Social Technology Consulting

Giampiero Nanni Joins Quadriga Consulting Associate Team

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:00:03 +0000

Giampiero Nanni, former Head of Thought Leadership, Public Sector, for Cisco EMEA, has joined forces with Quadriga Consulting – to help develop our public sector thought leadership business. Giampiero has also held senior public sector marketing roles at both Microsoft and IBM.

Quadriga Consulting has developed a deep expertise in public sector thought leadership. Our Government 2010 event was ground-breaking – and helped to push forward the debates around open data, social CRM and G-Cloud initiatives in government. Our upcoming CITIZEN 2012 conference, on June 28, also promises to be a significant thought leadership event – involving senior speakers from Ipsos MORI, Cabinet Office, Government of Malta, Forbes Insights, KANA, Policy Exchange, Taxpayers’ Alliance, SOCITM – and many others.

Giampiero will work with the Quadriga Consulting team to help develop our public sector thought leadership offer – with a strong focus on the emerging area of cloud computing in government. We are at the early stages of developing a Government Cloud Summit event in late Autumn, 2012.

CITIZEN 2012: Speaker Line-up Grows

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:21:51 +0000

CITIZEN 2012 Advert in Forbes Magazine

Quadriga Consulting, organiser of the CITIZEN 2012 Conference (http://citizen-2012.org), has announced a number of high profile keynote speakers for the event. CITIZEN 2012 will take place on June 28 and will focus on how the relationship between citizens and government is changing. The mobile internet, cloud technology and social media are coming together to create new citizen expectations.

The conference will draw upon the latest thinking in citizen focused service and will look at the types of technologies and thinking that are emerging that make government better at responding to citizen needs.

Included in the line-up of speakers will be Ben Page, CEO of Ipsos MORI who will be giving the opening keynote address. Ben is well known in government circles. Since 1992 Ben has worked closely with both Conservative and Labour ministers and senior policy makers across government, leading on work for Downing Street, the Cabinet Office, the Home Office and the Department of Health, as well as a wide range of local authorities and NHS Trusts.

The Chief Insights Officer from Forbes – Bruce Rogers – will also be addressing CITIZEN 2012. Bruce has held several senior roles at Forbes and helped grow Forbes.com traffic from under 500,000 to 20 million unique monthly visitors during his tenure as VP Marketing. Bruce now runs the Forbes Insights business. He’ll be discussing citizen connectedness, mobility, and the cloud are affecting citizen to government relationships – and how government needs to adapt.

Other international speakers have also been confirmed – including Derrick Pisani, Head of eGovernment for Malta who will focus on multi-channel communications, and the challenges of managing them.

Two of the UK’s leading policy think-tanks will also feature on the speaking line-up. Chris Yiu, Head of the Digital Government unit at The Policy Exchange and Dominique Lazanski, Head of Digital Policy at Taxpayers’ Alliance – will be speaking on panel sessions.

Other announced speakers include Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group – the Internet and data rights lobby group – and Dr Andy Williamson, Founding Director of the Centre for Information Technology Research in New Zealand. David Moody, from event sponsors KANA, will also be a keynote speaker.

For full details of the entire speaking line-up visit http://citizen-2012.org

Citizen 2012 – Call for Speakers

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:19:51 +0000

Citizen 2012 will one of the most important government service focused thought leadership events of 2012. Featuring a highly influential live audience, and international viewing audience for the live broadcast, we’re seeking thought leaders to speak on the day.

If you work in government – at local, regional or national level – and have a citizen service story to tell, we’d love to hear from you.

If you are a government IT analyst or market watcher and have a perspective, contact us.

If you write about government technology, or are an avid blogger, you may wish to chair a panel session.

We’re still working on the detail of the agenda but we expect the sessions will be broadly themed around the following key topics:

Citizen interaction via multiple channels
Shared CRM and citizen engagement initiatives
The social media channel and citizen engagement
Non-emergency services and joined-up thinking
Digital inclusion – bridging the divide
Reaching to the clouds – how cloud technology is playing a role in next generation service centres

Please use this form to contact us and register your interest in speaking.

Quadriga Consulting Launches Citizen 2012 Conference

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 07:56:10 +0000

Quadriga Consulting today announced that it will be running an important conference on June 28 in Westminster, London. The thought leader conference will look, in depth, at how citizen service provision by local, regional and national government is being forced to face up to fundamental change. The event will be live broadcast (the event can be watched free of charge – pre-registration required).

VISIT THE EVENT SITE

According to Jeffrey Peel, Managing Director of Quadriga Consulting – and also the author of a book on customer relationship management – the nature of citizen engagement is in flux.

