.uk 2012 ACCREDITATION

EVENT REVIEW E to deliver excellent customer service. Raising awareness on how slicker, bureaucracy free processes can enhance customer service has resulted in savings of over £500,000 across the organisation. There has been a significant reduction in ‘chaser’ calls and cost per contact has reduced to 79p to 49p. The Telecoms Innovation Award, sponsored by MLL Telecom, went to Kent County Council for its use of audio conferencing. Innovation and digital technology plays a key role in the way the Kent County Council delivers services and in supporting its people to work more flexibly. In order to reduce travel-related costs and lower its carbon emissions, it recently implemented BT MeetMe, a hosted audio conferencing service that only requires a fixed or mobile phone for access, enabling virtual meetings with up to 40 participants. No prior booking is required and conferences can be established in the time it takes to dial the local access number. IT AND E-GOVERNMENT AWARDS The IT Partnership Award, sponsored by EfficientIP, was taken home by the Department for Education for its Employee Authentication Service (EAS). The EAS was created to provide a sectorwide solution to enable employees to

securely access multiple children’s services and educational information sharing systems using a single token. It provides a strong authentication solution for central and local government employees to enable them to securely access multiple government applications and systems by using a single token. EAS was designed as a shared service to be used across government whereever secure authentication was needed with the capacity to handle two million concurrent users. Currently three major government led services are engaged in trialling and rolling out the service with a combined user base of between 75,000-100,000 users in addition to a number of smaller scale services already using the service. The project was developed as a strategic partnership between DfE, DWP and DCLG, in collaboration with local authorities and other partners. Wycombe District Council scooped the Website Accessibility Award, sponsored by DSPG. The council’s website was designed to maximise the opportunity for members of the public to self-serve their differing needs through an accessible channel. Wycombe and site developers VLI have been working with the Digital Accessibility Centre to ensure the website works for everyone. The Digital Accessibility Centre

Amaryllis – a leading force in workplace management With offices, warehouses and national service infrastructure throughout the UK, Amaryllis has developed a portfolio of products and service disciplines to offer best value solutions for the public sector. Amaryllis is able to offer a multi disciplinary approach covering: manufacturing and supply, onsite repairs, renovation and remanufacturing of furniture and equipment; change management, churn, porterage and relocation; recycling and environmental disposal of furniture, fixtures and IT; property services including fitout and minor works. As well as conventional contract arrangements, Amaryllis has developed lifecycle models transferring risk and reducing overall costs. Employing over 250 in-house personnel, Amaryllis ensures quality service through ‘self delivery’ together with security clearance. The company also operates its own vehicle fleet

together with an in-house Waste Transfer Station with extensive recycling capabilities. Recently, Amaryllis has been selected as a finalist in the Premises and Facilities Management Awards for the innovative Joint Venture with Prison Industries offering reused and remanufactured furniture to the public sector – a highly cost effective and sustainable approach. FOR MORE INFORMATION Head Office: Amaryllis House, Montrose Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6TE Tel: 0844 8006326 enquiries@amaryllisgroup.com www.amaryllisgroup.com

accreditation means that the site has been tested by people with a wide range of disabilities and found to be accessible. The Government Website Of The Year, sponsored by Eduserv, was taken home by Lincolnshire County Council. New web features include tabs and mega drop downs to show the main elements of the site without having to navigate away from the homepage, resulting in improved usability. Other features include enhanced map based tools make finding services in Lincolnshire easier than ever before. This project has also made it possible for the council to share its CMS with district councils. The IT Project Innovation Award, sponsored by Info Exchange, was won by the London Borough of Redbridge. YouChoose is an online budget simulator developed by Redbridge that encourages members of the public to consider where council budget cuts should fall, where efficiencies might be made and where income might be generated. The tool helps councils to engage their citizens in decisions about how they spend their revenue budgets and helps citizens to understand the tough choices faced by their council. L

Communications

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FOR MORE INFORMATION www. gcawards.co.uk

Leading text and video communication products Established in 1987, DSPG specialises in Digital Signal Processing technology, developing voice and data products for telecommunication applications. DSPG is also active in the development of international standards, contributing to International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T). Based on continuous R&D DSPG has become one of the leading developers and suppliers of text and video communication products for deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired people in UK and overseas. Jointly with BT, we developed the world’s first implementation of the V.18 modem. This technology is used in many communication products for deaf people. We developed the first integrated system to provide deaf and hard of hearing people a direct access to any organisation with a service level comparable to that offered to hearing people. TexBox allows

use of live-text communication (meaning character by character transmission in real time) and includes text and voice telephony, internet text-telephony, SIP based soft phones and PDA mobile text applications. The live-text calls can be routed to almost anyone in the organisation via existing internal computer networks. TexBox has been successfully deployed in local authorities, emergency services, police, NHS, DWP, and elsewhere. We also developed and supply V.18 textphones branded as BT Textphone and TextLink 9100 Mobile in the UK and other countries. FOR MORE INFORMATION www.dspg.co.uk

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

Motion Computing Introduces a NEW member to the family! ®

The NEW Motion CL900, the latest member of the Motion Family, offers Intel® Atom™ Processor Z670 Series and Windows® 7 on the 10.1 inch display. The Motion CL900 is a rugged, lightweight and powerfully equipped tablet PC that’s been designed, developed and built for mobile business.

01844 264 000 sales@boxtechnologies.com

www.boxmobile.co.uk

CLOUD COMPUTING

HOSTED CONTACT CENTRES

Communications

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Are hosted contact centre systems the answer to austerity measures? and from airlines to pharmaceuticals. Yet up until now, Genesys has not been seen as the most suitable platform for smaller contact centres because of the perceived cost of the product. The new G-Cloud™ hosted model overcomes these perceived deficiencies and produces a very sophisticated service for even the smallest number of call centre agents. G-Cloud is a true multi-tenant service designed to make deployment quick and efficient. It is available on a simple price per-agent basis, bringing it into reach of all public sector customers.

Cloud computing is the latest hype to hit the contact centre technology market. Overcoming financial constraints by offering a zero CAPEX up-front cost, does the current functionality now available from multi-channel hosted system vendors really meet the needs of public sector contact centres? Paul Weald, strategy director at ProtoCall One, the leading contact centre consultancy and systems integrator, weighs up the arguments. HOW CAN CLOUD COMPUTING BE APPLIED TO THE CONTACT CENTRE? A hosted or on demand contact centre service is one where the call centre components are hosted in a remotely situated data centre and provided on a per call or per seat basis. No equipment is actually needed on the customer site, other than the network connection and a personal computer and telephone per agent. The advantage to the operation from a hosted service is flexibility in how the service is managed and consumed – it is equivalent to a pay as you go contract where the user only pays for the technology resources that are actually used. KEY REQUIREMENTS To exploit hosted call centre technology, it is a key requirement that the hosted service provider offers a suite of multichannel functionalities (see picture). The components that make up a multichannel contact centre include: • ACD – Automatic Call Distributor, which manages the routing of inbound calls • IVR – Interactive Voice Response, which provides touch-tone and speech recognition

based menus that direct the call to the right resource to deal with the specific enquiry type • Call Recorder – the ability to record calls within the contact centre • WFM – Workforce Management system that manages the planning, forecasting and scheduling of call centre staff • CRM – Customer Relationship Management system, which is used to log customer contact and manage customer preferences when dealing with the contact centre • Dialler – used for managing outbound calls, involving different types of dialling mechanisms from preview dialling through to predictive • Multi-channel management – integrates e-mail, white mail correspondence, SMS text messages and online web chat into an intelligent work queue. When hosted contact centre solutions first came to market, some five plus years ago, not all of these requirements could have been met by a single vendor solution. Now in 2011 this full menu of requirements can be met by a service provider using a single vendor solution. Take for example G-Cloud™ a new hosted contact centre service from ProtoCall One and based on the Genesys suite of contact centre components. THE GENESYS HOSTED STORY Genesys is acknowledged as the market leading provider of enterprise contact centre technology solutions for Fortune 500 listed companies. It is the number one market leader in each of 25 different industries – from telecommunications to utilities,

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR HOSTED CONTACT CENTRES In austere times, a business orientated approach is absolutely vital when considering the justification for new technology. Compared to the traditional system building approach, hosted systems provide a much more agile solution appropriate for the post-recessionary market. Factors that need to be built into the overall business justification include: • An OPEX-based cost structure with no capital costs • Future proofed access to fully integrated services to meet multi channel communication needs • Rapid deployment of agent positions across virtual sites or at home • Contingency planning and disaster recovery all-in-one • Minimal demand on specialist IT skills • Pay only for what you plan to use A recent survey which ProtoCall One conducted with contact centre customers about the most important benefits when considering a hosted a contact centre solution, identified the following in order of importance: • An OPEX-based cost structure • Multi-channel communications services integrated into the service • Rapid deployment of agent positions All of these factors can be met by ProtoCall One G-Cloud™, so contact us today to find out how we can successfully apply the benefits of a hosted technology solution to your contact centre’s change projects. L FOR MORE INFORMATION Paul Weald, strategy director customer innovations, ProtoCall One Tel: +44 (0)800 881 8130 pweald@pc-1.co.uk www.pc-1.co.uk

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

Out with the old, in with the new

SmartArchitecture™

DNS

DHCP Manage entire architectures, not just servers New generation of DNS - DHCP services management Smart Architecture™ is a set of templates of DNS/DHCP architecture configurations that can be selected and automatically applied to your servers. Once a model has been chosen (Master/Master or Stealth Master), the SmartArchitecture™ automatically configures all the servers concerned by the deployment according to their role in the architecture. This allows the administrator to centrally manage the network as a single architecture and no longer have to configure and monitor multiple servers individually. Therefore, network services are managed at the architecture level allowing to enforce Best Practices and management rules, reducing time spent on administrative tasks and providing you with unmatched levels of reliability, scalability and flexibility in the infrastructure. EfficientIP’s solutions are compatible with DNS - DHCP servers from Microsoft®, Cisco®, Nominum®, Opensource (ISC Bind9.x and ISC DHCP) and VMware®. SmartArchitecture™ is part of SOLIDserver™, a unified IPAM (IP Address Management), DNS and DHCP management solution. Learn more: www.efficientip.com Copyright © 2011 EfficientIP, SAS. All rights reserved. EfficientIP and SOLIDserver logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of EfficientIP SAS. All registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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The Sunday Times best companies to work for Best Companies Ltd is a workplace engagement specialist. Since our establishment in 2000, our vision has been to identify the drivers in sustainable business performance; our research revealed the key to this is workplace engagement. Primarily we are an employee engagement survey provider best known for the reputable ‘The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For’ lists. Organisations appearing on these lists are so placed because of their high levels of workplace engagement, conducted through our rigorous employee survey. Through all of our activities our primary purpose for existence drives everything that we do. Our primary purpose quite simply is to help to make the world a better workplace. Therefore we do not solely exist to measure organisations’ levels of workplace engagement but to provide support, insightled recommendations and frameworks that will actively help organisations improve how their employees feel

about the work that they do. By gathering the opinions of over 1.5 million employees from thousands of organisations across the UK, we have an unrivalled wealth of real-life examples of good and bad practice that can show organisations how they may have a better chance of sustainability in an increasingly competitive marketplace. FOR MORE INFORMATION If you would like to discuss any aspect of the Best Companies to Work For process in more detail, then please feel free to call a member of the Best Companies team on 01978 856222 or visit www.bestcompanies.co.uk

Local authorities can learn from NHS NHS Direct recently worked with IT services organisation Eduserv, to channel shift services online helping to save the organisation more than £100 million a year. It developed an online symptom checker so people could access the information they needed online, rather than through the telephone service or in person. The online service ensures the same level of clinical safety as other information channels. It is this level of sophistication and maturity that means it is time for local authorities to follow suit and shift services online without fear of reducing service quality. Julian Mitchell, Eduserv public sector manager, commented: “The benefits of channel shifting services have been well documented, but still local authorities are not doing it enough. Developing an online system does not mean getting rid of your traditional channels, it is an additional

channel and we’re finding that often it’s how the public wants to access information. “Online services are easier than ever to manage and the technology is sophisticated enough to ensure a consistently high level of service. NHS Direct is able to provide the same individual service online as they can through other channels however it costs just 13p per patient compared to £16 on the phone and £32 for a GP visit.” FOR MORE INFORMATION To read the full NHS case study visit www.eduserv. org.uk/nhsdirect

Cost-effective software solutions to connect people and processes Info Exchange delivers secure, cost-effective, web-based information management software solutions to wide-ranging public and private sector clients. As part of the Alcumus Group, the company works alongside Sypol and Isoqar to provide comprehensive information, risk, compliance and certification services. Working closely with clients, Info Exchange tailors systems to manage a broad range of information and management processes, with clients benefiting from ongoing support from its in-house help desk team. The online software is used by a range of business departments, including property, asset, health, safety, environmental,

audit, fleet, performance and quality assurance. Using its unique Info Tracker software, Info Exchange is able to replace a myriad of local spreadsheets, databases or legacy systems to record, track and report on key data, creating “a single view of truth”, improving efficiency and cutting costs in the process. The flexibility of Info Tracker’s solutions are also reflected in its diverse client base, which includes major retailers, banks, charities, public sector, construction, manufacturing and logistics. FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: +44 (0)1926 844200 Fax: +44 (0)1926 844219 info@info-exchange.com www.info-exchange.com

Efficient IP Europe – DNS and DHCP Management EfficientIP is a software editor providing hardware and software appliance to manage IP Plan and deliver DNS/DHCP services into a fully integrated solution. Leading companies in many market sectors such as finance, insurance, telco, retail, industry, transport and public sector have selected EfficientIP’s solutions, including T-Mobile, STMicroelectronics, United Airlines, Bank of Geneva, Banque de France, Credit Agricole, EADS, Carrefour and Louis Vuitton. EfficientIP brings a brand new approach managing IPAM, DNS and DHCP services at the architecture level with a Plug & Play technology to deliver secured and highly available services. We have established close relationship with hundreds of customers, partners and leading IT companies to exchange and anticipate on operational needs and map our roadmap

to the industry expectations. Our teams pride themselves with being the state of the art reference in matters of technological development. We have built and maintained strategic relationships with a number of market leaders in systems hardware and software to develop complementary solutions and to enable new offerings from our partners – Microsoft, VMware, IBM, Hewlett Packard, SUN Microsystems, Dell, Red Hat, Novell, Cisco and ISC. FOR MORE INFORMATION info@efficientip.com www.efficientip.com

