Public: Technology | Public

How a 'huddle' helped Lib Dems to spread their message

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:58:07 GMT

Cloud computing was used effectively by British political parties in the recent General Election. Sam Lockwood explains how the Lib Dems adapted this new technology to coordinate their campaign

At a time when public and private sector organisations are seeking to do more with less, being socially enabled has never been more important.

The impact of cloud computing, consumer mobile and social networking technologies are transforming how organisations drive efficiency, maintain innovation and increase motivation.

However, being socially enabled means far more than simply leveraging the convergence of these tools for short term productivity gains. It involves being part of a broader organisational, cultural and behavioural shift towards allowing individuals more self-direction and creativity in their work.

It also means being realistic regarding the behavioural trends inside an organisation and the new external challenges they pose. Part of this is being open to low investment private Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms, such as Huddle, that redress the balance between corporate governance and consumer expectation.

For the Liberal Democrats, embracing and taking advantage of Web 2.0 technology represented a step change in the way the party manages its communications.

Entering a new era for government with Web 2.0

Recognising that our internal IT system was struggling to cope with the volume of email and our extranet was no longer sufficient for cross-team communication, the Liberal Democrats decided to explore the use of innovative social tools to improve collaboration. By using these tools, we hoped to improve communications, not just within our headquarters and across the party, but also with external volunteers and conference organisers.

We needed technology that could be tailored to different teams' requirements and, while Huddle was initially deployed for file sharing, we quickly realised that it has multiple other functions. The online collaboration platform enables us to strike a balance between enterprise and consumer tools and groups across the party are using Huddle to manage projects, organise conferences and have discussions.

For example, our Federal Conference Committee, which is responsible for running our two annual conferences, uses Huddle to manage and organise these events with external support staff.

Two-way communication

Effective communication is always important. However, in the run up to and during the general election, we placed Web 2.0 at the centre of party communications. Using Huddle, we connected more than 1,500 party campaigners and volunteers at a local level so that they could spread the party's messages and help candidates get elected.

By logging into the online workspaces, they could share campaign materials, work securely with other people, and access training documents and artwork.

To ensure that everyone in the party could view the media's response to our campaign efforts, the Liberal Democrats' Media Intelligence Unit, set up by the party's press office, established a 24-hour media monitoring rota.

Stored securely online, all press coverage could be analysed and media feedback recorded. For our parliamentary candidates, the Policy Response Unit also set up an online workspace from which they could access and search for required policy information.

A workspace has also been established to meet the specific needs of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, so that members have access to Scottish policy briefings and responses. In the run up to the general election, there were more than 46,500 document viewings in the party's online workspaces.

From experience, we have realised that social tools have the ability to change work environments into something not only more effective but also more enjoyable. Web 2.0 technology proved to be invaluable for collaboration during the general election and, as we strive to increase efficiencies, the adoption of social tools within the party is set to become more widespread.

Sam Lockwood is web & e-communications technology manager for the Liberal Democrats

Remote control

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:59:21 GMT

The £16bn annual public sector IT budget is one of the areas earmarked for cuts. Can 'cloud computing' overcome security and data privacy concerns to deliver savings? SJ Pritchard reports on a recent debate

Government plans to cut 25-40% from departmental budgets - except for health, education, international development and defence - are prompting scrutiny across all areas of spending , including IT.

The plans are forcing departments to look at alternative ways of delivering services, and new technologies that can provide cost savings. One concept that is attracting interest is "cloud computing" (see panel, below right).

In essence, by running applications on remote servers connected over the internet (the "cloud") - rather than on local machines - organisations can save money and also become more flexible in how they buy and run IT systems.

In response, the government is creating its own cloud computing service, the G Cloud.

In a roundtable organised by Guardian Public, and sponsored by IT services company Fujitsu, senior managers from government and the private sector asked whether cloud technology can deliver some of the efficiencies needed to cut public sector costs.

The event was conducted under the anonymity of reporting allowed under the Chatham House rule to encourage frank debate, so this report picks up themes that were discussed, without attribution.

Savings

In the run-up to the election, both opposition parties committed to making cuts in government IT spending.

Since then, the government has confirmed that ID cards will be scrapped, the ContactPoint child protection database is subject to review with a view to termination, and the costs of England's NHS National Programme for IT are also being re-examined.

Public sector IT projects have a poor reputation for value for money and on-time delivery. Whether or not it is fully justified, departments will need to control their spending on technology if they are to meet financial targets.

Among IT professionals, cloud computing is seen as a way of cutting costs, sometimes drastically. Organisations using the cloud reduce their capital investment and the need for software licences, by paying for the IT service as they go. As cloud computing companies can pool expertise and resources across a large number of customers, operating costs should also be lower.

Cloud computing for public sector IT does pose challenges, however, especially in the areas of security and data privacy.

In many instances, it is difficult, or even impossible, for public bodies to use standard, commercial cloud computing offerings. In response to this the government is developing the G Cloud along with the Government Applications Store (GAS), from which civil servants will be able to download software or access services running on the cloud, much in the same way iPhone owners can download applications from Apple.

When G Cloud was launched, under the previous government, its backers claimed the strategy could save £3.2bn of the annual, £16bn public sector IT budget. But to do this, government departments need to increase use of the cloud, and cut back on departments' and local authorities' own IT infrastructure.

The scale of the task is significant. The government has 120 data centres, and there is the potential to reduce this number.

As one attendee pointed out, by no means all, and probably not even the majority, of data centres offer the same standards as the best private sector facilities, either in efficiency, capacity or in security.