“Communications and social interaction have changed, fundamentally, in the last few years. People have now much higher expectations in terms of communications – and require much more rapid answers and service provision. Increasingly business is being conducted in ‘real-time’. Lag simply results in frustration. In the commercial world only the fittest survive. And fitness, these days, is about having customer engagement processes that are built from ground up to be responsive, engaging and meet people’s expectations. The public sector – more than ever – has to be seen to be accountable, and to be agile and responsive. The alternative is disaffection – and poor citizen perceptions of core public services.”

KANA becomes lead sponsor of event focused on next-generation citizen engagement with government. Find out more about KANA.

He continued, “The Citizen 2012 Conference on June 29 will draw upon the latest thinking in citizen focused service provision and will look at the types of technologies that are emerging that make public bodies better at responding to citizen needs. We’ll look at how traditional interactions need to be embraced, but also web and social media based interactions. The conference will draw upon the experience of civil servants, policy makers, technologists, bloggers and market watchers.”

The Citizen 2012 Conference will be held on June 28 at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel. Attendance at the event is by invitation only but – in common with other Quadriga Consulting Thought Leadership events – the entire proceedings will be web broadcast live on the day. To watch the live stream please pre-register.

An event micro-site is currently under construction. The site address will be published here next week.

SLA Mobile Unveils Alacrity Platform for Direct Operator Billing and Mobile Money at Mobile World Congress

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:04:34 +0000

Client Media Release

Belfast, Northern Ireland, 21 February 2012 – SLA Mobile Unveils Alacrity Platform for Direct Operator Billing and Mobile Money at Mobile World Congress, 2012

Alacrity™ platform can enable network operators to exploit new mobile revenue-driving opportunities.

SLA Mobile, the leading mobile systems integrator, will this year be exhibiting at the Mobile World Congress – basing itself in the Mobile Money pavilion. The Mobile World Congress is one of the most important dates in the mobile calendar and runs from 27 February to 1 March.

The company will be demonstrating how, through its Alacrity™ platform, it can enable network operators to exploit new mobile revenue-driving opportunities. By unlocking and monetising their network assets operators have an opportunity regain loyal customer relationships. Mobile money and payments promise to be among the most important themes at this year’s Congress.

Nic Stirk, SLA Mobile’s CEO, is convinced that there are massive new opportunities for operators:

“Direct Operator Billing allows operators the opportunity to rebuild value-rich relationships with their customers. Through our rich operator and partner management service, SLA Mobile can enable Direct Operator Billing for mobile operators and their partners to grow revenue, engage further with existing customers and access new market segments.

“This Cloud-based service has the potential for service aggregators and merchants to launch Direct Operator Billing offers within a matter of days. Customers can purchase services and products with itemised payment details appearing on their mobile phone-bill.”

“Visitors to the SLA Mobile booth – 2.1D78 – will learn first-hand how flexible and fast the Direct Operator Billing integration process actually is.”

SLA Mobile will also be showcasing its Event-Based Marketing and Mobile Money offerings at Mobile World Congress. As a TIBCO partner, SLA Mobile leverages TIBCO’s Complex Event Processing technology to assist mobile operators and partners understand customer behaviour and respond in real-time with relevant and engaging messaging. This reduces customer churn and increases average revenue per user.

The company also leverages the power of the TIBCO® Payment Orchestration technology to help operators explore new and innovative business models in M-Commerce.

SLA Mobile will be exhibiting on the Mobile Money Pavilion, booth 2.1D78.

About SLA Mobile

Established in 2003, SLA Mobile is a technology market leader for the global mobile industry. It operates from hubs in Belfast and Kuala Lumpur and is committed to innovation and identifying new and evolving opportunities.

SLA Mobile works closely with its clients to monetise network assets and translate operators’ relationships with end-users into new billing opportunities. The company creates rich new services that grow revenues, engages customers and enable operators to strategically compete in evolving mobile environments.

SLA Mobile has been a member of the TIBCO® Partner Network Programme since 2007.

SLA Mobile: www.sla-mobile.com or read their blog at www.slamobileblog.com

World Economic Forum Live

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:57:48 +0000

You can watch the World Economic Forum live from Davos here…

Watch live streaming video from worldeconomicforum at livestream.com

The Beauty Business

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:30:46 +0000

This video by Jesse Rosten ponders whether Adobe should sell its Photoshop software in the same way as L’Oreal sells its beauty products. No doubt L’Oreal is more aware than most that Photoshop is more useful in enhancing beauty than L’Oreal’s own products.

Poking fun at Photoshop is a staple industry. But Rosten here achieves the slick ad-like cinematography we’re all so familiar with from big budget TV campaigns.

The last 10 years…

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:31:27 +0000

Apparently only 1 in every 10 small consultancy firms lasts 10 years. We’re one of the one in ten. But we’ve only been able to survive and thrive because of the support and loyalty of our fabulous clients, employees and associates.