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THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY – www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

Box – delivering the customer interface through technology

Northampton Borough Council sets up website to connect with young people

Box Technologies is the UK’s leading provider of customer interface technology solutions, within six core market sectors: retail, hospitality, finance, public sector, utilities, and transportation and logistics. Today’s consumer is more demanding of service and information than ever and the public sector can gain great benefit from the use of customer interface technology. Digital signage provides a unique opportunity to communicate dynamically with your customers and staff over multiple site locations. Our EPoS Technologies are used daily to manage and attain vital revenue through local council office payment desks. The public sector market is also seeing an increase in demand for Self Service Payment and Self Service Information Kiosks. For field workers, a range of state of the art GPRS enabled mobile data capture devices

Northampton Borough Council has set up and worked with a group of homeless young people/or have been through the homelessness process, called Young Voices. Outcomes of the youth involvement sessions raised concerns about communication issues such as gaining access to information, having a say online and reaching out to school aged young people. As a result, we have funded an initiative called Northampton Young Voices – an interactive website that seeks the views of young people and encourages engagement with the council. The site encourages young people to engage with the Housing Solutions team either via direct blogging or responding to questions posed by members of the housing management team. Young people will also be able to represent the council as part of the young voices project and voluntary positions

and ruggedised tablet PCs will enhance productivity across a range of applications. Our solutions are produced and backed by the support and infrastructure of the world’s leading hardware suppliers, with application software from some of the best developers in the business. Solutions provided by Box Technologies will enhance your business and maximise return on investment through best practice in customer interface technology. FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01844 264000 Fax: 01844 264099 sales@boxtechnologies.com www.boxtechnologies.com

will be available in a range of opportunities. In further support and engagement of young people, social networking sites such as Facebook are utilised within the website. The site features a short film about how 16 and 17 year olds can access housing and support, if faced with homelessness. FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information, contact Phil Holmes in the Housing Options Team at Northampton Borough Council: 01604 837091 or e-mail: pholmes @northampton.gov.uk www.northampton youngvoices.co.uk

Eduserv enhances public sector digital communications

G-Cloud™ – a new way to use contact centre technology

Eduserv specialises in developing and hosting websites for the public sector. It works with a range of national and regional public sector organisations to help them effectively communicate to citizens and save money by shifting services online. Eduserv has a wealth of experience in helping public sector organisations deliver interactive and engaging websites that are simple for non-technical staff to manage and update. It helps customers improve web performance with engaging digital features such as user personalisation, faceted search, forums, games and social media integration. Eduserv projects include: The Department for Education – Eduserv helped DfE rationalise its websites and separate content from navigation to deliver clear and consistent corporate messages across multiple websites. NHS Direct – Eduserv enabled

ProtoCall One is the leader in hosted contact centre solutions, which harness the benefits of Genesys software such as multichannel communications, workforce optimisation and outbound dialler solutions. The company’s G-Cloud™, Software-as-a-Service, fully hosted, call centre solution enables operators to rapidly deploy agent positions flexibly, securely and cost-effectively in the cloud, and within an OPEX-based cost structure. The company helps businesses to improve how they connect with their customers. It helps contact centre operators improve their customer experience; set and manage agent efficiency and effectiveness KPIs; optimise proactive outbound productivity; and use new ways of communicating, like social media, to engage in positive customer dialogue. ProtoCall One is considered

NHS Direct to channel shift services online with a digital symptom checker, helping it save more than £100 million in year one. Other customers include the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the DVLA, NHS Hammersmith and Fulham, NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney, and JISC. Eduserv is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to helping the public and education sectors save money through web technology. Services include web development, content management and hosting. FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01225 474300 contact@eduserv.org.uk www.eduserv.org.uk/ web-development

as the leading Genesys solution expert with hands-on experience of many complex projects. Its training and consultancy practices help call centre leaders implement hosted and virtual operations; integrate home agents; fully exploit selfservice and proactively reduce call volumes. It also assists companies to implement best practice in their contact centres and to benchmark current performance to build business cases for their future technology investment. The company supports customers from its headquarters in Buckinghamshire, UK and in Sydney, Australia. FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 0800 881 8130 www.pc-1.co.uk

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THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY – www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

Good Comms Awards saw Siteimprove clients winning Good Communication Awards nominated five councils, three out of the five are Siteimprove clients. • Derbyshire County Council won Local Authority Website of the Year • Lincolnshire County Council won Government Website of the Year “Winning Government Website of the Year is a great honour for us. We have worked hard on the new site but tools such as Siteimprove have made our job much easier and ensures the customer gets the best service possible,” said Gemma Fairless, Lincolnshire County Council. The web is the most cost efficient transaction from an internal financial perspective. Some figures in terms of average cost are: a web transaction will cost an organisation £0.32, a phonecall around £2.90, and face-to-face contact £7.40. Increasing the accessibility and user-friendliness of your website drives more users to obtain information directly from your website. Identifying and eliminating issues that can discourage your users and force them to contact you through the more expensive channels, will save your organisation time and money. As attention on quality websites increases, it is important to protect the credibility of your website and organisation by avoiding spelling errors. In a recent news article The BBC stated: “Spelling mistakes ‘cost millions’ in lost online sales.” Manual quality control of a website is time

consuming. A non-automated review of 1,000 pages can potentially cost over £2,000 in staff time. Siteimprove can run these checks for you, automatically reducing unnecessary cost and increasing productivity equally. At the same time, Siteimprove is using client feedback to create an easy-to-use interface that takes them directly to each of the issues identified. Siteimprove’s tools are used by both individual web masters and large web teams with hundreds of editors. Our clients are assigned a dedicated account manager to

Want an award of your own? Get a free review to show you the current state of your website in terms of broken links, spelling mistakes and accessibility problems. Sign up for your FREE review here:

www.siteimprove.co.uk/gtaug11

If you sign up for SiteCheck before Oct. 1st you get a 15% discount on the first year’s subscription. SiteCheck from Siteimprove is currently used to improve 214 Council websites, 30 Central Government websites, 33 University and college websites.

You can join them in the run for the Good Communications Awards. Get a quote for SiteCheck on: www.sitemprove.co.uk/gtaug11 or by calling us on: 0845 226 8050.

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ensure they reach their goals. We excel in providing outstanding service to each client. Want to save time and increase website usability and credibility? Join one of our free webinars to see how. See the session schedule and sign up on http://siteimprove.co.uk/gtaug11 FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: +44 (0)845 2268050 http://siteimprove.co.uk info@siteimprove.com

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Genesys software solutions Customer contact made easier for local authorities and the public sector and their citizens Genesys software solutions from Alcatel-Lucent manage customer interactions over phone, web and mobile devices. The Genesys customer interaction solutions enable conversations across multiple channel and resources – self-service, assistedservice and proactive outreach – fulfilling customer requests and optimising customer care goals while efficiently using resources. Genesys software directs more than 100 million customer interactions every day for 4,000 companies and government agencies in 80 countries. Genesys has a substantial footprint in the UK public sector in central government and local authorities. These companies and agencies leverage their entire organisation, from the contact centre to the back office, while dynamically engaging their customers. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise serves more than 250,000 customers worldwide with solutions that transform communications into meaningful conversations among customers, employees and

partners. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise comprises three business streams: Genesys, for customer service software; Communications, for communications platforms, unified communications and collaboration applications; Networks, for network infrastructure and security solutions for LAN, WLAN, WAN and data centre. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise offers an unmatched commitment to openness and delivers solutions for all business sizes. These solutions drive improved employee and customer engagement by interconnecting networks, people, and processes to harness an organisation’s knowledge. FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01276 457000 www.genesyslab.com caroline.finch@ alcatel-lucent.com

Asidua delivers technology solutions focused on transforming the way public sector organisations interact with their customers and how they deliver their services. Asidua solutions are designed to maximise efficiency across business processes leading to significant operational savings without sacrificing customer satisfaction. For local authorities the Asidua Customer Contact Platform™ (CCP), which is built on Microsoft technologies, makes it easier to improve customer contact, promote channel shift, maximise oneand-done, minimise avoidable contact and ensure that services are delivered effectively, reliably and in minimal time. CCP achieves this through an end to end integrated business process led approach, providing the authority features such as customer self-service, a workflow driven contact centre desktop, an efficient CRM, dynamic

dashboards and reports, back office system integration, mobile fulfilment and more. With CCP many local authorities, including the London Borough of Harrow, South Gloucestershire and Chorley, are benefiting from: • Lower operating costs • Increased customer satisfaction • Front and back office systems integration • End-to-end process management • Compliance with legislation and best practise • Management channel shift and take-up • Rich management information FOR MORE INFORMATION www.asidua.com/ccp

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2e2 is Europe’s fastest growing ICT lifecycle services provider; an agile, customer-focused provider with a broad portfolio of transformational ICT services to meet today’s requirements. We guide authorities towards their goals through a combination of deep-level sector and technical expertise, an extensive knowledge of today’s technologies, including innovations around web and cloud computing, and a proven, capable implementation and services infrastructure. 2e2 helps authorities improve efficiency, reduce data centre and infrastructure costs, meet the challenges of localism and the Big Society, and address assurance and governance requirements. Our successful programmes are delivered through a mix of professional and project resource services as well as through training and consultancy. 2e2 has worked with 28 London boroughs as

solutions are designed for local government and, working closely with you, we’ll tailor everything around your specific needs. This means that everything works better for you and you have more money to spend on the services that matter in your area. FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 0113 3884300 publicsector@ callcreditgroup.com www.callcredit.co.uk/ publicsectorsolutions

well as regional local authorities and many organisations within the health services sector. Within our Local and Regional Government (LRG) team our solutions are centered on three broad propositions; Equipping Employees, One Contact and Could it be Cloud? 2e2 is based in Newbury, Berkshire, has a turnover of £430 million and employs in excess of 2,500 staff. We have over 12 years’ experience in providing transformational ICT solutions to local and regional government clients. FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01635 568000 Fax: 01635 568001 lrg@2e2.com www.2e2.com/lrg

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Enterprise DB

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There Are Many Obstacles To Business Vendor Lock-in Shouldn’t be One Of Them! Maintaining expensive database infrastructures and dealing with vendor licensing fee increases shouldn’t be part of everyday business. Consider Postgres Plus Advanced Server your key to break free from your vendor’s shackles, and regain control of your database infrastructure. The benefits of migrating to Postgres Plus Advanced Server include:

A subscription structure with no licensing fees, so you are not forced into long-term contracts Dramatically reduces your cost structure by over 80% compared to other proprietary database vendors Performance, Security and Support parity to other proprietary database vendors, but at Open Source economics Please contact us to learn more about EnterpriseDB and the benefits that migrating to Postgres Plus Advanced Server provides: sales@abtech-uk.com | 0845 456 2393 Our Partners Include:

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SOFTWARE

HAS OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE’S DAY FINALLY ARRIVED? Dr Graham Oakes looks at the benefits and barriers of open source software adoption in UK public sector organisations The Conservatives came into government with a manifesto commitment to “create a level playing field for open source.” Before that, Labour published its ‘2009 Action Plan on Open Source, Open Standards and ReUse.’ With an imperative to cut costs and cross-party support, open source must be flooding across Whitehall, mustn’t it? So where do we stand? Here are some of the realities behind open source. THE CHEAP OPTION? Say open source and the first thing many people think is no licence fees. The attractions are obvious: licence fees are a highly visible element of many software projects. Eliminate them and you make some significant cost savings. Sadly, it’s not that simple. Licence fees are

the tip of the software iceberg. Installation and configuration can add significantly to overall costs. Training adds yet more. And the organisational change management necessary to actually deliver benefits can dwarf all these. If open source inflates such costs, it may not be cheap at all. In reality, open source can create costs in different areas. The range of products itself

Open Source

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creates costs. In web content management, for example, there are a dozen credible open source products. And comparing them requires work: you can’t send out an RFI, as most of them don’t have a pre-sales organisation to respond. You have to do the analysis yourself. (The cost of pre-sales is built into proprietary licence fees. You pay for it whether you need it or not. Open source just unbundles this cost, making it visible.) Pilots and proofs of concept may also create costs. These represent good practice when selecting any software, proprietary or open source, but you may need more of them for open source: the infrastructure of documentation, training companies, etc, tends to be less well developed. There may also be costs involved with configuration and integration. Open source doesn’t mean non-commercial. The vendors still need to pay their mortgages and they often do this by charging for configuration and integration. Customisation may also cost. When developers have access to source code, E

Licence fees are the tip of the software iceberg. Installation and configuration can add significantly to overall costs. Training adds yet more. And the organisational change management necessary to actually deliver benefits can dwarf all these.

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RED HAT

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of Enterprise grade Open Source solutions, offering a Cost-Effective, Reliable and Secure alternative to governments building Open Source IT infrastructures.

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For over 10 years, Red Hat has been successfully assisting governments reduce public sector spending, without compromising on efficiency and IT targets. Governments have achieved savings of up-to 80% as a result of standardising on Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux (RHEL) server technology; and are expanding their IT infrastructure developments with Red Hat’s JBoss Enterprise Middleware technology. Open Source offers improved Security, Reliability and greater Transparency. As a result, government agencies from around the world are turning to Red Hat to reduce their Costs, improve their Efficiency and Service Delivery, and eliminate Vendor Lock-in.