The picture is even more mixed in local government. With a new data centre costing around £35m, it is hard for the public sector to justify the investment.

Cloud computing should, attendees agreed, provide a way round this. Private sector firms are willing to build IT infrastructure up front, if they are confident there are enough government users to justify the investment and the pricing allows acceptable profit. Elements of the Aspire IT contract, for HM Revenue and Customs, are already provided this way.

As well as cost savings, supporters of cloud computing say it will give departments better access to standardised applications and common infrastructure. This should drive down the cost of IT and make data exchange easier. Several attendees pointed out that data sharing remains a challenge in the public sector.

The way public sector bodies purchase IT services is also an issue. In local government some 400 authorities currently buy around 100 applications from a dozen vendors.

In most cases each contract is negotiated separately, with "a lot of taxpayers' money wasted in the process".

Providing standardised versions of some key applications - such as enterprise resource planning or customer relationship management - would cut down costs, and allow councils to choose from a menu of pre-customised applications, developed and tested by the vendors.

This would remove the need for each council to buy the software and then install and customise it, a process that can take two to three years.

Supporters of the G Cloud hold it up an as an ideal vehicle for delivering such applications. Software companies, for example, could provide customised versions of their applications for social care or housing administration on shared servers running in the cloud.

Cloud computing was also suggested as a way to provide IT support for departments or councils which want to move to shared services, such as in human resources or finance. It replaces the need to move the physical data centre, and its servers and staff, with a shared service provider.

"We can put up a 'software as a service' application for 20% less than a standard application," said one attendee. "And if you are happy that the application is available only during office hours, for example, you will save money."

There are limits to the potential: most departments will need to run some specialist software applications, and it may not make financial or practical sense to run these in a cloud, as the providers would not achieve the economies of scale needed to reduce costs. Organisations that have tried cloud computing so far report that it works best, where the technology is largely standardised.

One attendee pointed out that his employer already runs desktop software applications through a cloud computing service, and several others were using online applications for areas of customer relationship management. Some were also looking at cloud services as an alternative to current desktop office software.

In the private sector, cloud providers can bring new services and applications online quickly. As computing resources are shared between applications and users, the cloud also handles peak demand better than conventional systems.

In government, this could reduce the pressure on any department that has occasional peak workloads. Examples cited included handling tax returns and dealing with a potential pandemic.

The G Cloud has already gone some way down this route, by providing test and development servers that departmental IT teams can bring online remotely. Currently, departments are able to use these servers free of charge.

Over time, it could provide a number of alternative commercial models for public sector bodies' IT purchasing. The flexibility of the cloud allows for arrangements that are much more short-term than the typical five-year contract, and for some services it could do away with fixed-term contracts altogether, moving to a per-transaction or per-click way of paying for IT. This could be attractive for local authority services, such as environmental protection or parking, where calculating a per-transaction cost for IT services is relatively straightforward.

It would be much harder in areas such as social care, which depend far more on direct contact between council employees and their clients, and where an individual receives services from the authority for years, and maybe even a lifetime. For those services, a longer-term contract is likely to remain the best option.

Attendees also pointed out that, under current IT outsourcing programmes, two- or three-year arrangements remain more cost-effective than those lasting a year or less. But cloud computing could cut costs, allowing providers to use a "fixed cost minus" structure, where the contract costs fall each year as the system becomes cheaper to run.

Barriers

There are significant obstacles to using a cloud system. Information security remains an issue and, according to attendees, it is one that the development of the G Cloud has not yet resolved.

On paper, a cloud only available to the UK government should provide the relevant assurances, but some attendees said that in practice this is not always the case, as there are some types of data that simply cannot be shared: areas such as defence and security, parts of education, health and social care, and some categories of financial information. Even details of some buildings are too sensitive to share.

Providing services through a government cloud does, at least, solve a problem highlighted by one attendee, who wanted to use a commercial cloud service for a back-office system: cloud providers with thousands of customers will not want to customise their applications. Customisation is a service G Cloud could provide.

However, attendees also expressed concerns that a government cloud could become a barrier to innovation. "I'd be very worried if it [applications] had to be accredited by the G Cloud," said one.

Slowing down the delivery of new services, adding to costs and forcing even systems' non-secure data to meet overly stringent security requirements were foremost among the concerns.

The solution, one attendee said, was for departments or local authorities to carry out their own classification of data, and ensure that only those that needed the highest levels of protection were stored in the most secure, and expensive systems. Lower security applications could well be hosted in the cloud.

The IT industry firmly believes that the public sector stands to make significant savings through the cloud, even if only the simplest and least specialised applications are run that way. But the feeling was that, although more could be done to encourage cloud computing, forcing departments or councils to use it is not the way forward. Instead, the G Cloud should provide the right services and organisations can choose to come in.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is a catch-all term for IT services delivered over the web.
Companies or government bodies can use cloud computing for email, to run websites, store data or, increasingly, run complex business applications. But rather than install the software themselves on their own computers, on their own premises, the "cloud" provider does this for a fee.
Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Hotmail are consumer cloud computing services, and there are specialist offerings for government, such as the data storage element of Fujitsu's Flex service for the central government.

