Connected Systems Chilled Out Blog

Talking about TUO

BizTalk Visionary — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 05:44:09 GMT

I’ll be presenting with Matt Briggs, TUO programme manger, at the Microsoft Worldwide Government Solutions Forum on the 25th April.We will be providing an overview of Tell Us One and the journey of how we got there.

TUO–Citizen On-line

BizTalk Visionary — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:34:08 GMT

Following on from my previous post I am pleased to announce that the on-line service was used in earnest yesterday by real users!

As Always news like this is always bittersweet and we shouldn’t lose sight of how the use of the system comes about because we are reporting the death of someone.

Tell Us Once–Final Phase goes live

BizTalk Visionary — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:53:58 GMT

Yesterday the final phase of ‘Tell Us Once’ went live. This completes the 4 1/2 year journey Solidsoft started on this cross government project with the addition of full electronic distribution of data and the most import piece – access for the citizen to use the service on-line.

Tell Us Once (TUO) is the award-winning, cross-government programme that lets people inform central government and local authorities just once of a birth or death. In service in over 95% of councils in England, Scotland and Wales, it provides a permanent solution to the long-standing and frustrating issue of people having to notify the government multiple times. Several years ago, research showed that people had to make up to 44 contacts when reporting a death to government bodies and their local authority.

The TUO service is offered as a face-to-face interview by the local authority or by telephone to a dedicated telephony service run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). and a now a TUO online service for death.

From the bereavement section of the Direct Gov web site the citizen is able to ‘enrich’ the standard death registration data to allow the ‘Tell Us Once’ system inform the various government departments about the death. These include the local council, DVLA, DWP, Passport service and HMRC.

For the record this is an excellent example of how an SME working with a large SI partner can deliver success for government in a responsive and agile manner.

For me personally it is a proud moment in which a vision I started with a very small team was followed through, extended and finally delivered by an excellent team at Solidsoft.

Cloudstore

BizTalk Visionary — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:33:27 GMT

Cloudstore – A marketplace for Government

Microsoft Marketplace and the Everything Apple's App Store have revolutionised how we all buy and use software. It's now the best way to 'buy bits'. So why shouldn't government consumers be able to connect with their suppliers in a similar way?

That was the challenge to Solidsoft from the Cabinet Office.

We responded with the CloudStore.
It replaces a complex system which had different applications from different providers spread across multiple locations. That made evaluating services and suppliers really difficult. Different departments could even find themselves vetting the same applications
Civil servants can now view and procure 1700 approved products and services from the G-Cloud Framework, all in one place. They can also exchange ideas and experiences. That means better-informed buying decisions and increased sharing and re-use of proven applications. Saving money and time, and improving working relationships between government and suppliers.

The CloudStore runs on the cutting-edge Azure platform, with the latest HTML interfaces. Best of all, it went from zero to live in just six weeks. And the story's not over yet.

Solidsoft’s CEO stated:

“Our work on this project, built on the Microsoft platform, will help advance the uptake of Cloud technology and fuel the growth of the UK’s IT SMEs. The CloudStore will help the public sector harness the agility and innovation that SMEs bring to the table. At the same time, it will help those SMEs to conduct effective business with Government, on a level playing field with their larger counterparts. ”

Go and have a look….http://www.govstore.net/

Azure Postings–10/01/2012

BizTalk Visionary — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:11:20 GMT

Windows Azure Platform

How to Sort Azure Table Store results Chronologically

How to upload your Excel and CSV data to the Cloud - Blob Storage

SQL Azure Database

Notification and Job Scheduling Service for SQL Azure

SQL Azure Tutorials – Blog

SQL Azure Tutorials - Helping you with Cloud Databases

How to build a SQL Server Reporting Services report with SQL Azure?

Middleware in the cloud

SAP meet Azure Service Bus – EAI/EDI December 2011 CTP

Azure Service Bus EAI/EDI December 2011 CTP – New Mapper

Introduction to the Azure Service Bus EAI/EDI December 2011 CTP

Tell Us Once - Review

BizTalk Visionary — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:55:32 GMT

Tell Us Once (TUO) is the award-winning, cross-government programme that lets people inform central government and local authorities just once of a birth or death. By March 2012 it will be in service in over 95% of councils in England, Scotland and Wales.

It has provided a permanent solution to the long-standing and frustrating issue of people having to notify the government multiple times. Several years ago, research showed that people had to make up to 44 contacts when reporting a death to government bodies and their local authority.

The TUO service is offered as a face-to-face interview by the local authority or by telephone to a dedicated telephony service run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). March 2012 a TUO online service will be offered via the Directgov website.

This programme is supported by innovative software developed by Solidsoft on the Microsoft stack providing a national system for the citizen coupled with cross government data distribution.

Solidsoft first became involved in the project over 4 years ago when asked to support the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (now Cabinet Office) in providing architectural guidance to a small team considering how to make it easier for the citizen to report changes of circumstance to government. This team was part of the newly formed Tell Us Once initiative lead by Lyn MacDonald.