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SOFTWARE

Open source is distinct to open standards, but most products work naturally with open standards. This can reduce the cost of integrating with other systems. It can also reduce end-of-lifecycle costs to move from one system to another. E there’s a risk they’ll tweak it more than strictly necessary. This can also make it more difficult to apply upgrades in future. Support may also be another area of cost. Community support for some open source products is excellent. Even so, many organisations want the certainty that comes with service level agreements. This requires paid-for support, another area where open source vendors make their money. When you explore such costs, you may find that open source can be pretty expensive. It may still be cheaper than proprietary software. Or it may not. You need to do the analysis. LOW RISK SOFTWARE? As you do this analysis you may find that open source has a very different spend profile to proprietary software. Licence fees are often front-loaded: there’s a large initial sum then a smaller annual support fee. Open source incurs some upfront costs for product selection, but it never has that lump sum. Instead, you tend to proceed incrementally. After each increment,

you decide whether to commit further. Phasing commitment reduces risk. Consider what happens when you commit to a large upfront investment. In order to justify the investment, you look for additional benefits. Each of those requires changes to the system. Scope creeps. Before you know it, you have a much larger project. Yet there’s one thing we know for sure about software projects: large ones are much more likely to fail. If open source helps avoid this trap, it can save a lot of money. Open source may provide other benefits too, for example, through reduced lock in. Open source is distinct to open standards, but most open source products work naturally with open standards. This can reduce the cost of integrating with other systems. It can also reduce end-of-lifecycle costs to move from one system to another. Other benefits include easier integration. Encapsulation and information hiding are generally signs of well-designed systems, but sometimes you need to see how something

Open Source

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works in order to understand how to work with it. Open source facilitates this. Fewer licensing issues is another benefit. Proprietary licensing can require complex usage tracking and accounting. Open source rarely requires this. This is a growing issue as organisations move to the cloud: tracking licence usage as the number of virtual servers expands and contracts in response to demand can be a major constraint to deployment of proprietary applications. Support for community-based innovation is another benefit. Open source often works well for web 2.0 applications. It can also work well when developing systems that will be shared between non-competing organisations: open source licensing facilitates management of common intellectual property. Most of these benefits come from reducing risk rather than directly reducing costs. But reducing risk is often the best way to reduce long term costs. A GROWING RANGE OF APPLICATIONS Open source has traditionally been strong for techie tools. A programmer writes some code to solve a problem he’s experiencing. He shares it with his mates, and an open source product is born. This model expanded to cover technical infrastructure (Linux, Apache), and then moved up the stack to databases and so on. Highly mature open source products are now available for many technical applications. Products are emerging for E

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One Point Consulting specialises in Open Source, Enterprise Architecture, Technology Consulting and Technology Governance. Our core team come from Global Systems Integration and Big 4 management consulting organisations. Our expertise in Enterprise and Systems Architecture has allowed us to design mission critical systems for our FTSE 100 clients. We bring this rigour

in the selection and adoption of open source solutions. We can help you gain the advantages of Open Source, reduce risk and provide high quality implementation and support. We believe that open source and open standards are paving the next generation of Enterprise IT. Make an informed decision and realise the benefits of open source.

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SOFTWARE E business applications too: • Web content management. Open source grew in parallel with the web, so open source content management systems (CMS) are often as mature and functional as proprietary ones. • Document management. Several open source document management systems have come onto the market in recent years. • Business Intelligence. Another area where strong products are emerging. • Customer Relationship Management. Open source isn’t as mature as some proprietary systems, but it’s good enough for many purposes. Where CRM overlaps social media, open source often takes the lead. Proprietary software may still have the edge for highly demanding transactional applications, but open source can compete in a growing range of domains. ADOPTION IS GROWING Open source isn’t a panacea, but it certainly has attractions. Is this translating into adoption across the public sector? There are some high profile case studies. Whitehouse.gov uses Drupal, an open source CMS. The Metropolitan Police and the CIA also use open source CMS (suggesting they’re happy about security). Several local

authorities have made public commitments to open source. There’s a vocal community of open source users within schools and universities. But it’s hard to see whether such case studies constitute a trend. This highlights another quirk of open source: being more community-based than proprietary software, it can be hard to gather comparable statistics. Traditional measures of market share, based on licence revenue, don’t apply. So we’re left with analyst surveys. These show a number of trends: • Coverage is growing. Most analysts now cover open source. Likewise, many consultancies have open source practices. These firms wouldn’t be moving into open source if they didn’t see demand for it. • Most analysts believe adoption is growing. This is now an almost universal opinion, at least regarding corporate adoption of open source. It also applies to the public sector in many European countries. • The UK public sector is lagging. Another widely held opinion: the UK public sector is perceived to be lagging both other European countries and UK corporates.

About the author

Open Source Software

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY – www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

Graham Oakes helps people untangle complex technology, relationships, processes and governance. He is a member of the committee of the BCS Open Source Specialist Group, and much of the information in this article is derived from its meetings. However all opinions expressed here represent Dr Oakes’ personal view. His book Project Reviews, Assurance and Governance is published by Gower. He can be contacted through www.grahamoakes.co.uk or at graham@grahamoakes.co.uk

WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS? I suspect open source adoption is being held back by some systemic issues. E

UK digital future to fail without government focus – UKFast round table calls for state backing on skills The government needs to invest in training developers in open source platforms if the country is to stand a chance of competing with its American and European counterparts in digital development, said experts in software development at a recent round table discussion. They agreed that open source frameworks are crucial for the continued growth of the UK’s technology and digital industries and support from government should be more forthcoming. Stuart Howarth, co-founder and director of KOKO Digital, said: “We use open source frameworks to develop games. Open source is available for developers to download and use but it’s not the be all and end all. You still have to know how to utilise those frameworks in the right way but its availability and accessibility certainly makes the journey a lot simpler. “It’s great that people are sharing code and sharing what others have developed and, crucially, making that free for other people to use. For us, it’s invaluable; we have budgets to meet and deadlines and open source potentially saves hours in our development process.” Carl Browns, sales and marketing director for Wirebox and Flairsoft, agreed and called

for a better understanding from government about the needs of the digital industry. He said: “If you want to scale your proposition quickly, open source platforms allow you to do that. For us to build a game from the ground up without using these platforms can take a lot longer. You are essentially cutting development time in half by using open source platforms – it helps us from a business point of view to get more work done.” Jonathan Bowers, communications director at UKFast, which organised the event,

pointed out that the need for better qualified internet programmers does not just lie within the digital industries: “Every business now relies heavily on coded programmes to function and the latest push into cloud technology is bringing these applications, e-mail and websites together. Competing in any industry now depends on the quality of digital skills the company possesses.” Martin Butcher, owner of Krypton TV, emphasised the need for any training to be well-targeted. He said: “It would be much better to develop well rounded programmers who understand the principles of programming whatever the language rather than training them in something that is a fad. “The government is actually very bad at targeting money where it’s needed. What we don’t want is people who just have the latest buzzwords on their CV.” Howarth continued: “Open source is very much a cost saving exercise. “Innovation is what is driving the open source community. People like Microsoft have dominated the market for such a long time and frustrations lie in that. People want to better it and stop relying on big corporations to deliver the products.”

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The power and cost of flexibility: Why are open source solutions right for you? Linalis has specialised in providing open source solutions to governmental bodies, non-governmental organisations and the private sector since 2002. Starting life as a training company, to enable organisations to benefit from open source, we now continue to train, consult and provide project resources in this domain. Linalis specialises in business intelligence solutions, web applications and the supporting infrastructure. We have long standing relationships with governmental bodies, where we help develop their migration programmes and consult on individual projects. There are many opportunities to benefit from open source, but focusing on the right things and aligning them with the organisations goals, is just as important with open source as it is with any IT programme. A “big bang” is rarely the right approach. This is where Linalis brings its wealth of knowledge and experience pre, during and post an open source project. License-free, commercially supported open source solutions, allow organisations to invest the up-front cost savings into tailor made applications built to meet their specific needs. Proprietary solutions tend to be less flexible and do not stand the test of time. Customisations that overcome functional inflexibility significantly hamper future product upgrades, which are often postponed or skipped

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE Volume | 10.5

as a result. Open source customisations on the other hand, allow the developers to add value to the core code through module or extension developments, thus reducing the cost of the license-free product upgrade process and ultimately the total cost of ownership and speed to market of new functionality. Open source projects have large communities of contributors where new functionalities and extensions are quality controlled by the core development team before being included or made available. This is very attractive since that community consists of both end clients and suppliers of value added services to them. The functionality delivered is therefore directly driven by the end users and their needs. These are some of the reasons why we believe that open source will continue

to become the preferred approach. Linalis is a multi-lingual, multi-cultural, fast growing organisation expanding from its Swiss roots into various parts of Europe and currently employing British, Dutch, French, Guinean, Hungarian, Italian, Irish and Malian as well as Swiss consultants. Join us at one of our online or offline events, training courses or workshops or ask us for a customised programme. Steve Adams is the managing director of Linalis. FOR MORE INFORMATION Make IT Happen and follow us: @linalis or @sadams3004 Tel: +41 22 3483015 Fax: +41 22 3483016 info@linalis.com www.linalis.com

SOFTWARE

Open Source

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TransferSummit

Open source does indeed offer attractions to the public sector. But until these bottlenecks are addressed, it’s probably going to remain confined to the pockets of enthusiasts who are prepared to learn about it for themselves. E For a start, open source thrives in a knowledge-based economy rather than a purely financial one. A proprietary product dies quickly if it achieves few sales; an open source product can live for a long time on the enthusiasm of a small community. So market-based filters are weaker. Likewise, few open source products invest in brand-building. This places the onus on purchasers to build their own knowledge. Open source also operates a different business model to proprietary software. It gains revenue from integration and support rather than licence fees. It unbundles elements like pre-sales support. It pushes revenue away from the centre (the vendor) out to a diffuse network of, typically small, integrators. Procurement processes that have grown around proprietary business models are ill-matched to this different model. For example, there is little incentive for open source vendors to get their products onto public sector catalogues: they

get no direct revenue from product sales. Likewise, small integrators tend to avoid bureaucratic public sector procurements. Stemming from this, procuring open source may require more work from the purchasing organisation. Without pre-sales support, purchasers need to undertake more analysis themselves. They need developers to conduct pilots. They may need to actively encourage small integrators to bid for implementations. All this needs to be managed within the bounds of procurement law. Yet procurement officers often lack the time and skills needed to do this. So it would hardly be surprising if procurement officers are reluctant to consider open source options. Open source does indeed offer attractions to the public sector. But until these bottlenecks are addressed, it’s probably going to remain confined to the pockets of enthusiasts who are prepared to learn about it for themselves. L

TransferSummit has announced that visionaries from the UK Government Skunkworks project and analyst firm RedMonk will present at the premiere open source event for IT executives and researchers 5-8 September in Oxford. James Governor, co-founder of open source analyst firm RedMonk, will give a keynote presentation titled ‘Open business and the open society: the price of freedom is eternal vigilance’. The must-attend gathering for intelligent conversation focuses on the opportunities and implications of open source across technologies, industries, and innovations. Participants will have a unique opportunity to listen from and pose questions to members of the UK government Skunkworks project, created to develop lowcost, fast and agile ICT solutions. A special plenary session by Tariq Rashid, lead architect, Home Office, titled ‘UK Government open source action plan’ will provide an in-depth view on bringing open standards, development, and innovation to government systems. This session will launch lively, open-forum debates on strategies and best practices for levelling the procurement playing field. A plenary session by Mark O’Neill, chief information officer: DCMS Open Data Campaign/Communities and Local Government, and founder: Cabinet Office Skunkworks project, titled ‘Innovating in government ICT’ will begin the second day’s sessions. Audience members will have the opportunity to address business and technology concerns and provide feedback, from which select topics will form part of the agenda for a roundtable government summit to be held immediately following. Facilitated by key members of the TransferSummit team, the interactive, by-invitation-only group will allow solutions providers, systems integrators, vendors, and government representatives the opportunity to focus on solving myriad challenges in adopting and deploying solutions across government domains. TransferSummit connects top researchers and academics with business leaders and organisations, streamlining the innovation and resource discovery process, cultivating partnerships, and accelerating the process of commercialising products. For more information please see www.transfersummit.com Twitter: @TransferSummit

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BUILD & REDESIGN

Web Design

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WEBSITES FOR EVERYONE The public sector needs to consider design when communicating over the web, says Tom McEwan, chair of BCS Interaction Specialist Group, and Howard Gerlis, chair of BCS Internet Specialist Group We live in an information society. In 2010, 30.1 million adults in the UK (60 per cent) accessed the internet every day or almost every day. This is nearly double the estimate in 2006 of 16.5 million. People expect to access what they want via the net and that includes public services. To meet this need the government has set out to ensure that its services are visible and since 2006 the Cabinet Office has had a policy to improve the visibility and operations of government websites. The focus has been on focused on migrating all transactions services to two ‘supersites’: www.direct.gov.uk for citizens and www.businesslink.gov.uk for businesses. UNDERSTANDING USERS With more and more public services being put online, many local government departments are looking to build or redesign websites, so what should they be looking to ensure when doing so?

ISO13407 and now part 210 of ISO9241). Today, you would hope that public sector websites would reflect this, but the reality is far from it. We still see sites that feature poor information architecture, lack of basic accessibility, as well as sites that are unsuitable for use on small screens (such as smartphones or tablets) and interaction based on how the organisation manages itself rather than activities the users carry out. Usability is key to the quality of the user’s experience and consequently, ultimately, the success of the website. Usability measures the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. This can be across a website, an application, whether on a PC, smartphone, tablet or any user-operated device. Usability is a combination of factors including the following which are based on the Usability Framework by Jakob Nielson: • How easy the system is to use • How well the system’s interface maps to

Today, you would hope that public sector websites would reflect this, but the reality is far from it. We still see sites that feature poor information architecture, lack of basic accessibility, as well as sites that are unsuitable for use on small screens (such as smartphones or tablets) and interaction based on how the organisation manages itself rather than activities the users carry out. Websites should be designed to suit newcomers and experienced users. This means it’s important to build a site with a user-centered design process; a design that meets the needs of the user. The definitions of usability have been standardised for two decades, and the latest international standard (ISO 9241) contains a specific section (part 151) for web usability. This extends our understanding of usability beyond simple ease of use into understanding more deeply who is using the site and what they want to achieve. This requires design of both structure of content and navigation, building in error-tolerance as well as usable help and search functions. USABILITY It’s over ten years since the e-Envoy mandated the use of human-centred design (then

what someone is trying to do • How well the system allows people to remember how to do things • How well the system prevents errors and allows recovery from them • How satisfied a user is with the system. EXPERT ADVICE Experts from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, also advise designers to consider such things as: • Will the site work consistently in all browsers. Is the navigation straightforward with minimum number of clicks to find what you’re looking for? • Is there an internal site keyword search. Make sure the content is up to date and well written. • The use of plain English is obviously of great importance.