At the table

Richard Bull
Business unit director for HMRC,
Fujitsu

David Wilde
Chief information officer,
Westminster city council

Merlin Hay
Earl of Erroll
Parliamentary Information Technology Committee, House of Lords

James Gardner
Chief technology officer,
Department for Work and Pensions

Rob Norris
IT transformation director UK,
Fujitsu

Simon Norbury
Principal consultant,
Red Pepper 52

Bill Limond
Director of information systems,
City of London

Dr Katy Ring
Director,
K2 Advisory

Ben Ticehurst
Head of business transformation,
Peterborough city council

Mark Say (chair)
Editor,
GC Magazine

Ian Osborne
Project director,
Digital Knowledge Transfer Network

Des Livings
Deputy IT director,
Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Online help to develop people skills

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:57:00 GMT

Stressed and depressed staff can be supported in a way that benefits the entire organisation says Kevin Young, general manager EMEA, SkillSoft

You can't blame anyone in the public sector for feeling down, especially if you are a manager having to implement cuts across a team.

As much as you would like to, it's difficult to be sympathetic to those who complain. Perhaps you've had to fight your corner to maintain the little that remains. And is anyone showing any gratitude? Of course not.

Although, on balance staff may be fortunate to be in work, reductions in spending and a block on recruitment, may also give them reasons to grumble.

But ironically, because of the mood of the times, managers may be less inclined to listen to them.

However, a recent report by MIND estimated that the country loses 70m working days a year due to stress and depression.

There will always be cases that need professional help. But even relatively low to medium levels of stress can seriously affect productivity with high levels of absenteeism compounding the work and worries for remaining staff.

So how can you address this problem in a way that benefits rather than threatens an organisation?

Even before the cuts, an independent survey commissioned by SkillSoft showed that one third of workers were doing jobs they were not properly trained to do and 80% of UK managers said they were being asked to undertake tasks without receiving appropriate training.

When asked to identify who in their organisation was in most need of ongoing training and development, 76% named their line manager.

Behind these statistics lies a story of staff being promoted beyond their capability and with no support, or employees being asked to double up on jobs even though they may be ill-equipped to do so.

Perhaps it's a case of lack of confidence rather than competence? Many feel it's the "people skills" they lack – how do they delegate, or deliver constructive criticism, for example? But, these are often the very courses that are seen as superfluous.

E-learning is ideal for teaching 'soft skills'

Yet providing this support needn't be costly. E-learning is ideal for teaching these "soft skills" because courses can be completed in privacy and in bite-sized chunks – and without having to take a whole day out of the office. A publishing company currently using e-learning told us that because so many courses were being completed, each one was costing them little more than a round of coffees.

There's no reason why the public sector shouldn't take advantage of these methods too – in fact certain parts of the NHS, such as Greater Glasgow and Clyde already have e-learning firmly embedded in their culture.

Also, e-learning is no longer a passive option – interactive courses, live learning events and social networking tools for collaboration are now being included.

Being able to share relevant knowledge with peers helps employees get involved and feel in control of their learning and ultimately their own careers.

So, there is an alternative to making otherwise talented staff run before they can walk and then watching them become stressed and unhappy as they cease to cope.

Wherever there are different personalities, ambition and intelligence, some stress is unavoidable – but giving employees the knowledge and learning they need to do their job can go a long way to alleviate it.

Kevin Young is general manager EMEA, SkillSoft

How the European Union went for cloud cover

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:04:00 GMT

Tom Auwers from the Belgian Federal Public Service Social Security explains how cloud computing became integral to his country's running of the European Union's presidency

On 1 December 2009 the Treaty of Lisbon came into force and the practice of a Trio Presidency was formalised. To ensure that there is continuity between each successive six month presidency and the long-term priorities of the European Union (EU) are progressed, the three countries participating in the rotating presidencies now have a legal obligation to establish a common work programme together.

As a result of these institutional reforms, the Belgium Federal Public Service (FPS) Social Security currently finds itself at the heart of an historic event. For the first time, three countries – Spain, Belgium and Hungary – have to work together to prepare for the Presidency of the Council of the EU and co-operate to ensure the continuity of their policies.

In January this year, the three countries set out their roadmap for their 18 month presidency and, until the end of June 2011, the Belgian FPS Social Security will be working with teams across Europe, from numerous administrations and organisations. It was clear from the outset that to successfully collaborate on this scale, without constantly travelling for face-to-face meetings, the team would need to be supported by innovative technology.

To break down the barriers of communication between organisations, administrations and geographically-dispersed teams, we joined forces with Huddle, the online collaboration platform that lets you connect and work securely with other people in the cloud.

Collaborating in the cloud

During Belgium's six month Presidency, which started on 1 July, the FPS Social Security's EU 2010 Presidency Team is responsible for all matters relating to social policy issues. As well as providing input for negotiations, we are organising conferences and meetings with the aim of driving forward social protection in Europe.

To ensure these events and negotiations run smoothly, we need to share files, have discussions, manage approvals and capture input on documents from multiple parties. These include people from national and local public institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGO), research centres, universities and colleagues on the presidency teams in Spain and Hungary.

In the run up to Belgium's Presidency, it soon became evident that our in-house network, shared drives and email system were simply not suitable for the project. Our mailboxes were exceeding their limits due to the extensive use of email and external experts and consultants from different administrations could not access relevant documents stored on our servers. It was clear that, while departments and teams could work together in their own silos, there were obvious barriers of communication preventing cross-department and external collaboration.

We required a system that was accessible to contributors from both inside and outside of the organisation, enabling us all to come together in a secure online environment. Using Huddle, everyone can access the information they need, from wherever they are located, and it is easy to identify the final version of a file. We also have the ability to limit the accessibility of sensitive documents to specific users.

Working together seamlessly

For government organisations, communication and transparency is key to ensuring that projects are completed successfully, efficiently and on time. As an administration team that strives to be both dynamic and efficient, the Presidency presented us with the ideal time to examine the benefits of cloud computing and deploy new technology that would help everyone organise and execute their work effectively. There are now more than 100 participants in the Presidency project that have access to all the information they require via Huddle. The number of letters sent via post has been significantly reduced, email traffic has decreased and our shared network drive for this project is obsolete.