A prototype and a high successful pilot later the green light was finally given to deliver the national system with the first phase going life September 2011. Of course this was not without a quite bumpy path not least when a change of government caused the freezing of all projects including Tell Us Once for a number months shortly after development had started in earnest!

Today over 300 councils are providing the service with over 2,500 customer interactions taking place each day! By April 2012 this will have risen to over 400 councils and over 3,500 transactions taking place each day.

The project is one of the first cross government, citizen facing successes for a long time. It was made possible by the partnership of DWP, the stack holders (councils and government departments), AtoS and Solidsoft.

Furthermore it is an exemplar of how SME’s like Solidsoft can work to deliver solutions across government with the help of large SI’s such as AtoS.

Over the coming months we will be looking at how this was achieved and where it should go next.

Tell Us Once–In the news

BizTalk Visionary — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:10:23 GMT

This morning the director of the Tell Us Once project, Lyn McDonald appeared on BBC Breakfast television to talk about the success that the launch of Tell Us Once is bringing to both central government and local government . Furthermore she also expressed the benefit that it is providing to the citizen. Through the rest of the morning the news around TUO is being presented by Lyn and Matt Briggs across radio and TV.

Tell Us Once is the major project Solidsoft have been developing on behalf of DWP.

Tell Us Once, a new service which takes on the responsibility from loved ones of notifying relevant government departments and services of a family bereavement and for a birth. The optional and free facility will be offered by council registrars to family members at the end of a death registration appointment or birth registration process.

The Tell Us Once Service will the share relevant details with a number of central and local government organisations, giving the bereaved or new parents a much simpler way of reporting a change to their family circumstances.

By March 2012 over 95% of councils will be online with TUO providing either bereavement, birth or both to their citizens.

Solidsoft have been involved with the project for over 4 years and have not only delivered the latest release but also provided a pilot project that ran for over 2 years in 44 councils prior to the latest full release.

TUO is one of the great successes in Government IT delivery and in the future will branch out to support both the private sector and more changes of circumstance such as Change of Address.

Azure Postings–29/11/11

BizTalk Visionary — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:33:46 GMT

Windows Azure Platform

How to Sort Azure Table Store results Chronologically

How to upload your Excel and CSV data to the Cloud - Blob Storage

SQL Azure Database

Notification and Job Scheduling Service for SQL Azure

SQL Azure Tutorials – Blog

Visual Studio Extension: Web Essentials

BizTalk Visionary — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:50:54 GMT

To quote Scott Hanselman….

Visual Studio 2010 is really extensible and that's allowed many folks on the team to try out new features for Web Development without having to rebuild Visual Studio itself. One of those "playground" extensions is called "Web Essentials" by Mads Kristensen. Mads handles HTML5 and CSS3 tools for our team. You might remember Mads from when we released the Web Standards Update a few months back.

Get it here: Scott Nanselman blog...

Get USD $150 cash1 per license2 off Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

BizTalk Visionary — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:03:46 GMT

To quote Microsoft:

Businesses do not need to pay a premium for a world-class CRM solution. Today, you can get a great solution that meets your specific business needs – and save a tremendous amount of money in the process.

Until March 31, 2012, Microsoft will send qualified organizations USD $150 for each Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Subscription license. Buy 50 seats, get USD $7,500. Buy 500 seats, get USD $75,000.1

This money could be used any way you like. For example, the money can be used to accelerate your implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Whatever the case, Microsoft will send you money to help you get started fast.

In addition to this great offer, all organizations can also license Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for only USD $44/user/month! Together, the combination of a great price and offer represent a great opportunity to get started with one of the best CRM solutions in the industry.

More information can be found here or from the award winning company Solidsoft at enquiries@solidsoft.com

Microsoft pokes fun at VMWare

BizTalk Visionary — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 06:44:12 GMT

Where has the last 6 months gone!

BizTalk Visionary — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 08:20:59 GMT

Well simply put - flat out on a big Government IT project. This is due to go live next month and I'll be writing a number of pieces here on it.

Built on BizTalk, WCF, Windows Foundation, MVC, Entity framework and App Fabric....

Twitter sets up new site

BizTalk Visionary — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:05:04 GMT

Twitter’s welsh head of development - Ebrill Ffola annouced today the setting up of a new project.

The idea is based on Twitter but restricted to humour only. “140 characters will give us some great one liners’ Ebrill announced in his launch speech. The site of course will be called Titter and users are expected to provide Titters. A spokesman for Ken Dodd has informed us that he has already signed up for the new service.

Replace your SKY+ HD Hard drive

BizTalk Visionary — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:08:10 GMT

As there are a number of different unit types there are a number of links provided here:

If you wish to upgrade the Amstrad HD Box, please use this guide. How to upgrade the Hard Drive of your Amstrad HD box

If you wish to upgrade the Thomson HD Box, please use this guide. How to upgrade the Hard Drive in your Thomson HD Box.