• Keep the design simple and clear. Keep fonts simple and ensure it can be resized for accessibility. • Ensure where possible that pages will print as good as the page on the screen. Think about how the design will translate to mobile devices including smartphones, tablets and apps. • Forms need to be well constructed, with clear guidelines on what is optional and what is compulsory. • It is useful to highlight input errors with clear error messages so that people can easily see where they have gone wrong. • Ensure simple colour schemes for page, backgrounds, text, images, making it easy on the eye. • Provide links to other useful websites, whether government or elsewhere. • If payments are to be made over the site, they must be secure and shown to be so. An additional benefit for the user is to confirm payment with an e-mail to the recipient. ACCESSIBILITY One of the most important things that has to be considered by any web designer today is accessibility. OneVoice for Accessible ICT, a coalition that brings organisations together to develop a shared agenda for change in accessible and useable ICT so that business and society can enjoy maximum benefits, has published a set of seven steps to accessible websites. They are form the basic steps that organisation need to take on the journey to accessibility and include: • Publish an accessibility policy • Do a quick accessibility check • Provide a “contact us” function • Add alternative text to pictures and links • Add “jump to content” link • Ensure tab sequence is logical • Ensure text sizing works These are the basics first steps that any organisation can begin with. One Voice has more details which can be found at www.onevoiceict.org STANDARD FOR DIGITAL INCLUSION In addition, there is now also a British Standard (BS 8878) to address the need for digital inclusion. It applies to all web products, including websites, web-services and webbased workplace applications (e.g. web-based e-mail interface) that are delivered to users via Internet Protocol, through a web browser. Designed for non technical professionals, the standard introduces the principles of improved accessibility, usability and user E

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BUILD & REDESIGN E experience for disabled and older people. It is beneficial to anyone new to the subject, providing advice on the process involved. The standard, which is referenced in the UK Government’s e-Accessibility Action Plan as the basis of updated advice on developing accessible online services, includes recommendations for involving disabled people in the development process and using automated tools to assist with accessibility testing; and the management of the guidance and process for upholding existing accessibility guidelines and specifications. MP WEB AWARDS BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, supports and encourages digital literacy and accessibility for all. The professional body holds the annual MP Web Awards, where it looks to raise awareness of the importance of good web communication between MPs and their constituents. The Awards look to showcase good practice amongst MPs, praising those who are using the internet, both through websites and web 2.0 technologies such as social media, to truly engage in a two way conversation with constituents. The Awards have also shone a light on the issue of accessibility and accessible websites – those engineered so that all members of the public, including people with disabilities, can access, read and respond to them. AbilityNet has

been involved in the judging of this category. It’s been true to say that since the beginning of the Awards, the number of sites that are accessible has improved slightly, however, more still needs to be done. MPs sites are once again under scrutiny by the Institute in the 2011 Awards. OTHER SERVICES Websites are only part of the story, however, and one of the benefits of the change in attitude in both the current and previous government, is that many public data sets are becoming available, not just as fixed documents but as sources of data that can be “mashed up” with for example geodata such as Google Earth or Microsoft Live Maps. This has led to sites that that can, for example, display levels of crime in your street, school funding in different districts of your city or broadband speed and availability when you’re house hunting. Websites are one way to present this data to the public, but increasingly it’s done through apps – small, cheap software applications for Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile or BlackBerry. These apps can gather data in real time, perhaps based on your location to deliver LBS (location-based services). The public sector needs to get smarter in supplying its own apps, to run on each of these platforms (Android phones now

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outnumber iPhones for example) and to deliver the information that the organisation wants to share to match up with the ambitions of the user. For example, there are opportunities for the NHS to let my electronic diary know that there’s a cancellation this afternoon if I’m waiting for an appointment and my location suggests I can make it in time. INTERACTION Equally councils could encourage more interaction with their citizens for example if users have already supplied the council with the list of potholes in the district, why can’t they now suggest the priorities to fix? And emergency services could benefit from an app that gives people an alternative to dialling 999. The app could capture and notify the location and allows us (and others) to identify urgency and seriousness of the situation and which service we require, and perhaps receive information on video call to advise us on how to cope with the emergency. As we move into the post-website world, into the era of the Internet of things, the public sector has the chance to leapfrog the limitations of earlier technologies – if they put people first, and understand the end user. L FOR MORE INFORMATION www.bcs.org

When everyone matters You can count on us Compliance with web standards isn’t just about the law – we all know it makes really sound business sense to be fully inclusive. Achieving it though isn’t always that easy and finding genuine expert help and advice can be a challenge. So working with Britain’s only independent pan disability testing and accreditation operation, formed with people from every major disability group, can really add value to your organisation’s web presence and applications. Many years of technical and ‘real world’ experience combine with a pragmatic and can do approach that has just recently benefitted organisations as wide ranging as Channel 4, Department of Health, Cap Gemini, Audit Scotland and M&S Money. For an informal chat about how we could help you please call Cam Nicholl on 07597 690358 or visit us at http://www.digitalaccessibilitycentre.org .

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and is very cumbersome to manage. Public sector organisations that replace spreadsheets with a more intelligent budgeting, planning and forecasting system realise immediate benefits. These include reduced budget preparation time, greater financial control, more accurate data and improved decision making.

In these financially though times the public sector should look to intelligent budgeting, planning and forecasting systems, says the Business Application Software Developers Association Following the government spending cuts it is imperative that public sector finance professionals have the means to gain greater insight into departmental budgets and streamline their budgeting, planning and

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forecasting processes. Although using Excel spreadsheets typically remains the preferred method for many large organisations, this method lacks any real data control, does not provide real-time financial information

Following the government spending cuts it is imperative that public sector finance professionals have the means to gain greater insight into departmental budgets and streamline their budgeting, planning and forecasting processes.

IMPROVED EFFICIENCY Gloucester City Council has improved its business efficiency by using a budgeting and forecasting system from Advanced Business Solutions (ABS). This system, Collaborative Planning, has helped the council to reduce its budget loading time from ten days to just minutes and to better monitor, evaluate and improve its financial performance by replacing spreadsheets. The web-based budgeting and forecasting system, which has been tightly integrated into Gloucester City Councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existing ABS financial management system, enables the creation and real-time monitoring of financial plans and forecasts. Budgetary information can be quickly extracted, consolidated and reported to authorised users, eliminating time-consuming manual processes and the consolidation of spreadsheets. INTEGRATING PROCESSES Local government offices dealing with payments from the public can benefit from E

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Rewarding excellence in public sector ICT The UK Public Sector Digital Awards (PSDAs) is the leading awards program for rewarding excellence in public sector ICT. Formerly the e-Government Awards, the PSDAs celebrate the role of public sector ICT in the UK, and recognise achievements of the hard-pressed ICT professionals whose work enables the delivery of the vital public services that are sometimes take for granted. The awards, endorsed by the Cabinet Office, are free to enter and open to all public and third sector organisations. The winners are announced and awarded at a prestigious dinner event in January. As well as in-house public sector teams, private sector partner companies are encouraged to nominate public

sector projects which showcase best practice and achievement across a range of categories. The Awards are produced by leading business to business online publisher Sift Media and presented in association with PublicTechnology.net, Sift Mediaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s market-leading public sector ICT online community. Nominations are open until 6 October, after which a panel of judges, including government CIO Joe Harley, will select the final shortlist. The gala dinner ceremony at the prestigious Guildhall in London will be held on Monday, 19 January. FOR MORE INFORMATION www.ukpublicsector digitalawards.co.uk

Rewarding excellence in public sector ICT

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FINANCE SOLUTIONS

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to financial information through system evolution, not revolution, valuable content can be unlocked securely at an extremely low cost that brings savings within weeks.

One of the biggest challenges in public sector organisations today is how to maximise the value of the vast amounts of information captured across databases, departments and projects. E software that integrates all front office processes such as payments, correspondence and other daily administrative information into a central database. With a fully integrated business management and accounting software system, these front office activities can work with the same data as back office activities such as despatching, invoicing and accounting. My.N from Accounting Office is such a system. It is fully integrated to Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel, giving an easy familiarity to users. This allows storage of any incoming or outgoing mail, along with attachments, in the back-office database. Documents may be generated automatically from templates, that can be then logged, stored or retrieved by any staff member as appropriate. Public sector organisations, however, often use multiple software applications to manage the financial information of a customer. Very often these systems will have little or no integration, and some may be limited in access to just a few users. In some customer facing roles within a local authority, an officer may need to open several screens to form a complete view of the customer.

LIGHT INTEGRATION A growing number of authorities are reaping the rewards of a new form of light integration – using SmartPoint (a member of TIS Software group) to leverage the benefits of a unified desktop without the set up complexity. SmartPoint uses Active Intelligence to deliver information to an officer’s desktop without the need to search. Using SmartPoint, intelligence about the customer is delivered to a sidebar alongside the application most commonly used. The information, drawn from multiple data sources both online and offline, is relevant to the record in view at a precise moment in time. It is additionally relevant to an officer’s specific role, the service being delivered and the data required to deliver the service. By showing information in this way the officer is presented with a complete view without needing to know where to look for details. Additionally, for the IT team, traditional complex integration is not needed between multiple finance systems from different vendors. Using SQL queries and web service requests to add information to the sidebar, SmartPoint cleverly decouples the data viewed from the original source. By improving access

VALUE OF INFORMATION As shown, one of the biggest challenges in public sector organisations today is how to maximise the value of the vast amounts of information captured across databases, departments and projects. Logix4 (from UNIT4) is a self-service customised data analysis tool developed specifically to enable users of all ability levels to interact visually with key business information. Using simple drag-and-drop actions, users can explore standard metrics, while answering their own ad hoc questions with ease, building up powerful views to answer queries in a simple step-by-step way. File4 (from UNIT4), a Software-as-aService (SaaS) solution powered by Seahorse from CoreFiling, enables UK public sector organisations to convert MS Word-based corporation tax statutory accounts data to the iXBRL format, as required by HM Revenue & Customs (HRMC). File4 is a straightforward, competitively priced solution that will allow organisations to rapidly comply with HRMC’s format requirements, without the need for additional software to be installed. It is a secure on-demand service which provides predictive intelligent tagging of UK GAAP or IFRS company accounts in MS Word format, converting them into iXBRL. Unlike other tools, File4 is highly intuitive. Conversion to iXBRL is largely automatic, requiring minimal user intervention and no specific knowledge of iXBRL. Finally, customers of UNIT4’s Agresso Business World solution already have the tools they need to meet the government’s requirements and generate open data in the correct CSV file format on a monthly basis – without external assistance. LINKED DATA To address the open data requirement further, UNIT4 has developed a utility, Linked4, which will allow customers and non-customers of UNIT4’s suite of products, to have access to their data in a linked format – exceeding the government’s current requirement. Linked4 enables any public sector organisation to publish data in a linked format via the web allowing it to be crossreferenced and available to search by anyone, in any combination. This presents an advantage by allowing UNIT4 customers to provide more meaningful transparency and will also accelerate the government’s aim of holding public bodies to account, delivering better value for money in public spending and helping cut the record deficit. L FOR MORE INFORMATION www.basda.org

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EVENT PREVIEW

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THE REALITY OF THREATS

Increase your resilience in the contested 5th domain

Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence will deliver an update on the state of international cyber law, standards and regulation, and finally, the conference will conclude with a forecast of the future of information security, provided by ISSA president Tim Holman.

Cyber attacks on private and state networks have dramatically increased in frequency, scope and sophistication in recent years. Simultaneously, as our infrastructure becomes more interconnected, the number of access points and possible targets grow. Pair this with continuous technological advances and you are left with a dynamic, highly contested threat landscape. Launching in London 24-26 October, Cyber Resilience 2011 offers cyber practitioners a forum in which to come together and discuss the most pressing issues in this contested domain. Whilst providing policy updates from key UK, US and international cyber agencies, this streamed conference will move beyond strategy into the reality of the threat. Through departmental case studies and operational insight, Cyber Resilience will address key challenges including how to protect the new generation of critical infrastructure, the viability of public sector clouds, information assurance and the often over looked human threat. THE BENEFITS OF ATTENDING Benefits of attendance include: • Free public sector attendance for serving military and public sector personnel • Explore the reality of advanced persistent threats to ensure your security strategy maintains pace with the evolving threat landscape • Understand the threats to the new critical infrastructure in order to prepare

your defences for emerging vulnerabilities • Keep informed on the essentials of cyber security technology through ‘Cyber Technology 101’, an exclusive interactive workshop led by NATO scientists Day one of the conference opens with an overview of national cyber strategies with case studies provided by the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance as well as Space and Cyber Operations in the US Air Force. The briefings will reveal current national capabilities and requirements, as well as the projected direction of national cyber policy. Marty Edwards, director of the Control Systems Security Program at the Department of Homeland Security will lead the debate on the evolving critical national infrastructure, with briefings covering SCADA and smart grid security. Meanwhile in a parallel stream, the EU Commission and the ISF will assess the viability of public sector clouds. Day one concludes with exclusive operational insights provided by various UK Government departments, including the Department of Health, the Cabinet Office and DSTL. Day two of the conference will analyse the anatomy of an attack, looking at detection, prevention and mitigation methods as well as the prospects of attribution. A ‘human factor’ stream will cover the cyber workforce crisis, with best practices for recruiting, training and retaining an elite cyber workforce as well as a briefing from CERT on the insider threat. Legal experts from NATO’s Cooperative