In the run up to Belgium taking over the Presidency, communication with our Spanish colleagues significantly increased to ensure a smooth transition. I am sure that towards the end of Belgium's Presidency, cloud computing will again prove to be invaluable as we increase communication with the team in Hungary and support the move of the Presidency to its third country.

Tom Auwers is Director-General of the Directorate-General Strategy, International Affairs & Research within the Belgian Federal Public Service Social Security

Government data: access all areas

Tony Myers — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:34:20 GMT

Public managers need to bring their data out of silos and share it with other departments and citizens to improve democracy, and no one should be excluded from the internet - delegates at this year's Activate summit were told

Since when were the location of bus stops a state secret? Never?

Trying telling that to Nigel Shadbolt, director of the Web Science Trust & The Web Foundation, who has been advising the government on opening up its data.

Speaking at the recent Guardian's Activate 2010 Summit Shadbolt pointed out that it is only in the past year government departments have appeared willing to release such "sensitive" data as the location of bus stops, bicycle routes, allotments and NHS dental practices and said he wanted to "shine the light on data to empower it through its democratic use".

Raw data has taken on an extraordinary life of its own, he added, with people building their own apps, from an 'Asborometer' to gauge the level of crime in an area to real-time maps of cycle lanes showing accident blackspots.

"Data is not dry dusty stuff, but dynamic and it can be used to improve democracy," Shadbolt told delegates. He said government departments should bring their data out of their silos and share it; collectively it can make a huge difference to society.

Picking up the theme at the summit's session on politics, democracy and public life session, Beth Simone Noveck, the US chief technology officer and director of the White House Open Government initiative, said the Obama administration had promised more open access of government data, and there was even a race on with the UK as to who can release the most.

Openness strengthens democracy and improves efficiency of government, she said. Instead of regulation and legislation, governments should look more to transparency, collaboration and participation with the public.

The UK "digital champion", and founder of lastminute.com, Martha Lane-Fox, gave an impassioned speech in the same session, declaring that she would like to see 100% citizen engagement on the internet by the time of the London Olympics in 2012.

Everybody benefits when everyone is online

She told delegates that 10 million people in the UK had never used the internet with a further two million only occasionally or have tried it and not gone back. To get more people to use the web she said the government has to rethink its strategy. There should be access everywhere, said Lane-Fox, not just in the home. She called for libraries, GP surgeries, community centres to all have points of access so people from less privileged or disadvantaged backgrounds could engage with the rest of society in a meaningful way.

"Everybody benefits when everyone is online," she said, "people will feel less isolated and it improves confidence."

Illinois-based Steven Clift, founder and executive director of E-Democracy, said the internet is the most democratising way for openness and engagement. At neighbourhood level there is a public space for everyone to participate. "We all live in neighbourhoods, anyone can start a local group," he said. "Whether it's campaigning for a local park or getting involved in community youth projects through blogs and forums - everyone can be included."

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt told the conference that reading news will move to digital devices quite rapidly and warned that organisations should think of their mobile strategy ahead of their internet strategy – but that the two were intertwined so deeply that it was impossible to think of one without the other.

Tony Myers

City in online 'jam' with residents

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:32:54 GMT

Coventry offers an open online forum for residents to voice their views on the future of their city

Coventry city council is breaking new ground by opening up a special online discussion with local people to discuss the future of their city.

Chief executive Martin Reeves said that the three-day exercise (which started on Tuesday), named CovJam and carried out with the support IBM, is the first of its type for a city.

"It's been used in the White House and by big corporations, but not in a city with its partners as we are doing," he said.

Facilitators are online from 8am to 8pm, although it will remain open between sessions for comments from the public. GC News reported that by early afternoon of the first day approximately 800 people were logged in and that about four times that number had registered to take part.

"We are using technology and online consultation to do two main things: get an idea about how we develop the city in the future and how we work together; and how stakeholders can get on and do it. It's about how we can collaborate," Reeves said.

Under cyber attack!

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:12:17 GMT

Safeguarding sensitive information in the public sector presents unique challenges – and unique responsibilities, says Philippe Neray

Ask the thousands of residents of Oklahoma State who discovered their social security numbers had been freely available on the web for three years, thanks to a leak at the Oklahoma Department of Corrections website.

Effective and efficient controls must be put in place, both to ensure public confidence as well as to minimize the risks to our personal privacy, our financial systems, and even our national defence.

Many of these newer data security processes are already common to top global banks, insurers, telecommunication companies and retailers – and of course, most public sector managers understand the risks of inadequately protecting critical data, and want to do the right thing.

However, the public sector must cope with additional constraints such as tighter budgeting and an inherent duty to be open, transparent and accountable – and therefore to put more information online rather than less. The challenge is to balance a necessary degree of openness with a heightened level of security and privacy.

The NHS was responsible for more serious data breaches (287) than any other UK organisation since 2007

A good example of this heightened risk can be witnessed across the NHS, which is under constant pressure to increase efficiencies by placing more patients' medical information online. It's understandable if the UK public isn't entirely happy with this trend, as the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) recently revealed that the NHS was responsible for more serious data breaches (287) than any other UK organisation since 2007. Key to reducing this risk is updating both the technology and the mindset inside public sector organisations.

A lack of awareness is causing IT managers to rely solely upon traditional technologies such as network firewalls and anti-virus tools without realising that cybercriminals and rogue insiders are using entirely new techniques that can easily bypass such perimeter defences.