Our first paying client, 10 years ago, was The Gem – the CRM outsourcing firm (now part of Concentrix). Our most recent is Stratton Craig. And, in-between, we have worked with a veritable Aladdin’s cave of clients including Microsoft, BT, IBM, Amacis, Oxford Economics, Kable, Invest NI, Provita Eurotech, DETI, Strategic Investment Board, Taylor Wessing, SLA Mobile, Aepona, Replify – and many, many more.

We hope to make several announcements during 2012 about new clients, and new partnerships. But I also wanted to say ‘thanks’ to everyone who has supported us over the last 10 years. It’s been fun.

Corporate Social Responsibility: The Technology Imperative

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:32:37 +0000

By Jeffrey Peel

I was in Paris last week and had the opportunity to meet up with a colleague – Barbara Toorens. Barbara has a strong background supporting technology vendors in terms of marketing communications activity. However, her specialist focus is corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the technology solutions that are emerging that support companies in achieving their CSR objectives.

In this short interview Barbara outlines how the EU is imposing demands on business in achieving CSR standards. She also talks about the EU’s 20/20/20 initiative.

She also refers to solutions from vendors such as SAP that are allowing global organisations like Panasonic to achieve waste management and other CSR objectives.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Technology (mp3)

Queen’s University Economy Debate

admin — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:09:57 +0000

By Jeffrey Peel

Jim Fitzpatrick of the BBC

Last night I attended the Northern Ireland Economy Debate at the fabulous, newly refurbished, Riddel Building at Queen’s University, Belfast – the new home of the Queen’s University Management School. As a Queen’s graduate I’m a touch envious. When I studied Economics back in the 80s the department was part of the old Social Sciences faculty building. The Riddel building is altogether more grand – and much the better for a £14m investment.

The debate was chaired by Jim Fitzpatrick (pictured) who was recently appointed the Ireland Economics Editor at the BBC. It was sponsored by local recruitment firm Clarendon Executive. Clarendon had prepared a series of video sequences that featured various local business people and NGO representatives. The videos acted as a kind of visual separator for the various segments of the debate. The opening section focused, largely, on the role of government in doing something radical to stimulate the economy. The middle section tended more towards educational needs and skills. The final section was a bit of a wrap-up. And Fitzpatrick did a good job getting feedback from the floor. Thankfully, little of the feedback was sycophantic – and most was genuinely interesting. Thankfully, also, if any politicians were in the audience, they were struck dumb.

As it turned out, the event wasn’t really a debate – more a discussion. The panel included pretty obvious bets including the inevitable representative from Invest NI (Tracy Meharg), a couple of Economists (Graham Brownlow from Queens and Angela McGowan from the Northern Bank), a CBI representative (Ian Coulter, the incoming regional Chairman) and Steve Orr from the Northern Ireland Science Park. Seamus McAleavey from NICVA represented the ‘third sector’.

The contributions from the panel were pretty safe. Criticism of the local Executive was minimal. Angela McGowan cautioned against being too hard on the public sector – and resorting to a ‘them and us’ debate. However, thankfully, a degree of dissent came from Graham Brownlow who noted the amount of time and resources dedicated to “appraisals” by the NI Civil Service compared to Whitehall. He indicated that it was not unknown for appraisals of appraisals to happen at Departmental level. But that was as contentious as it got. When the floor contributions came things started to get more animated and interesting.

Mark Ennis, the incoming Chair of InvestNI, contributed from the floor and pointed out the difficulty faced by local businesses in securing capital. He hinted at a dearth of funding – especially mid-sized firms, and possibly for firms wanting to grow through M&A. I chipped in a few comments about the public sector squeezing out an entrepreneurial culture – and also crowding-out commercially driven private equity and venture capital funds. I also had a poke at an Executive almost completely populated by people with little or no business experience, never mind international business experience.

However, the reference to education resulted in a more robust debate and near consensus that something radical did, indeed, need to be done. Culturally, this is a society (and I’m referring to the UK, not just Northern Ireland) where a career in the law, or medicine, is seen to be a good thing. But a career in business – according to the received wisdom – is something for slightly dodgy people who weren’t that great at school.

The need for a 20-year vision and strategy – for a society built from Primary School up, focused on business and wealth creation – was one that was articulated by several speakers from the floor. Educationalists, bankers, economists and business people were united on the issue that if the Assembly did nothing else it needed to do something radical in education to make changes. And with that I’d wholeheartedly agree. Although it also needs to do something radical – and soon – with an economy that is absurdly dependent on the public purse and public sector employment.

Overall, an excellent and thought provoking debate, well chaired by Jim Fitzpatrick – and a great turnout from the business community. Congratulations should go to Queen’s University and Clarendon Executive for organising it and allowing us all to see a wonderful new centre of management learning. Hopefully some of its alumni will build great new businesses.