WHO WILL YOU HEAR FROM? With a speaker panel drawn from key national and international organisations, Cyber Resilience offers extended insights into cyber operations and requirements from across Europe, the US and Asia, provided by 27 experts including: • Major general Edward Bolton, director, Space and Cyber Operations, US Air Force • Mike St John-Green, deputy director, Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance, UK Cabinet Office • Seán McGurk, director, National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, Department of Homeland Security • Marty Edwards, director, Control System Security Program, Department of Homeland Security • Dr Stephen Purser, head of Technical Competence Unit, ENISA • Jesús Villasante, head of Trust and Security, EU Commission • Max Klaus, deputy head, Reporting and Analysis Centre for Information Assurance, Swiss Federal Department of Finance • Roman Palik, scientist and trainer, Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, NATO WHO SHOULD ATTEND? Cyber security pervades every domain. Whether you are an information security officer, a chief technology officer or a control system operator – cyber security is now your business. With attendees from civilian agencies, militaries and solution providers from across Europe, the US and Asia, Cyber Resilience 2011 is your chance to gain a holistic overview from the many facets of the vast cyber community. Clarion understands that budgets are tight in the public sector. As a result, we have become the first and only company to implement a ‘public sector go free’ policy across all our defence and security conferences. L FOR MORE INFORMATION Free passes are limited, early booking is strongly recommended. To claim your free pass please get in touch: Tel: +44 (0)20 73708668 cyber-resilience@clarionevents.com www.cyber-resilience.com

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EVENT REVIEW

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WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER Organised by CESG – the Information Assurance arm of GCHQ – IA11 identified the sheer scale, complexity and challenge of the real and credible threat that cyber security poses with some two billion internet users and over five billion mobile phone connections. And this is only going to grow. The Rt Hon Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, identified cyber crime and cyber espionage as the greatest threats to the safety of the internet, highlighting recent attacks on the CIA, the IMF, Citigroup, Sony, Google and Lockheed Martin among others. “It’s not clear whether these cases signal a new crime wave, or simply that companies are now more confident in admitting data losses,” he said. “But either way they are only the tip of the iceberg.” Art Gilliland, senior vice president, Information Security Group, Symantec, provided a video, bringing together media reports covering recent cyber attacks – demonstrating their scale and sophistication. He said: “We are facing some of the biggest challenges ever seen in the history of Information Assurance. Responding to this challenge is key to the delivery of effective and efficient public sector services.” NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY PROGRAMME Francis Maude, who had responsibility for Cyber Security and Information Assurance added to his ministerial portfolio this summer, reported that strong progress is being achieved by the National Cyber Security Programme. This has now gone live, with £650 million of new funding allotted to cyber security over the next four years. “The UK’s dynamic IA community is helping make the country one of the safest places in the world to conduct business online,” said Neil Thompson, director of the Office for Cyber Security and IA, Cabinet Office. He told IA11 delegates that the IA community had made it easier to start what he described as “a long and challenging journey” towards secure cyber operations in the UK. CONFIDENCE The keynote speakers identified key themes for IA11. Confidence was highlighted by Francis Maude, who spoke of the importance of confidence in realising the potential of ICT systems. “ICT on its own isn’t enough,” he said. “To use it, people must have confidence in it, both inside and outside government. Confidence that it works, confidence that it’s resilient and confidence that it’s secure.

Nobody wants a system that they can’t trust.” He also highlighted the need to prove to the public that we’re not snooping on them – that we’re not using technology to create some Big Brother state. OPPORTUNITY Opportunity was a further key theme. Francis Maude was joined by Iain Lobban, director, GCHQ, in highlighting how as a nation seeking economic advantage, we will achieve a significant boost to our prosperity if we can position the UK as the nation of choice for conducting business in cyberspace and a cyber centre of excellence for skills, technology and knowledge. Iain Lobban highlighted how prosperity will “arise from efficiency savings achieved through solutions that are reused widely” and from international recognition that the “UK cyber environment is a safe place to do business”.

cyber attacks. He urged that cyber security must be “as much the concern of the boardroom as the Cabinet Room”. Victor Chavez, chief executive, Thales UK, picked up the call for collaboration. “Both government and industry have a role to play in keeping the UK’s secrets secret,” he said. “Without a new era of collaboration between the key players, the disruptive and fast moving cyber threats will strip companies and nations of their information assets, intellectual property, data (including personal data) and critically the trust of their customers.”

Written by Ian Muir

IA11 engaged directly with the nature and scale of the threat cyber attacks present to national security and prosperity – and the decisive steps being taken to counter the challenge

STREAM SESSIONS A series of stream sessions then reinforced the messages from keynote speakers. Stream One tackled enabling new ways of working. Darron Stronge, principal IA policy consultant, CESG, told his audience to “strip out the word cloud” and treat it as just another ICT service. Outlining the business benefits of the cloud, he identified flexibility and elasticity of service and payment on demand, low or nil initial investment, pace of delivery and access to a scale of service otherwise unavailable.

PARTNERSHIPS The importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors became a key focus for the event. Jonathan Hoyle, IA11 chairman and director general for

The UK’s dynamic IA community is helping make the country one of the safest places in the world to conduct business online – Francis Maude Information Security and Assurance at GCHQ, highlighted that the over-arching theme of IA11 was that “we are all in this together”. He said that collaboration between government and the private sector was now the only way forward, particularly with the heightened awareness of cyber attacks. Iain Lobban also spoke about the critical partnership with industry that would provide the scale and resources to protect the nation’s ICT systems and infrastructure. “The single most important factor in achieving this will be the development of effective, world-beating partnerships between government and the private sector,” he said. “Bringing together the most senior players from the entire IA community, this event plays a significant role in promoting the exchange of information and understanding between government and industry.” RESPONDING TO THE THREAT There was a call from Francis Maude to industry to respond to the threat from

Stream Two looked at nurturing the skills to help improve IA, with Chris Ensor, CESG technical director and head of profession for IA, said it was critical to have the right skills, knowledge and experience to reduce risk and harm from the threats in cyberspace. It’s vital for businesses and individuals to understand the threats posed by cyber attacks before action can be taken to bring the National Cyber Security Strategy to life. This message came across strongly in Stream Three where speakers looked at how the rapidly changing cyber landscape and the risks attached are exposing some real issues. Delegates attending Stream Four heard how the Olympic Cyber Coordinating Team is already rehearsing its response to likely threats. Delegates also heard firsthand experience of a cyber attack in a case studiy session. Paul Howlett, Intellectual Property Office (formerly the Patent Office) Network Services, detailed how the hactivist group Anonymous carried out a distributed denial of service attack. L

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

The route to your engineer’s potential

Service Management Software & Systems

Workforce Optimisation & Scheduling

Mobile Communications & Hardware

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Great engineers aren’t born: they’re made. Invest in your mobile workforce and see their potential (and your business) flourish. Service Management Expo provides everything needed to make your service offering the best it can possibly be.

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THE ROUTE TO YOUR ENGINEER’S POTENTIAL What is the ‘modern field engineer’ and what can they do for your service provision? Providing service to customers has never been at a more critical stage, with strangled budgets in both private and public sectors posing a constant threat to customer satisfaction. The providers of these services find themselves in an awkward position, trying to bow to commercial pressure while maintaining (and in many cases needing to improve) essential offerings to either fee or tax paying customers. At such a trying time, it is reassuring to know that a renaissance in technology offerings is occurring, which can make life easier, more efficient and in many cases create new revenue streams or at the very least drive up customer satisfaction up. Riding alongside these tech-based progressions, new, holistic ways of thinking about the service offering have sprung up to keep costs low, ideas innovative and complaints to a minimum. In the fiercely competitive service world, these progressions can be hard to discover – but there is one platform available to showcase both the latest tech inventions as well as thought leading approaches to some very tricky problems. Entering its 27th year, Service Management Expo (SME) has maintained a record for tailoring content to suit the ever-shifting demands on service providers. The team at Service Management have undertaken research that proved what we all already suspect, that people receiving services are becoming more demanding and harder to please. This trend, among others, has informed the research solution providers have put into their new offerings, meaning that SME showcases a field of solutions providers in key areas (service management software and systems, workforce optimisation and scheduling, mobile communications and hardware, tracking GPS and fleet management as well as logistics and distribution) who have refined their offering for the climate of 2011. SME, 20-21 September, also displays a maturity in turning the established free educational conference programme’s attention to the human aspect of the service process. The structure of the programme acknowledges that we can throw all the tech we want at a problem, but without understanding the human drives, focuses and possibilities of customers and engineers alike, very little progress will be made. As such, ‘The Modern Field Engineer’ conference looks getting the most from your service staff through technology, systems and training. As your key asset, it is impossible to

At such a trying time, it is reassuring to know that a renaissance in technology offerings is occurring, which can make life easier, more efficient and in many cases create new revenue streams or at the very least drive up customer satisfaction. over-stress the importance of a competent, dependable mobile engineering team. With the service economies progressing, competition will get sharper and the traditional image of the engineers is being eclipsed by the emerging multi-faceted worker. This new being is your brand advocate. Service providers with a winning competitive edge have realised that beyond logos, e-shots and sales calls, customers and potential customers are truly exposed to the mobile team. They are the human face of an organisation, dealing with customers on a daily basis: they are the true representation of a brand. This is of course a double-edged sword. Your engineering team would simply not function without the ‘hard’ technical skills needed to complete their primary tasks. Lacking additional ‘soft’ skills can result in missed sales opportunities and feelings of neglect. Conversely, having the right combination of hard and soft skills creates

a dynamic, flexible team who are proud to represent your brand and who you are proud to have representing your brand. MAKING THE MOST OF WHAT YOU HAVE Part of The Modern Field Engineer conference will focus on making the most of what you have already got, which fits well with an economy struggling to return to strength. While there is plenty of investment in software, which enables working processes to be carried out more quickly and more smoothly, the same focus of optimisation can be turned on to these human faces of your brand. Can you optimise your workforce by adding in the soft skills to their existing offerings? What kind of engineer does it take to be able to upgrade them in this way? If it were possible, what kind of training would produce the results you are after? The conference is looking to start discussions on these topics and more, E

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SERVICE MANAGEMENT EXPO In addition to the conference SME will also feature a dedicated networking space, workshop opportunities with the Mobile Computing Users Group, a Solutions Theatre programme (delivering a breakdown of solution offerings from the providers themselves) and field service vehicle displays. Solutions can be found on the SME floor whether you need technical solutions or a new way of looking at problems. With SLAs becoming more and more complex and competition for customers reaching fever pitch, knowledge will be your key ally.

E with an aim to foster a new way of thinking about the possibilities of your service division, and all actions point to this new breed of engineering mind. Each day of the conference is kicked-off with keynote talks from industry speakers. Opening Tuesday 20 September is Maggie Philbin, Radio and TV personality and one of a rare breed to successfully cross entertainment and engineering. Maggie has this to say of her involvement at SME: “I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some of the most innovative people in the world. Handling their prototypes and exploring their company cultures has taught me a huge amount – enough to recognise that when it comes to innovation, many people talk complete rubbish. My daughter finds it unbelievable that there was ever a world that didn’t include mobile phones, video on demand and sat navs. She’s even more stunned to know I gave them their first demonstration on Tomorrow’s World. “I’m delighted to have been invited to deliver the keynote at Service Management Expo. I hope to share some reflections and maybe challenging some ways of thinking.” FIELD SERVICE EXCELLENCE Taking the keynote reigns on Wednesday 21 September will be Sumair Dutta, senior research analyst with Aberdeen Group. Aberdeen has provided incisive research in the field service arena, identifying key differentiators both in European and worldwide markets. Ahead of his keynote presentation, Sumair reported on the current state of field service: “The continued focus on field service excellence by service organisations is warranted as Aberdeen’s 2011 field service research representing over 300 organisations reflected that 58 per cent of incoming service requests ultimately required a field dispatch of sorts. “Given that responding field agents are quite often the only representatives of the organisation that actually visit the customer, especially after the sale of the

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE Volume | 10.5

product, their ability to provide desired or better support in a timely manner goes a long way in setting customer perceptions of the service organisation’s aptitude.” These keynote speakers indicate the direction of the conference, showing the directions service-providing organisations can take to demonstrate a competitive edge over their rivals. The programme contains a focus on “upgrading” your staff. This doesn’t imply replacing them with newer, better models of employees, but trusting and supporting them to deliver new, cleverer models of service. Neil Bain, service and maintenance director of Controlled Ltd, will deliver his talk ‘Soft skills for service staff and the changing role of service technicians’. Following this movement to subvert the traditional limitations of what mobile staff can offer, Claire Cologne, business development consultant with Huthwaite International will present ‘Is service the new sales?’ These talks at the conference indicate an emerging trend of a top down change in the way businesses view their on the ground staff. ‘Efficiency at your fingertips’ is a talk from Highlander IT & Telecoms’ commercial director Chris Muscroft, detailing how it should be your engineers who feel the benefits of successful service management solutions. That focus on a happy and productive workforce is echoed in Steve Downton’s talk on techniques used by companies to achieve successful service transformation through a powerful people-driven brand. Thought-leadership discussions, while focusing on creating happy, hard working individuals, will of course still view technology as the engineer’s best friend. James Geldart, director at Nuvola, will look at the cost effective options in field service technology. This innovative-minded approach runs throughout The Modern Field Engineer, including ‘The blue support engineer’ by Stefan Berger, service manager North Europe at Husky Injection Molding Systems SA.