It's also vital to distinguish between security breaches caused by accidental data loss and that caused by malicious attacks. The personal data of those citizens of Oklahoma wasn't exposed as a result of a careless civil servant leaving a USB key or laptop in a bar – it happened because of poor coding on the state's public-facing website and a lack of enterprise controls coupled with an ignorance of the risks from organised cyber-criminals who use automated tools (such as Google) to easily find such vulnerabilities, anywhere in the world.

Of course, common-sense controls such as encrypting all removable media with sensitive data should be mandated, but such losses are rarely linked to tangible damages. In contrast, the threat of targeted attacks against high-value databases has already cost the private sector billions. A similar loss of public data would directly affect the lives of millions of citizens, with a thriving black market already hungry for sensitive personal information and foreign governments constantly enhancing their cyber-espionage programs.

If an investment broker in Montana, can be breached by a remote gang of Latvian cybercriminals who stole nearly 200,000 consumer records from the broker's web server, similar gangs can breach softer targets in the UK public sector.

Like most compromised organisations, the firm hadn't even detected its breach until after it was emailed for extortion. Similarly, the World Bank took an entire year to discover that it had suffered six major cyber-assaults on up to 40 servers in 2008, including the theft of passwords for its strategic SAP database systems.

To intruders, this clearing-house for financial data from both governments and businesses proved an irresistible silo of exploitable financial and personal data, including information on project bid awards, private meeting minutes and crucially, the central bank's market-influencing positions on currency, stocks and bonds.

Simply put, it's no longer acceptable for public sector security professionals to protect their perimeters like some high-tech Maginot Line and simply hope cyber attacks won't happen. In reality, the chances are they will happen in time – and simply passing your IT compliance audits with 'ticks in boxes' does not necessarily mean you're secure (as many breached organisations have found, much to their dismay).

New non-disruptive technologies, such as real-time database activity monitoring and application-layer monitoring, can dramatically increase security and privacy today without disrupting existing processes or the need for increased government transparency and accountability.

Philippe Neray is vice president of Security Strategy for data security specialist Guardium, an IBM company

OGC head claims shared services will be mandatory in future

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:35:00 GMT

Procurement landscape will be completely changed in 20 years with departments sharing more and e-auctions as standard

The head of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), Nigel Smith, has warned of the perils of developing a Public Sector Network which is only used by a few organisations.

In a speech delivered to delegates at this week's SmartGov Live and reported on our sister site Kable, he said: "What government can do is to mandate for interoperability, but you have to have a view about local flexibility," he said.

Smith said that he believed government organisations should be mandated to use shared services. But he added that one of the problems with compulsion is that unless people can see the benefits, it will not work. "As long as they can see that they are having something good it will be welcomed," he said.

Outlining his vision for the future of public sector procurement in 20 years' time, he offered five predictions, one of which was the OGC carrying out much of departments' procurement needs.

"My prediction is that commodities will be procured on behalf of organisations by professional buying organisations, with much reduced price variation," said Smith.

Secondly, electronic procurement will become standard. Currently, electronic auctions are only used for 2% of public sector spending, even though average savings are about 20% and often more than 30%, he said. Smith added that there is "fantastic practice going on in government, but we don't have consistency".

An Amazon e-market place

In future, he said that "all tenders will be electronic and e-auctions will be a standard tool. And, yes, we will have an Amazon e-market place with a repository of pre-procured solutions, to increase the supplier base and increase best value."

Thirdly, the relationship between customers and suppliers will become more collaborative. "Visibility of government aggregated demand is core, with suppliers having a forward look at opportunities and offering innovative solutions for required outcomes."

There is too little attention to continuous improvement within contracts, in Smith's view, and there are large variations in prices paid for the same service, which must change.

He also said that "transparency" is limited to OJEU reporting, a situation which does not encourage innovation, accountability and drive increased value.

"My prediction is that we will provide full visibility of the demand on an easy access portal with access to all government opportunities. We will have embedded flexible outcome based contracting, with payment by results," he said.

Fourthly, that access to supplier opportunities will become simpler, with standardised PQQs (pre-qualification questionnaires). Currently, there are no standard PQQ processes to minimise the burden on the supplier and which can be adapted to the size of the tender, which is particularly difficult for small businesses.

"My prediction is that we will have a standardised reusable and flexible PQQ process, universally applied and based on e-tendering platforms with full interoperability," he said.

His fifth prediction was that there will be fewer public sector procurement professionals working more effectively. Whitehall procurement capability reviews have identified skills and capability as the most significant weakness, he said. Although much has been done within departments to address this problem, Smith said that more was needed: "We need to stop buying and start procuring."

"My prediction is that we will have an effective shared service for government covering all commodity procurement, with specialist professionals with best practice category knowledge. We will have fewer but highly skilled professionals focusing on the most complex procurements, whether they be infrastructure, outsourced core services or commissioned services from the private sector."

But he added that there are significant challenges given the size and complexities of government projects. "The challenge we face in the public sector is massively greater than it is in the private sector, and I include organisations like BP in this," he said. "There is no project in the private sector which matches even a medium sized project in the public sector."

Coins causes Whitehall unease

Jane Dudman — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:05:18 GMT

The government's decision to reveal what departments spend via the Combined Online Information System has not only upset some ministers, but also left experts puzzled

The release of the Combined Online Information System (Coins) database showing government spending has prompted fears that the data is at risk of being manipulated.

Last Friday, the government published the raw public spending data as part of its commitment to greater transparency, but the release has been controversial, with some ministers expressing unease about every spending decision they make being exposed in this way.