If you wish to upgrade the Pace HD Box, please use this guide. How to upgrade the Hard Drive in your Pace HD Box

If you wish to upgrade the Samsung HD Box, please use this guide. How to upgrade the Hard Drive in your Samsung HD Box

I recommend you use a Hitachi DeskStar 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache

The Death of a PS3

BizTalk Visionary — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 07:30:25 GMT

Today my PS3 died. The horrible ‘red flasher’ arrived. Tried the old change and reseat hard drive but feel it’s terminal!

So tomorrow I’ll contact Sony and get the full SP.

Pillars of Earth–Mini Series

BizTalk Visionary — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 06:58:40 GMT

This October in the UK the showing of Ken Follet’s Mini series based on his book – Pillars of Earth will be shown. IMDB link here..

The miniseries took about a year to produce, at a cost of $40 million U.S. The project was funded by the German production company, Tandem Communications, with Muse Entertainment and Scott Free Productions. It was filmed in Austria and Hungary, from 2009. The final aerial shot is of modern day Salisbury with the cathedral altered by computer-generated imagery.

The Pillars of the Earth is set against a backdrop of war, religious strife and power struggles which tears lives and families apart. In that time, there rises a magnificent Cathedral in Kingsbridge. Against the backdrop, love-stories entwine: Tom, the master builder, Aliena, the noblewoman, the sadistic Lord William, Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge, Jack, the artist in stone work and Ellen, the woman from the forest who casts a curse and most significantly the treachery of the Catholic Bishop Waleran. At once, this is a sensuous and enduring love story and an epic that shines with the fierce spirit of a passionate age in places darkened with a thread of incest. Follett masterfully weaves these stories through political turmoil of 12th century England, creating a relevant and viable world for today's audience and for generations to come.

Relatively close to the book and excellently adapted for TV – where changed it has improved or strengthened the plot.

The cast is excellent including Ian McShane, Matthew Macfadyen, Clive Wood and Donald Sutherland.

A Five star of 5 star rating….

Business Online Productivity Suite (BPOS) – Let Solidsoft Help

BizTalk Visionary — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 09:34:47 GMT

What is BPOS?
BPOS is a suite of enterprise-class software that is hosted by Microsoft and delivered as a subscription service. BPOS includes:

Exchange Online, including Exchange Hosted Services, which are attached services that encompass the archiving, encryption, continuity and filtering of data

SharePoint Online for intranets and document sharing

Office Communications Online for real-time communication and presence (instant messaging and related capabilities)

Office Live Meeting for interactive Web conferencing

Let Solidsoft Help
Solidsoft is a Microsoft Online Services Partner. We can advise you on the right solution for your business, help build your business case and implement your solution so that you are able to take advantage of Microsoft’s online services, giving your business the edge. To take advantage of a 30 day no-obligation trial of BPOS please click on the image to the left.
If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us either by using our Contact Us page or in person by phoning 01256 375 700. We’re here to help.

For more info go to : Solidsoft can help!

BizTalk mapping issue/bug?

BizTalk Visionary — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 09:26:22 GMT

This is a problem discovered by my colleague Dave Robinson at Solidsoft:

This is more something to be aware of. I would not necessarily say it was a bug but it’s interesting none the less. We have a map which wants to create an output based on

- One field existing AND

- One field NOT existing

Based on the screen shot below, you can see the “&” functoid forms the creation of the ContactPhones. Behind the scenes the creation of the ContactPhones is done via a for loop “<xsl:for-each select="InputMessagePart_1/Details/Contacts">”

For this instance our output record was created successfully

In the second case where our output was not created, I was scratching my head for a few moments. Basically the map was the same but the order of the inputs into the “&” functoid is the other way round, i.e. the NOT was first. In this case the creation of the ContactPhones is done via the following for loop “<xsl:for-each select="InputMessagePart_0/ns0:FWTOrganisation/ContactPhones">”. In this case, this record does not exist so our output is never going to be created.

So if you are doing something like this, you need to ensure that the first input into the “&” is the field which you want to exist. Otherwise you will not get the expected output.

Webmatrix

BizTalk Visionary — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:02:07 GMT

So far this has proved fun to use and also very, very frustrating!! I would very much like the addition of intellisense, support in Visual Studio and Expression!!

First help just about completed….

Case Study: Nationwide runs high-performing FPS

BizTalk Visionary — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:51:55 GMT

Nationwide, the world’s largest building society realised the benefits of Faster Payments with the help of Microsoft Services and interestingly enough a team of BizTalk experts from Solidsoft.

For a number of years Solidsoft has provided senior software consultants expert in Microsoft BizTalk server and many other Microsoft products support of Microsoft Service led developments. The Nationwide project has proved no different with Solidsoft providing a team of 6 to support the successful development of the Faster Payments system.

The case study can be viewed here: http://www.onwindows.com/Articles/Nationwide-runs-highperforming-FPS/5236/Default.aspx