LAST YEAR’S SHOW The 2010 Service Management Expo was defined by an amazing number of product launches. As the go-to place for the field service sector, all major manufacturers present and the mix of seminars and speakers made sure that all the industry topics were discussed in detail. Last year’s show welcomed nearly 3,000 visitors, three quarters of which held senior management positions. Furthermore, a fifth of those attending the show had an immediate project implementation and purchasing need to fulfil. Meanwhile, the main areas of investment at the show continued to develop, including handheld terminals and PDAs, service management software, mobile communications software and scheduling software. Regular service management columnist Martin Morey (who will be involved again in 2011) and his colleagues at the Mobile Computer Users’ Group were on hand over the two days to answer visitor queries about the vast array of technology and systems on offer. Also, new for 2010, the Demonstration Zone enabled visitors to get a hands-on perspective on the very latest in fleet vehicles, with models from Coca-Cola and Sky on display. Top-level business thinker Don Peppers delivered a keynote session on ‘Competing for trust: why service competence alone is not enough’. “Don’s talk was really worthwhile, we will take away a lot from it,” said Ben Cowhurst, Balfour Beatty’s business transformation manager. Meanwhile, the three-stream conference programme, which covered mobile communications, strategy and technology and field service, also provided some fascinating industry thinking. Among the topics discussed, BT’s Paul Saville covered using MIS to improve customer knowledge while Gary Bulley of Bullwell Trailer Solutions considered using real time data to raise efficiency. Also in the mobility stream of the conference Pete Larsen of A&O Systems talked about discovering how the adoption of a trusted methodology will increase capacity, increase productivity, reduce cost and improve service. On the second day of the show, Gillian Frary of Car2U talked about using technology to create world-class customer service. L

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ENERGY EFFICIENCY

SAVE MONEY AND REDUCE CO2

or to provide data that’s precise enough to propose where further savings could be made. Recognising the shift toward a shared services model, the Management Console on Certero’s PowerStudio 3.0® provides organisations with improved accuracy of data. This includes the ability to add multiple locations such as buildings, cities, states and countries, multitariffs accommodating different energy costs and CO2 values by suppliers and independent device kWh values (using an Energy Star database), to give the most accurate data values available. Building on this, it also provides tailored data via its new Dynamic Reporting Application, Acquaintia™. Included at no extra cost, it is a feature-rich application designed specifically with the reporting requirements of heads of business in mind. To that end, it enables answers to questions in seconds via a simple parameter driven interface and displays answers in powerful interactive charts, graphs and widgets providing easy to understand reports that can be saved and used in a personalised customisable dashboard. The granular reporting functionality ensures that information can relay reports on trends across various parameters.

The capital has used the 2012 Olympics as a trigger to review its energy consumption, with many councils and local authorities working to reduce their energy costs and bills

With less than a year to go to the official opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, much has been achieved since 2005 when London learnt that it had won the bid to host the world’s most respected international sporting event. While there is much to celebrate with respect to the construction, logistic and engineering achievements to date, it is important to remember that legacy is a key component to the 2012 Olympics, which aims to be the “greenest” games ever, acting as a symbol of change, as much as a celebration of sporting success. The capital has used the 2012 Olympics and the spirit of legacy as a trigger to review its energy consumption, with many councils and local authorities working to reduce their energy costs and bills. Running parallel to this ideal, is a more prosaic issue for local authorities; throughout 2011, the words “budget” and “cut” have become synonymous with the public sector. The £18 billion annual public sector IT budget is one of those areas earmarked for further cuts, as the government plans a further 20-40 per cent reduction in departmental budgets. To accommodate this cut, some public sector organisations have adopted a shared services model, consolidating IT departments and resources

in an effort to absorb the costs of essential IT services, including solutions that enable them to power down unused PCs, in order to achieve energy and cost saving targets. THE POWER TO SAVE By way of example, savings of over £10,000 a month at Barts and the London NHS Trust validate PC Power Management’s solutions ability to save money. Not surprisingly perhaps, that Pike Research found that the largest market for power management solutions in the next five years will be the public sector. Achieving the promised on-paper savings with a power management solution in a shared services model is often complicated by the multiple locations, varying energy tariffs and differing CO2 values from the different PCs used by the public sector. If public sector organisations that have adopted a shared services model are to achieve tangible cost and energy savings through a power management solution, they need to ensure that it has been developed to accommodate all of the variable parameters and is capable of accurately measuring and reporting the energy and costs savings being made. Unless it has been designed for this specific model, it’s unlikely to be able to provide an accurate reflection of the amount of energy consumed,

REMOTE WAKE-UP A further power management challenge for public sector IT directors results from decentralisation and the move to smaller premises, which has encouraged an increase in mobile and remote workers. With today’s digital business able to function without geographic or traditional office boundaries, being on-line in realtime, all the time, characterises new working practises for the “always on” generation, even in the public sector. According to SecurEnvoy 82 per cent more people work from home this year, compared to last year. Remote workers will of course be connecting to their Local Area Network, so it is essential that a power management solution has the intelligence and finesse to establish when the user has connected to the LAN, without bringing their office-based desktop PC out from hibernation. This ensures that even remote workers can remain within the reach of a power management solution, enabling them to play a role in the Public Sector’s continued drive – and the 2012 Olympics’ overall legacy goal – to celebrate the amount of energy and money they have saved. L FOR MORE INFORMATION www.certero.co.uk

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COLLABORATION AND COMMUNICATION Video conferencing, collaboration and communication tools have the potential to make your organisation more efficient, productive and effective. InAVate’s Anna Mitchell asks who is going to take responsibility to make this happen? The importance of audio visual (AV) technologies is steadily growing for building managers as the implementation of video conferencing (VC) and room booking systems gathers pace. Furthermore the growing inclusion of AV assets as part of a building network is placing these components firmly in the domain of anyone who has responsibility for managing building systems. There are huge advantages to be gained for facilities managers willing to take responsibility for these systems and incorporate them into overall building management. But in a lot of cases, AV falls into a responsibility gap between IT and facilities management. Darren Pitt, head of business services of the Southern Region of Saville Audio Visual, believes VC and communications technologies in particular sit well within the responsibilities facilities managers are already familiar with. “Facilities managers are generally responsible for travel and reducing travel. They’re generally responsible for an organisation being green. They’re responsible for the catering and the services around a meeting room space and how the rooms are booked and managed. They’re also normally client facing,” he says. “Obviously AV is becoming a commodity solution that is end-user orientated. Anyone should be able to use the technology, it shouldn’t rely on an IT level of support. In the world of meeting rooms you want a facilities manager to advise and interface with the users.” IT MANAGERS It does makes sense for VC and telepresence systems to fall into the domain of an IT department. After all they operate over a network, have huge demands on bandwidth and often interact directly with desktop solutions on PCs and tablet devices. But, there can be a massive conflict of interest here. Bob Romano, of telepresence and VC vendor Radvision, who is an event partner at the forthcoming xSolutions exhibition says: “You would think the IT manager would be integral [to implementation of VC]. But, in actual fact they tend to think ‘I don’t want anything to with this’. They have a list of applications that they need to support already and there’s security and a whole host of other challenges. The last thing they E

“Obviously AV is becoming a commodity solution that is end-user orientated. Anyone should be able to use the technology, it shouldn’t rely on an IT level of support. In the world of meeting rooms you want a facilities manager to advise and interface with the users.” – Darren Pitt, Saville Audio Visual Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

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AUDIO VISUAL E want to do is put another application up and have to support it, particularly an application that takes as much bandwidth as video.” It’s important to have a management team that has its sights on the massive travel saving, productivity boosting and collaboration enhancing benefits these technologies can bring. An IT department will undoubtedly need to accommodate the solution on a network, or even provide a dedicated network. But the instruction to implement the solution and oversee its deployment or use must come from a department that is already managing meeting room use, productivity, travel and employee wellbeing. Electrosonic, a global AV integration company with primary UK offices in Dartford, provides ongoing AV services to many large corporations within the UK. Paul Brown, general manager of service at Electrosonic, believes AV is becoming increasingly important in how companies work. “AV used to be thought of as a projector in a meeting room,” he says. “Now we’re talking a lot more about how companies are utilising communication for results so VC and

for EMEA at Electrosonic, says remote monitoring is gaining prevalence but warns: “It’s not just as easy as monitoring a room. “An FM company can remote monitor through an IP address and check systems but when there’s a problem in a room how do they react? If your VC system is not connecting or there’s an issue with a product they won’t have that technical knowledge to fault-find and repair. Furthermore the whole point of remote monitoring is to be proactive and act before products fail. Take a projector for example, you can monitor temperature and lamp life and ensure they won’t fail.” RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Resource management software and the products they are talking to are becoming more sophisticated and the information that can be gathered is increasingly in-depth. But, if you don’t understand or know what to do with that information it’s essentially useless. Owen Ellis, vice president of multimedia at Morgan Stanley, heads up the AV User Group – a forum for AV and VC managers to discuss technology issues, exchange ideas and

When AV isn’t considered, or falls into that responsibility gap, room aesthetics are often thought of before anything else. And when implementing video conferencing this can be disastrous and will completely waste any investment that is made in the technology. telepresence are becoming very important. But, the set up of a room needs to be taken into account to provide a quality experience.” WASTE OF INVESTMENT When AV isn’t considered, or falls into that responsibility gap, room aesthetics are often thought of before anything else. And when implementing VC this can be disastrous and will completely waste any investment that is made in the technology. “With an ill-thought out set-up you can’t carry out a good video conference,” illustrates Brown. “You’re only seeing half the room, the microphones are in the wrong place – it’s not effective.” Installation of AV is only one part of the story. AV assets need to be managed, maintained and replaced. The growth of complete building management systems coupled with an awareness from AV vendors that their products need to sit on and talk to these systems means AV components are increasingly controlled and monitored as part of a complete system that includes HVAC, lighting and security. But problems will arise if AV components are not given the specialist attention they deserve. Rob Learmouth, service delivery manager

provide support to the AV support industry. Morgan Stanley’s AV needs are well covered with its dedicated multimedia team that comes under the umbrella of IT. Ellis’ department remains distinct from facilities management but coordinates with the company’s corporate services division, largely through the use of online room booking and scheduling systems. Ellis does see a future where AV technologies become more tightly integrated into building management systems and, in doing so, become increasingly important for facilities managers. “Facilities managers have been operating building management systems for years; looking at power, lighting, security and alarms etc,” he says. “I think that a lot of corporate companies don’t necessarily want to invest in an independent AV team of their own and they will look to facilities management companies to take on that role.” Manufacturers such as AMX and Crestron have seen these trends emerging and are providing resource management tools that enable that complete building overview. The challenge now is for facilities managers to use them effectively. The argument for AV to be considered as a serious and distinct part of building

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management is strong and it’s going to get stronger as utilisation of VC and collaboration tools grows throughout all sizes of business. And it’s vital to plug that responsibility gap that all too often these systems fall into. There is a growing awareness among facilities managers that taking ownership these systems and technologies can provide a better and more productive working environment for employees. Of course every corporation is different and, as expected, there are massive variations in the level of expertise that different managers have. So there are contrasting approaches. “70 per cent of out work comes from facilities managers. They are predominantly looking after AV equipment within companies,” says Pitt. “And, I think there is room for them to learn more about the technology. Some customers rely on external help to support them on deciding on AV technology but they don’t necessarily have the right skill set to understand what they’re trying to achieve.” Electrosonic’s Learmouth says he wants to be able to work more closely with facilities management companies: “We know that end clients rely on facilities managers to provide their mechanical engineering, their reception and basically all of their services. AV should be seen by the facilities companies as another string to their bow. “But sometimes it’s really difficult to find someone within a facilities company that understands AV or can head up and take ownership of it.” Brown agrees: “AV doesn’t seem to have a home. Facilities managers don’t know about it, a lot of IT departments don’t want to touch it. If you do try and access the network to get into the system a lot of IT departments don’t like it. “There’s no ownership but there’s an opportunity here for facilities managers to draft in the right people and work with the right people to help them understand AV more. This will undoubtedly provide a better service for their end client.” REAL BUSINESS BENEFITS The way in which we communicate, collaborate, share information and do business is changing. xSolutions 2011 is the opportunity for you to be inspired, be engaged, be informed and experience powerful communications solutions that translate into real business benefits. Dedicated to professionals with responsibility for running business communication and building management systems. xSolutions 2011 will provide you with an unrivalled opportunity to learn about the increasingly important role these technologies play in the workplace of today and tomorrow. L FOR MORE INFORMATION Register for free at www.x-solutions.co.uk

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DATA CENTRES

CRC: A CASH WINDFALL Michael Cook of USystems looks at how to meet your CRC Energy Efficiency requirements with cutting edge technology heart of the government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme.

Financial directors can earn a cash windfall or, quite possibly, an income stream by utilising energy-saving data centre design options – the energy saving can be turned into carbon credits and sold on the worldwide the carbon trading system. Data centres are potentially in a lose-lose situation as ever more data is stored from greater use of computers around the world. In keeping up with this growth, and the consequent rise in energy consumption, their owners will also be faced with a carbon tax as governments implement national green strategies. By measuring the environmental impact of your data centre in order to establish its energy consumption and, by deduction, its carbon emissions, you can create a win-win situation for your data centre. PUE (power usage effectiveness) has been widely adopted to measure the ratio of the total power consumed by a data centre to the specific power consumed by the computing equipment populating the facility. This evaluates how efficiently the energy is used and shows how much the power consumed by support functions, e.g. cooling and power distribution, is wasted. The ideal PUE is 1.0, where 100 per cent of the power consumed by a data centre is for applications and zero per cent is for lighting and cooling. Most data centres are running with a PUE of over 2.0, indicating that for every watt of IT power, an additional watt is consumed for ancillary stuff – largely for running the cooling system. This is an obvious waste of energy and therefore, carbon emissions, which are at the