There has also been criticism that the huge amount of data is hard to understand. The government has already said it will publish more user-friendly subsets of the Coins data by August. It is also committed to publishing online all new items of central government spending over £25,000 from November.

Tom Scampion, information and technology risk partner at consultancy Deloitte, says some may question the benefit and relevance of providing such information to the public. Interpreting the vast and complex set of Coins data requires specific technical expertise, he points out. Scampion says that there is also a danger that the data could be "manipulated at the expense of its original purpose" and has called for guidelines to be put in place to ensure that data is guarded against misuse.

The release of the data has prompted a flood of articles about central government spending. The Guardian has already highlighted some of the major spending areas, including a controversial £60m refit of the National Audit Office's headquarters. Other highlighted areas include:

• Bad debts: £596.4m owed to government departments
• Consultants: £1.8bn spent on consultancy by government departments, up from £1.5bn in the previous year
• Spending: £60bn public expenditure in March before the election - in August (the lowest month) it was £44.3bn
• European parliament: £6.8m spent on goods and services for members of the European parliament
• Swine flu: £100m tackling the flu pandemic
• Westminster: £25m net cost of the House of Commons
• Academies: £31.83m spent by the Department for Children, Schools and Families
• Lost legal fees: £111m Ministry of Justice provision for unbilled legal fees in October - up from £73m in April last year
• Counter-terrorism: £4m Office of security and counter terrorism payments to local authorities

The Identity and Passport Service spent £38m on consultancy and £275m on other non-capital purchases in 2009-10. It also spent £116m in wages and £122m on capital items.

But the Guardian also points out that much detailed information is missing from the database, including some of the spending on individual suppliers.

Jane Dudman

We need to sing from the same hymn sheet

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:14:00 GMT

Rather than simply ripping IT contracts up in an order to save money, organisations and suppliers should talk it through in order to identify true cost savings and recognise the challenges facing them

There has been a lot of scaremongering over the past couple of weeks concerning the cull of IT projects and supplier contracts by government departments under the new regime. The tone has focused on the impossibility of the task, with an underlying soundtrack of contracts being ripped to the notes of The Funeral March.

The Treasury's aim is to save almost £100m across departments by delaying IT projects or stopping and renegotiating supplier contracts. But in my view, an objective of getting out of existing contracts with as little damage as possible, or driving down costs to unrealistic levels, is starting from the wrong place and is not the desired outcome.

In reality, the drive for public sector cost savings should reflect the nature of the new political climate: coalition. The process may be challenging, but it should neither be combative nor confrontational. It can also generate both significant savings and greater return on investment, if both the departments and their suppliers come at the re-negotiation process from a pragmatic and realistic angle.

Let's look at this from the supplier's perspective. What right-minded business is going to respond positively to the suggestion that they should just drop their prices? Why should they if they have a pre-agreed contract in place? The only possible winner is the customer but even that is only true in the short term. If a suppler agrees to drop its prices, they will try to regain their return, and the easiest target for this is to pare down service quality.

It's also not true that you have to give something away to receive something. A contract extension, or delivering a reduced service, will certainly incentivise a supplier to reconsider their position, but that means giving away something when the cupboard is already largely bare.

From the customer's perspective, government departments have gone from newly-merged, inexperienced clients, running some of the largest integrated IT projects in the UK (maybe even the world), to organisations with enough experience to recognise areas of overspend, poor return on investment, or service levels which have headed south since initial agreements were signed.

The solution is dialogue; a genuine opportunity for two-way conversation. Many of the contracts are mature in their life cycle, when review and re-negotiation should be expected anyway. Because many of the government IT transformation projects undertaken over the last five to 10 years have been so innovative and complex, suppliers have naturally built in a degree of contingency, which the departments have willingly accepted.

Now, with experience on both sides, departments are in a position of being able to offer clarity and assistance in refining the supplier service offering; identifying true cost savings; and assisting in improving return on investment.

Both sides recognise the scale and scope of the challenges facing them. An honest conversation recognising both the areas of difference and similarity; identifying areas of compromise or where 'fat' can be trimmed from contracts; and readjusting expectations of outcomes and service levels, can lead to a successful and cost-saving IT coalition. Sound familiar?

David Yip is a director of Xantus Consulting

Kent connects - and Whitehall listens

Thu, 27 May 2010 12:07:00 GMT

The Kent Public Services Network, which connects 16 local authorities via a super broadband is not only saving the county money but offers users a fast and efficient service

That the pressure is on in the public sector to deliver efficiencies is hardly news. The mantra is that technology, collaboration, and customer insight can enable both better services and lower costs.

Yet it's the public sector failures – not the triumphs - that receive most coverage. We read about IT costs spiralling out of control, local services being withdrawn and residents feeling let down. We rarely hear how IT has helped organisations transform their frontline public services, delivering more for less.

On 16 June, I will be attending SmartGov Live at ExCel London, which will showcase the latest IT solutions in the public sector. I will be there to present a true-life success story: the Kent Public Services Network (KPSN).

KPSN really does lives up to the mantra. Within one year of its launch it is helping 16 local authorities deliver better, faster, more secure and more joined-up public services. It is saving them millions of pounds, is the model for the Cabinet Office's national public service networks programme and was winner of the National e-Government Shared Services Award 2009.

KPSN is a simple concept: a single broadband network, shared by a number of organisations. Commissioned by Kent Connects, KPSN serves a partnership of Kent's councils, Kent police and the Kent Fire and Rescue Service. The network links 1,200 sites and 250,000 users including 600 schools, 100+ libraries, 276 offices plus hospital-based social services offices and children's centres.

Impressive savings of £9m (25%) of the contract costs were saved by partners working together within the region. KPSN has vastly increased partners' broadband capacity enabling them to keep pace with emerging technologies. Further savings will follow as KPSN provides the IT infrastructure for partners to join up and share services. Early examples include building control, revenues and benefits, and internal audit.

KPSN is also helping tackle Kent's digital divide, extending broadband provision to businesses and residents in remote areas. A third of Kent's broadband 'not-spots' have been tackled and business connectivity is up 55%.

There are environmental benefits too. Firstly, KPSN supports more efficient technologies, reducing carbon footprint. Secondly KPSN reduces the need for staff and residents to travel because it enables online access to services and systems across the county. Finally, because the network is shared and high-spec, there has been less need to dig up roads for cabling.

So how was all this achieved? KPSN isn't the only – or even the first – PSN, but it does have some unique practices. One is that our partnership agreement commits partners to work jointly on all future ICT procurement. This has brought tremendous buying power. We now have an extensive catalogue of cutting-edge services and products, not linked to any single supplier and with substantial discounts.

The most fundamental innovation is that the network is managed and governed by the partners themselves. This took time to work out but it assures KPSN's long-term development and has been worthwhile. We are now in a position to extend the network to non-Kent authorities and with Kent's voluntary and community sector. We may also allow commercial suppliers to link in as a means of tackling the remainder of Kent's digital divide.

Jeff Wallbank is interim strategic director, Kent Connects

• SmartGov Live is a Guardian event, co-located with Smart Healthcare Live and The Public Procurement Show

Who can we trust with our medical data?

Mon, 24 May 2010 09:46:01 GMT

The NHS is the only viable data custodian, but it needs an IT solution that is flexible and scalable enough to take on the role and satisfy patients' fears of keeping their information secure

With the furore around data protection and privacy online, driven by the recent high profile Google and Facebook breaches, inevitably, the summary care record programme is back under the microscope.

The new coalition government has agreed and outlined what they don't want to do, including the national ID card scheme and the national contact database system. However, there has been no guidance to-date on who should be responsible for public health data, which has now been migrated online.

At the same time, citizens' attitudes to the role of the NHS in caretaking their medical records is in flux. Historically, patients have been seen as the subjects of the data, rather than the owners.

This is already changing. Now hundreds of start-up businesses are developing online tools to let citizens manage their own health information, and websites like HealthDataRights.org allow people to sign up to assert their rights to their own health data.

Patients have become more discerning about healthcare choices and the opportunity to search for information online, to do for themselves what institutions cannot.

This is forcing questions to be raised.

Trust is the crux of this dilemma; who can we trust with our medical data? Who ultimately should be its custodian?

Large volumes of data

Involvement of a commercial body like Google or Microsoft is strongly opposed because of the perceived motivation behind this. This has closed the door to others, like utility companies and mobile phone operators, who are old hands at handling large volumes of data.

Similarly the banks, who could provide an efficient national programme, are out of the running as they struggle to disassociate themselves from the economic meltdown which has damaged public trust.

This, plus the lack of direction from the government leaves very few candidates to step up to the plate.

A localised, federated system would seem logical but its critics suggest that it cannot provide the level of efficiency a national system could. This leaves two options – citizens themselves or the NHS. If the citizen alone is the custodian, how can that data be properly monitored by the national health system?

The NHS is the largest employer in the UK, has extensive experience of maintaining and safeguarding personal data and, despite the cuts it is facing, understands which investments will deliver real value to its stakeholders, the UK citizens.

Taking this into account, the only logical contender to handle this data is the NHS itself.

To empower the NHS to deliver in this role however, there are a couple of key steps and standardisations that need to take place.

First, we need a policy to be outlined that is strong enough to take a firm line on what needs to be done, and realistic enough to take into consideration the needs and concerns of a variety of stakeholders.

Secondly, we need an IT solution that is flexible and scalable enough to meet the needs of the NHS. And finally, clinical coding systems and principal treatment codes need to be standardised. Without this any national system will have limited use other than for demographic insights.

The policy needs to be determined from government or high within the NHS itself. This may take significant time but the technology to enable this can be addressed now.

An on-demand system of interlinked IT processes (such as an internal cloud), will provide the NHS with a system where data is effectively managed, safely stored, shared and immediately available to those who need it, which delivers value to all.

With this approach the NHS would work like a knowledge bank with a safe deposit box, where you have a key, they have a key, but you need both to open it. The technology is available and the benefits are clear so the only question that remains is do we trust the NHS to take on this challenge?

Paul Wooding is UK head of public sector, NetApp

Networked in and obtaining 'more for less'

Fri, 21 May 2010 09:25:00 GMT

With spending cuts about to be announced the quest for efficiency will be paramount, that's why 'always on' technology could be the answer for councils to improve the delivery of their services

As a clearer picture emerges of what the political landscape will look like over the next couple of years, one certainty is that it's going to be a tough climate for the UK public sector with Conservatives and Liberal Democrats seeing it as a route to slash the countries deficit and demonstrate their commitment to getting the UK's economy back on track.

With everyone promising to deliver more efficient services, and all heralding the benefits of online citizen access as a way to standardise availability of services, the one other certainty in these still uncertain times is that the strain of this 'more for less' approach will fall on IT departments to turn this efficiency utopia into something more than political hot air.

The big question of course is how?