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE Volume | 10.5

THE COLDLOGIK CONNECTION Whether it be a new build or legacy site, there is one simple fact about data centres – traditional CRAC cooling and containment cooling is expensive to run and outdated: its place can be taken by stateof-the-art UK designed and manufactured ColdLogik technology, which gives a PUE as close to 1.0 as is practical, with the twin benefits of far lower energy costs and CO2 emissions, plus other savings. In addition, this cutting edge technology addresses all the key drivers that data centre communication rooms measure: energy consumption, carbon footprint, modularity, packaging densities, capital cost and redundancy – factors applying to any cluster, whether low or high density. ENERGY CONSUMPTION Take a traditionally designed data centre, perhaps deploying a conventional hotaisle/cold-aisle configuration on a raised floor. It will typically use 40kW of cooling for every 100kW of data power – even aisle containment will only reduce this power ratio by a small percentage. In comparison, ColdLogik will use less than 4kW of power for the same 100kW load – achieving in excess of a staggering 90 per cent year on year energy saving and, therefore, a reduction in carbon emissions. An ability to grow a data centre and communications room in a logical and cost effective manner makes obvious business sense – only deploying what is needed for today while being prepared for rapid future expansion. ColdLogik is modular and will allow you to upgrade with masses of flexibility and future proofing. Over time as data centre and comms rooms expand or sometimes contract and where third party racks might have to be accommodated, the cooling solution has to meet these ever changing demands. Again, the ColdLogik system, with its retrofit capability to any populated OEM rack, comes into its own. PACKAGING DENSITY Despite improvements made by the majority of manufacturers to the efficiency of their hardware and the promise of more to come, the fact remains that electronic packaging densities will continue to rise. Hot spots in data centres and comms rooms

are commonplace and when considering that 55 per cent of electronic failure is due to temperature, it’s no surprise that a lot of effort has been deployed in this area to resolve these issues. By design, the ColdLogik solution eliminates individual rack and localised hot spots, maintaining a constant, roomambient temperature. In fact, the enhanced efficiency of the ColdLogik system allows up to an unrivalled 45kW to be removed from an industry standard 600mm wide rack, thus enabling electronic packaging densities to increase substantially. Such an increase in rack density enables a reduction in the number of racks required within a single room, negating the need for additional expensive floor space. Despite all of the benefits that a ColdLogik system brings, it doesn’t follow that this high-tech solution costs more than existing, outdated, cooling designs. Not having to deploy a raised floor or a ceiling plenum are considerable savings in themselves – but the combination of modularity of design and increased packaging density means that the ColdLogik system will actually cost less, not more, than the standard enclosed aisle/in-row cooling design. REDUNDANCY In spite of the critical nature of what data centres and communication rooms provide, it is crucial that there is affordable redundancy built in – even in its basic form, the ColdLogik solution incorporates high levels of redundancy. I have briefly, but specifically, covered the major benefits of the USystems ColdLogik system, which is potentially set to become the new standard by which state-of-the-art efficient datacentre design is measured. To many, it is possible that the ColdLogik system is relatively new technology – it is, though, a tried and tested system, not just in the UK but all over Europe, USA, India and Africa. Want to find out more? A white paper recently written by a consultant about a ColdLogik project, details the capital cost savings when compared to CRAC cooling and in-row containment cooling; it also highlights the energy savings from the commensurate reduction in CO2 outputs from the local power station. It is available from www.usystems.co.uk/coldlogik/whitepaper L FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01767 652817 Fax: 01767 651983 sales@usystems.co.uk www.usystems.co.uk

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DRIVING EFFICIENT DATA CENTRE STRATEGIES With a premium on peer-led knowledge exchange and networking, DatacenterDynamics Converged will feature an expanded conference programme which combines over 70 technical presentations, case studies, and expert panel discussions in five halls over two packed days The transformation of the data centre continues; IT, the physical layer and the plant supporting it are becoming increasingly integrated. The ways in which computing power can be procured through owned, outsourced or cloud models makes data centre decision making more complex. This has never been truer for the public sector. With a premium on peer-led knowledge exchange and networking, DatacenterDynamics Converged will feature an expanded conference programme which combines over 70 technical presentations, case studies, and expert panel discussions in five halls over two packed days. The programme is designed to meet the needs of decision makers and influencers involved in all strategic and practical issues surrounding the delivery of enterprise IT. The programme includes dedicated halls for each of three tracks – Design Build Operate, Outsourcing Decisions, and IT Optimisation. With over 80 exhibitors and in excess of 2,000 delegates, DatacenterDynamics Converged is positioned as the largest and most comprehensive conference of its kind anywhere in the world. In a world first, 30,000 square feet at London’s ExCeL will be available to showcase more sizeable modular and containerised solutions in the innovative new DCD Technology Park. THE END OF SUPPLIER LOCK IN In the following interview excerpt, first published in the June/July 2011 issue of DatacenterDynamics FOCUS, UK Government deputy CIO Bill McCluggage guides us through the changing data centre landscape now driven by cost savings and cloud delivery. The government gravy train is no more. As data centres are closed, suppliers must adapt to the cloud delivery model, as Ambrose McNevin, FOCUS editor-in-chief, finds out. As Bill McCluggage reminds us: “In 2010 we had a new administration – we were going through an inflection point from slight budget growth into an agenda environment where we had to radically save money. That generated six priority measures – that led to the chancellor’s speech – and we set out the moratorium and project reviews in May last year.” Famously, the Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude called in each of the major IT suppliers to government for a review

– according to one source from within a supplier he effectively demanded a refund on existing contracts if the supplier wished to be considered for any future projects. For many suppliers this meant a wake up call.

“Back in 2009 we were still towards the latter end of a growth cycle and still on the move towards digital services and automation. We were not unusual other than having a lower utilisation figure E

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PREVIEW E than we would have expected compared with others,” McCluggage says. He says this was not universal but that because of its make up as a large federated organisation, as with any organisation with such a profile when it is examined closely, there is bound to be overcapacity. “At that time there was the maturing cycle of virtualisation – we already had HP consolidate its service capacity in terms of global data centres – we were seeing Fujitsu, Atos Origin, IBM and BT (among the big 13 SIs selling into government) starting to roll out virtualised environments.” The government is actually well placed to drive a data centre consolidation program in tandem with the move to cloud, McCluggage says. Approximately 60-70 per cent of UK government IT is already outsourced. LOCK IN “We’ve moved out of owning infrastructure to buying it from a systems integrator – we are now more involved in the quality of the service, cost and availability. These are the fundamental characteristics of a cloudbased service model. The major issue is that we’re in stove-pipe relationships.” McCluggage explains that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) buys from HP and BT. The Home Office has a very heavyweight supply from IBM. At the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) it is the same. Capgemini works with HM Revenue & Customs and other departmental organisations are based on established supplier relationships. “The minister was talking about an oligopoly of suppliers. You see rigid contractual boundaries.” “When dealing with the delivery of big business there are set market spaces, defended by historical movements. We can call it supplier lock in – which is where we still largely are. As we move to unlock that there is not going to be an appetite for it in the SIs who don’t want to share their market with others,” McCluggage says. SERVICE DELIVERY “How do we take a commercial model, driven by a relationship with one SI and turn around and say we want what equals a cost-point reduction? If I have a contract with X and I want more capacity now, how do I move to a service delivery from a company Y? The company that supplies me will want me to spend with them and not with their competitor. They want to eat one another’s breakfast. There is a strong tension in the market. “There is a radical change of attitude in government. They (the suppliers) saw there was a new direction of travel. Some got it and could map it. Some were watching to see and would move when the time was right. Others are sitting there thinking, ‘We’re locked into contracts, whenever they come up for renewal naturally through the cycle we’ll look at it

because that’s our commercial risk model’.” Evidently, relationships are changing. McCluggage says that if you look back a year there was the introduction of priority measures. A moratorium on new spend and the register of assets and services. “We should have that by the end of the month (May 2011, for internal government use). We will then know what we’ve got that’s shareable. It is not total convergence but it does expose the number of assets that you can reuse,” he says. This takes us to the cloud. GOVERNMENT CLOUD “The cloud is not a thing, it is not a product – some people think it sounds as if we are buying a box. It is an architecture, a way of doing things. From that perspective, we set out to do data centre consolidation,” he says. The government examined the delivery of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), how to utilise it and what the commercial,

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up of CIOs from local and central government departments. A lot of CIOs in government are looking after incredibly large complex transactional service layers, as well as service delivery functions to support them. The goal is to move them to a point of being an early adoptor, but McCluggage says this was easier for some than for others. “The first order action was to get individual departments to work in a cluster. The budgetary pressures are the same. This required a radical shift in attitude. You can salami slice 1-2 per cent out of your budget – it is not healthy but easy. But how do I take 25-30 per cent out of a vertical operating budget?” Once you start getting clusters of colleagues working together you get them talking about needs, what McCluggage calls “bringing out the smelly fish on to the table”. One of the first actions was to debunk a major myth – what McCluggage calls the cost

With a premium on peer-led knowledge exchange and networking, DatacenterDynamics Converged will feature an expanded conference programme which combines over 70 technical presentations, case studies, and expert panel discussions in five halls over two packed days. legal and security implications would be. Phase one was the data capture work. Phase two included industry, which would cocreate a strategy for cloud to deliver services at a much greater efficiency. Phase three is the foundation delivery – the founding of the fundamentals which would kick off embryonic service delivery. The government is also building a public service network, which will act as the network layer for IaaS. “We moved into a group of around 100 people – 80 from industry and the rest from the government and we ran eight work streams – looking at fundamentals of cloud computing. The goal was to capture some numbers, looking at how cloud can be used to deliver cost savings and improved services. Then we set out to build and test some of these services,” McCluggage says. GETTING BUY-IN “By its very name, cloud is ephemeral; at that point no one knew that it would be the platform for infrastructure on which we’d build for the next ten years. We needed a lot of awareness building. Looking back that was probably a lesson learned. We didn’t go in at the business level, we didn’t talk to permanent secretaries, and we hadn’t built awareness with them. We focused on bringing in the technocrats and then looking at tangible benefits.” The UK Government runs a council made

of being special. He gives the example of a group of technology business fast streamers. “I challenged a group of technologists on the fact that they said they wanted to quantify an e-mail service. I said, ‘Why do you want your own e-mail service?’ There are lots of organisations in this room running e-mail, there are lots of SIs offering e-mail services and furthermore there are lots of public cloud services now offering email services at price points that are staggeringly below what we’d classically pay,” McCluggage says. Another example is hosting services, these are a commodity. He cites Savvis, which delivers a service across the secure government intranet which can be tapped into by other departments. That then generates competition because other people see this which in turn generates a series of competitive peers. The Home Office is doing this with Savvis but all of the other SIs are looking at how they can set up similar arrangements Government IT remains complex. The idea is not to improve the back office and then roll out services on this. “We’d be here for a month of Sundays,” McCluggage says. L FOR MORE INFORMATION Call Chris Lambert on 020 74267834 or e-mail chris.lambert@datacentredynamics. com www.datacentredynamics.com/ conferences/2011/london

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Best Practice in e-Procurement & e-Sourcing e-Invoicing & Procure-to-Pay SRM, Supplier Development & Collaboration Cloud Computing & On-Demand Services Spend Management & Purchasing Intelligence Sustainable Procurement & Reporting Supply Chain Visibility & Analytics Outsourcing & Contract Management Implementation & Change Management European Legislation & Government Regulations

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FOCUS ON PROCUREMENT eWorld Purchasing & Supply, taking place in London 21 September, is the UK’s most comprehensive business forum for eProcurement, eSourcing and Supply Chain Technologies eWorld Purchasing & Supply is the UK’s leading event focusing on the use of leading-edge technologies and techniques within the procurement and supply chain functions. Since 2001, this acclaimed business forum has provided a unique insight into the latest developments in electronic commerce for senior purchasing, supply chain and finance executives. eWorld Autumn 2011, will take place at the QEII Conference Centre, in central London on 21 September. The event will focus on hot topics such as Best Practice in e-Procurement & e-Sourcing; e-Invoicing & Procure-to-Pay; SRM, Supplier Development & Collaboration; Cloud Computing & On-Demand Services; Spend Management & Purchasing Intelligence; Sustainable Procurement & Reporting; Supply Chain Visibility & Analytics; Outsourcing & Contract Management; Implementation & Change Management; and European Legislation & Government Regulations. WHY ATTEND eWorld Purchasing & Supply provides a valuable educational platform for you to meet leading technology experts, key suppliers and your immediate peer group – to learn about new products and services, discuss common issues and build mutually profitable relationships. Just one day at eWorld Purchasing & Supply will provide you access to: • cutting-edge educational programme featuring the latest developments in eProcurement, eSourcing, eAuctions, eInvoicing, supplier integration and collaboration, contract management, ethical sourcing, sustainable supply chains and process transformation

• expert advice on emerging trends and the key challenges ahead • bespoke itinerary allowing you to choose from more than 25 individual sessions • hands-on demonstrations of the latest solutions from specialist suppliers • excellent networking opportunities with your peers, industry experts and leading suppliers. WHO SHOULD ATTEND? eWorld Purchasing & Supply is targeted at senior business executives from the corporate and public sector, with responsibility for implementing web-enabled procurement and supply chain strategies, sourcing technology partners and using/joining electronic marketplaces. Delegates may be from large corporate or small to medium sized business; from the private or public sector; targeting B2B as well as B2C customers. Delegate places at eWorld Purchasing and Supply are free of charge to those who meet the above criteria. PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS Delegates will benefit from a complimentary programme of free keynotes, focused briefings, case studies and networking sessions, designed to deliver high-value content for senior purchasing and supply chain executives. Industry thought-leader Bernhard Raschke from PricewaterhouseCoopers, will deliver a high-level overview of the global drivers for procurement and supply chain strategists, the key challenges you will need tackle as the economy recovers and some practical pointers on what to look for during your day at eWorld. You can choose from a series of 30-minute seminars and keynotes on the latest developments and new innovations,

covering key areas such as e-sourcing, e-invoicing, supplier development, spend management, outsourcing contracts, risk management, supply chain visibility, procurement skills and sustainability. Jon Hansen from Procurement Insights explores ‘The changing face of procurement’ and its increasing importance within global supply chains. Besides writing more than 700 articles and white papers, Jon is also a highly regarded speaker addressing audiences of all sizes ranging from 10 to 20 people in a seminar to giving a keynote address to 400 professionals at major conferences. MAKING BETTER DECISIONS The Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS) will deliver a best practice session discussing how to make better decisions through category management, incorporating ProCat – the new and sophisticated category management tool from CIPS. Presenting this session will be Duncan Brock from Future Purchasing, who has been working with CIPS to develop ProCat. He has over 25 years consulting and procurement experience as a change driver working with senior executives and procurement leadership teams in the design and mobilisation of business-wide processes in category management and supplier relationship management. Further first-hand case studies on the experiences of leading private and public sector organisations will include AstraZeneca, the Department of Health and SGP Property & Facilities Management. L FOR MORE INFORMATION www.eworld-purchasing.com

EGS helps around 100 organisations cut costs What percentage of your budget do you need to cut this year? And how will frontline services be affected? By partnering with EGS, organisations have been able to achieve millions of pounds of back-office savings. Examples include: 20 per cent price savings on goods and services when purchased via our electronic Marketplace; 50 per cent time savings in placing orders; and 66 per cent in cost savings through electronic invoice processing. EGS provides services to almost 100 public sector organisations in England.