Many public sector organisations are already doing more with less. The thoughtful use of technology can make the difference between a complete IT overhaul and evolutionary approach to achieving the cost savings and efficiency goals by which citizens will judge the new government's success or otherwise to deliver on its manifesto objectives.

'Always on', access communications

One such example is Cambridgeshire county council. In a bid to take advantage of the technologies available today that improve business agility, speed up service delivery and change the way employees work to make services more cost effective and more accessible, Cambridgeshire county council is transforming its working environment by providing its employees with fast, simple, 'always on', access communications to improve the delivery of services to a population of more than 560,000.

Through Unified Communications the council has built a converged Internet Protocol (IP) network in a three year phased project that started in 2007. The solution has allowed the council to achieve a true business transformation, helping meet its objective to develop an empowered and responsive workforce, while delivering more than £1.2m savings over a two year period.

The project has enabled the council to execute their 'WorkWise' programme, an initiative specifically designed to reduce operating costs, improve council efficiency and attract employees from a wider, rural area. Since completion, the project now provides 5,000 government employees with a platform to effectively communicate, share and interact together from anywhere at any time. The county's employees can now also partake in new forms of flexible working and significantly improve the quality of public services offered.

Avoiding duplication

This technology allows employees to 'hotdesk', and work from different locations, saving the council money by reducing unproductive office space and avoiding duplication of effort by allowing employees to save time and effort in simple yet effective ways such as answering voice messages and email from one inbox, which makes response times shorter overall.

Delivering more with less is always a challenge, but the technology to help extend functionality and improve efficiency so pounds go further is already here.

Many councils such as Cambridgeshire, are already taking advantage of this, with great effect and others are sure to follow suit as the pressure for efficiency mounts. Turning political hot air into genuine efficiency gains in this way may not be the political hot potato it might initially seem. The big question now of course, is whether the current cabinet will be around long enough to reap the rewards!

Lee Shorten, managing director UK and Ireland, Avaya

Power to the people, through e-petitions

Thu, 20 May 2010 09:38:03 GMT

As the new coalition government promises more power to the people, the obvious route is online - so why have e-petitions not had an impact up until now?

Say "e-petitions" and most people think of Number10.gov.uk, where petitions range from the popular "rethink plans to scrap [...] childcare vouchers" – nearly 94,000 votes) to the obscure ("introduce a £15 note to UK currency" – one vote so far).

Yet, with nearly 5,000 petitions currently open on the site, only a few are likely to eventually be debated in Parliament.

It's therefore unsurprising that e-petitions haven't proved to be a runaway success. But the local democracy economic development and construction bill may change things.

Local authorities need to start considering the options now and put in place an online solution to respond to views of residents and local businesses, ahead of the bill's December 2010 deadline.

Add to this David Cameron's commitment to allow members of the public who secure a million e-signatures to introduce a bill and sanction a debate on any petition that secures 100,000 signatures, and it becomes a more urgent proposition.

Cost of public consultations

It's tempting to view e-petitions as yet another central government box-ticking exercise, but the wider potential benefits of implementing an e-petitions solution are impressive. After all, the cost of a public consultation can be up to £90,000; gathering opinion and responding to petitions online could cut this cost dramatically. It will help many local authorities to think of their residents as customers and put processes in place to encourage debate. Having online petitions at a local level will be vital for local authorities to gain support and trust, as well as better insight into public opinion.

However, if an e-petitions facility is to be a success, it needs to made accessible to all. Few local governments currently offer the kind of website that their customers want. Local governments continue to work silo fashion, with different services run by completely separate departments. Their websites tend to be process-specific, so citizens have to log onto different areas to check council tax, bin collections or planning applications.

What is required is a one-stop-shop so that each individual can treat their local authority website as a single window through which to access all services relevant to them. That remains a work-in-progress for many councils, but some are making headway and the ones making that progress stand to gain the most from e-petitions.

Cloud-based solutions

Choosing the right technology will also be crucial in making e-petitions a success. It must be easy to use to encourage residents and local businesses people to debate issues and interact with the council. Cloud-based solutions should create economies of scale to reduce set-up costs, and allow systems to be easily scaled up in line with demand, in a secure and stable environment.
If rolled out correctly, an e-petitions system could help create more community engagement and literally bring power to the people at a more granular level than ever before.

But in order for it to work, it needs to be done with the bigger picture in mind and not just seen as another tick in the online box. Providing that single window into the world of local government, through which citizens can debate and interact on local issues as well as access services, will be a key factor in the future take-up of online services.

Brett Husbands is chief executive at Firmstep

'Strive and drive for innovation'

Tue, 11 May 2010 10:15:09 GMT

National Archives director calls for simplified data and better access to information

The director of information policy and services at the National Archives, Carol Tullo, has said the public sector needs to make information more easily accessible to people to achieve efficiency.

Kable report thatTullo said organisations could deliver more for less only if they allow better access to information and enable others to use it.

"If we empower and provide easy routes and simple routes without barriers to this wealth of information that we create in the public sector, and allow others to add value to that and to innovate, then we can strive and drive for innovation," she told the annual conference of geographical information systems (GIS) specialist Esri.

She made the point that many people cannot read a simple graph or tabular material. "So if you're sitting somewhere in authority, in a local government department or a government agency, and you're churning out information and you're saying, 'It's online, it's there for everyone to look at' - 80% of people can't read it or understand it."

She also said that public sector organisations are "drowning in information" and have to deal with the challenge of managing it without being "completely compliance based".

Tullo said she believes local government initiatives are paving the way for open data, and that allowing communities to get involved and interact with certain data initiatives was a step in the right direction. But she also acknowledged that there are concerns in organisations over losing control of the data.