And last year we processed over £2.6 billion worth of transactions. We help organisations to manage and control corporate spending by automating and streamlining the entire purchase-to-pay (P2P) lifecycle. We give you greater control, save you money and equip your executive team with the

best information to make the right decisions. Our solutions are web-based, can be delivered within weeks and are available with a range of attractive risk-sharing and pay-as-you-go pricing options. Please contact us if your organisation would like to arrange a free assessment of how EGS could dramatically reduce the cost of your back-office processes. FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 020 75392828 info@egsgroup.com www.egsgroup.com

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

S OM TC TC

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the Network Infrastructure Event 2011

Seminar Programme

the Network Infrastructure Event 2011

Wednesday 12th October

12 -13 the October Network The Emirates Stadium, Infrastructure London Event 2011 th

40G on UTP or shielded copper – reality or myth? Ken Hodge, Brand-Rex

11:15am

Can cabling help support energy efficiency? Rob Cardigan, Nexans

12:00pm

Growth of IP solutions Mani Manivannan, Arup Communications

1:30pm

Video over IP – convergence and picture quality Mark Marriage, COE Limited

2:15pm

Designing and implementing standardscompliant parallel optics networks within budget – a roadmap Alastair Waite,TE Connectivity

3:00pm

Contamination, inspection and cleaning of optical fibre connections Martin Warne, Exfo

10:30am

The UK’s leading event for the networking and data communications industry is returning for a fifth year in 2011.

platinum show sponsors

The ever-popular and free to attend seminar sessions will once again feature high profile speakers and cover a range of industry hot topics.

the Network the Network Infrastructure Infrastructure covered will include wireless EventAreas 2011 Event 2011 networking, data centres, copper and fibre optic cabling, test equipment,VoIP, cable management, IP security, UPS, enclosures and racks, and patching.

Thursday 13th October 10:30am

Parallel optical systems – purchasing, installing and caring for your system Rosemary McGlashon, 3M

11:15am

Trends in high efficiency data centres Dr Ian F Bitterlin, Ark Continuity

12:00pm

Taking a holistic view of data centre energy matters Alistair Hunt, Unite Technologies

2:15pm

Copper clad aluminium and less bend sensitive optical fibres – commercial opportunities or technical risks Mike Gilmore, Fibreoptic Industry Association and TIA-B

The event will again be held at the prestigious Emirates Stadium, home to Arsenal Football Club.

The Netcoms Show 2011 promises to be the biggest and best yet, attracting exhibitors and visitors from every industry sector.

show sponsors

the Network 12:45pm Distributed sensor systems using optical Infrastructure fibre Andrew Jones, Alquist Event1:30pm 2011 Effi cient I.T. Systems David Stefanowicz, ECA-ITEC

w w w . nwew wt. nce toc om s s h ow. c o. u k m s s h ow. c o. u k media sponsors network communications news

network communications news

PREVIEW

Events

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY – www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

NETCOMS SHOW SEMINAR SESSIONS REVEALED

Organisers of The Netcoms Show have announced the details for this year’s seminar sessions, and once again the two-day event will host an exciting line-up of speakers The Netcoms Show – taking place 12-13 October at Arsenal Football Club’s Emirates Stadium – will feature a series of free seminar sessions as well as an exhibition area featuring some of the top companies in the industry. A number of leading names and industry experts will be presenting over the course of the two-day event, tackling some of the industry’s hottest topics and most talked about subjects. Hosted by Network Communications News (NCN) and The Telecommunications Infrastructure Advisory Board (TIA-B), confirmed speakers for the seminar sessions include Ken Hodge of Brand-Rex, Rob Cardigan of Nexans, Alastair Waite of TE Connectivity, Rosemary McGlashon of 3M, Mike Gilmore of the Fibre Optic Industry Association and the TIA-B, Martin Warne of EXFO, Mani Manivannan of Arup Communications, Mark Marriage of COE Limited, Dr Ian F Bitterlin of Ark Continuity, and Alistair Hunt of Unite Technologies. More speakers will be announced leading up to the event, which aims to attract installers, specifiers, consultants, IT managers, data centre professionals and other end users of network infrastructure products and solutions. GREAT OPPORTUNITIES NCN editor Mike Crane, commented: “The Netcoms Show seminars will provide a great opportunity for visitors to hear from some of the industry’s leading authorities on a wide range of important topics that are relevant to themselves and the wider industry. “The sessions will cover 40Gb on UTP or shielded copper, trends in high efficiency data centres, a holistic view of data centre energy matters, the possibilities for energy efficiency in Ethernet based communication systems, the growth of IP solutions, implementing parallel optics networks within a budget, distributed sensor systems using optical fibre and much more.” The event will also provide an opportunity for visitors to talk directly to manufacturers and distributors about their products and services. Those exhibiting include CMS, Samsung, Mills, Riello, the FIA, Scolmore, Megger, Zycko, Fibre Technologies, Giganet, Fibre Associates and many more. L FOR MORE INFORMATION info@netcomsshow.co.uk www.netcomsshow.co.uk

SEMINIAR SESSIONS WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 10:30am 40G on UTP or shielded copper – reality or myth? Ken Hodge, Brand-Rex This paper looks at the technical feasibility of a 40GBase-T solution, examining the possibility of High Speed Ethernet signal transmission on different Cu cabling solution types and provides some insight into the limitations and benefits of each. 11:15am Can cabling help support energy efficiency? Rob Cardigan, Nexans This presentation examines the possibilities for energy efficiency in Ethernet based communication systems and explores the possibilities for the contribution by ‘better performing’ cabling to support such efforts.

11:15am Trends in high efficiency data centres Dr Ian F Bitterlin, Ark Continuity Considering both power and cooling advancements that are enabled by the push for lower operational costs, the presentation will challenge the need for mechanical refrigeration at all in many locations around the globe and the alternative technical solutions.

12:00pm Growth of IP solutions Mani Manivannan – Arup Communications This seminar presentation will examine the state of the market with respect to growth of IP enabled devices impacting our daily lives in business or in the home. 1:30pm Video over IP – convergence and picture quality Mark Marriage, COE Limited This seminar will provide an insight into the technology and design considerations for robust real time and non-real time video IP networks, the options for a hybrid approach, optical multiplexing technologies and the effects of network design on picture quality with real world examples. 2:15pm Designing and implementing standards-compliant parallel optics networks within budget – a roadmap Alastair Waite, TE Connectivity In this seminar TE Connectivity will set out a 10 point checklist covering all aspects of the design and implementation process that will provide network managers, data centre managers and installers with practical advice about how to successfully deploy 40/100Gb Ethernet and Fibre Channel protocols over an MPO based infrastructure. 3:00pm Contamination, inspection and cleaning of optical fibre connections Martin Warne, EXFO EXFO will aim to investigate why the connector cleanliness issue is still a major problem and how with it can be minimised.

THURSDAY 13 OCTOBER 10:30am Parallel optical systems – purchasing, installing and caring for your system Rosemary McGlashon, 3M This presentation will look at the type of component and system specification users should be demanding (such as connector specification, link and component attenuation and return loss values, upgrade path, polarity and interoperability), what is required to install and test the system (training, inspection, cleaning, attenuation testing, patching) and the knowledge and equipment required to maintain the system in use (care of connectors and patch cables and polarity).

12:00pm Taking a holistic view of data centre energy matters Alistair Hunt, Unite Technologies This presentation will look at one of the challenges facing FM – achieving a balanced and optimised approach to energy and environmental management. 12:45pm Distributed sensor systems using optical fibre Andrew Jones, Alquist A detailed case study will show the temperature sensing technology being used in a large data centre to monitor energy consumption. By increasing supply air temperatures from 18°C cost savings of 5 per cent per degree per year can be achieved. 1:30pm Efficient IT Systems David Stefanowicz, ECA-ITEC In his presentation Dave will look at how to save energy in a wide range of IT systems for the home, office, communications rooms and data centres. 2:15pm Copper clad aluminimum and less bend sensitive optical fibres – commercial opportunities or technical risks Mike Gilmore, Fibreoptic Industry Association and TIA-B

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

CO NF ER EN CE OF BO FE OK R IN EN GS DS 26 Au Gu St

uPAV tOE

30 %

27 & 28 september 2011 • nEc Birmingham

Your essential

learning & development event

Attend the industry-leading World of Learning Conference:

The FREE World of Learning Exhibition will provide you with:

• High-profile L&D case studies include NHS, Crossrail, Shelter, Sovereign Housing Group, VSO, Eversheds, London Fire Brigade and Xerox

• Inspiration, advice and ideas to tackle the challenges facing L&D and HR

• Valuable insight and experiences from influential L&D experts • Chaired by BBC news presenter, Nicholas Owen • FREE 16GB Google Android tablet for every two-day conference delegate!*

In AssocIATIon wITh:

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• The latest products and services from a wide range of leading L&D and HR suppliers • An invaluable opportunity to network and learn from others • A variety of advisory services and workshops • Free educational seminars throughout both days of the event

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EVENT REVIEW

Events

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YOUR ESSENTIAL L&D EVENT Public sector restructuring, retraining and use of technology feature at World of Learning 2011 Experts in the learning and development (L&D) sector have called for the government to offer training courses for former public sector workers to help them adapt to life in the private sector, through a survey by the World of Learning Conference & Exhibition. More than two thirds (67 per cent) of those who expressed a clear opinion in the survey are in favour of the government setting aside budget to retrain public sector staff and provide them with the skills required to develop a career in the corporate world or become self-employed. Andrew Gee, senior project manager at Venture Marketing Group, the organisers of the World of Learning Conference & Exhibition, comments on the survey: “It is clear from the survey respondents that some employers may be wary of taking on public sector staff because they feel they do not have suitable skills. It is an issue that needs to be taken into account in today’s changing business environment as the government releases many civil servants into the job market.” ADDING VALUE Susanne Evans, managing director at Feldspar Consulting, who recently worked with Leicestershire County Council, comments: “Having worked extensively in the public sector, I know that there are many talented people working in the sector who could also add value to the private sector. It is clear that some individuals moving out of the public sector will need support to make this transition. It may also be useful for support to be provided to the private sector to address any concerns about taking on public sector employees.” This subject will be discussed, alongside other key topics that are having a major impact on the industry, in the free seminar programme at the World of Learning Conference & Exhibition. The comprehensive programme of seminars, sponsored by TrainingZone, offering practical advice on the issues affecting learning and development (L&D) professionals via case studies and experts detailing their own experiences. Bearing in mind the current economic climate, these sessions are particularly tailored towards how to run an L&D function when budgets are tight and the pressure is on to deliver. Among the seminars, industry experts will explore the role of learning and development in supporting public sector change using examples including a case study from Leicestershire County Council where the L&D department was restructured and new ways of working implemented. The project, which began in early 2009,

was a collaboration between Susanne Evans from Feldspar Consulting, Helen Ashton, partner at First Class learning & development and Jennifer Penfold, corporate learning and development manager at Leicestershire County Council. They worked to transform the Learning and Development Service, which supports the council’s 20,000 employees. The challenge was to communicate the change both internally and externally as well as to implement new team structures and working processes, which included an updated competency framework for managers and developing trainer skills in a series of train the trainer sessions. The project has since been expanded to address other processes including learning evaluation. SEMINIARS There are several seminars by leading experts at The World of Learning that will explore how technology can be used in learning, covering subjects such as compliance e-learning, e-development, mobile learning and building an online community. For instance, Ranjit Singh, CEO of exhibitor Interactive Education, will explain how learning response systems can significantly improve learning and development. Compliance e-learning – who says it has to be boring? will be addressed by Dr Naomi Norman, director of learning, and Imogen Casebourne, head of learning, at Epic. Visitors can learn more about mobile learning from both Martin Addison, managing director of Video Arts who will highlight seven trends of mobile learning, and from Steve Ash, director of LINE Communications who will talk about ‘Mobile learning: three views of a multi-platform world’. A look at tools such as Moodle, Facebook, Twitter, Screenr and YouTube will feature in ‘The essentials of building an online learning community’ presented by Peter Casebow, chief executive of GoodPractice, while Pete Bennett, assistant director at LSN will explain ‘e-Development - a practical e-solution pathway towards integrated performance management’. “This year’s seminar programme captures the essence of issues that are currently key to the L&D sector. These seminars and features will provide visitors with valuable knowledge about the latest developments in what is a very fast paced, exciting industry,” says Andrew Gee. Alongside the seminars, a host of free features enable visitors from both the public and private sector to gain help and support to further their career in L&D. At the Professional Development Zone, advisers from the British

Institute for Learning & Development (BILD) will be on hand to give one-to-one advice on topics from performance improvement to key challenges in the workplace. BILD experts will also lead tailored group sessions in the Skills Workshops taking place throughout the show. Visitors interested in exploring the use of social media to enhance learning activities and knowledge sharing should head for the Social Learning Zone for presentations and one-to-one sessions. THE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ZONE A well-established feature at the show, the Experiential Learning Zone offers engaging and inspiring workshops that allow visitors to experience first-hand highly creative solutions for skills development. The International Zone, facilitated by UK Trade & Investment, is dedicated to encouraging trade and growth on a worldwide level. Visitors can meet key decision-makers and potential partners from overseas who are looking to link with UK training providers or purchase UK products, services and expertise. Those looking to expand overseas can learn how to develop an international business and obtain advice from UKTI’s overseas trade advisers on doing business in their country. New to the World of Learning 2011, the Happiness at Work Zone looks at how to engage people on a personal and professional level in the workplace and how to create the right environment for positivity and productivity. Visitors can also meet trainers across a range of disciplines at the Trainer Base, or relax and meet new contacts at the Business & Networking Lounge. The exhibition will bring together around 100 UK and international exhibitors such as Information Transfer, Kaplan IT Learning, Seminar Learning System, Upside Learning Solutions, Mind Click, Assima and People Alchemy – which will be launching the latest addition to its online support toolbox Alchemy for Managers: a web edition optimised for smart phones and tablets. “The World of Learning 2011 has all the information sources that anyone responsible for L&D needs in the current economic climate,” Andrew Gee concludes. L FOR MORE INFORMATION Registration for the World of Learning 2011 Exhibition is open at www.learnevents.com where you can also book your delegate place at the conference. For the latest news and updates follow the exhibition on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Learn_EventsUK

Volume 10.5 | GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

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GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE Volume | 10.5

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