PublicTechnology.net

Progress in cutting costs and improving performance at the UK Border Agency – but still much to do, says NAO

Gary Flood — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:01 +0100

The National Audit Office has found the UK Border Agency and Border Force has achieved both cost reductions and performance improvement since 2010 – but warns that” insufficiently coherent planning and delayed delivery of key projects” have hampered faster progress.

By automating processes and becoming more flexible, the Agency aims to cut costs by at least £350m between 2011 and 2015, partly through reducing the number of staff by 4,500 full time equivalents.

Analyst Note: UK 4G auction - a four-player market remains a priority

Stuart Lauchlan — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 10:32:14 +0100

Over the past six months Ofcom has had the unenviable task of finalizing what is almost certainly the most complex auction of its kind, says Matthew Howett of Ovum’s regulatory advisory service.

With legal threats and public awareness campaigns, there has hardly been a week without reference to how far behind Britain is falling in the 4G race.

Viewpoint: What the last Census tells us about our data

Gary Flood — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 10:00:39 +0100

For SAS UK's Bernard Baker, the issue of the day after the just-published Census results is what he calls 'seniors, services - and segmentation'. What does he mean?

People are living longer, and last week's somewhat controversial 2011 census figures confirmed that as a nation, more and more of us are now aged 65 and over.

Opinion: Is the NHS running perilously close to the edge, security-wise?

Gary Flood — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:34:58 +0100

Strong security demands healthy systems management, says Seann Gardner of Dell KACE

For security practitioners in the National Health Service, data protection is a major priority. However, keeping track of sensitive data and IT assets in an environment as big and as complex as an NHS Trust makes security harder to achieve.

The reason for this?

O2's free Olympics wi-fi goes live

Stuart Lauchlan — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 12:05:54 +0100

A few weeks ago O2's name was mud in the UK as its services crashed nationwide, so the telco will be hoping for better PR as it launches its promised Central London free Wi-Fi just in time for the Olympics.

PSN: Three tips for procurement

Stuart Lauchlan — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:17:47 +0100

With the UK government having now published the formal contract award for the provision of connectivity services, under the Public Services Network (PSN) programme, research firm IDC has been contemplating the implications for public sector IT decision makers.

Noting that the government wants 80% of public sector telecom services (by contract value) to be PSN compliant, by March 2014, IDC recommends that to achieve the potential savings from critical mass and interoperability benefits, organizations adopting PSN will need to satisfy a number

Will Cloud Brokers work in the public sector?

Stuart Lauchlan — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:48:09 +0100

The term Cloud Broker has met with a mixed reception to date. Coined by research firm Gartner, it seems to have been embraced by the large services houses such as Capgemini and Accenture, but met with scepticism by the SaaS providers such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite.

The changing IT job role

Stuart Lauchlan — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 14:11:25 +0100

For many people Cloud is seen as an evolution of outsourcing. By moving the traditional IT resources into a public Cloud customers can focus on their core business differentiators. Cloud doesn’t take away the need for the hardware, software, and systems management, it just encapsulates and shields the user from them.

Best Practice: 999's 75th Anniversary and West Midlands Ambulance Service

Stuart Lauchlan — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 10:13:20 +0100

With the 75th anniversary of the first 999 call, a timely reminder of how far we've come in the shape of West Midlands Ambulance Service.

Dial 999 for technological innovation

Stuart Lauchlan — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 10:05:14 +0100

Seventy-five years ago 999 became the world’s first emergency phone number. 1,336 calls were made in its first week, quite a difference from the 85,000 calls that are currently being taken each day by emergency control centre (ECC) personnel. It probably seems quite shocking to us now how basic the original ECCs were. They consisted of little more than a few telephones, maps and radios, but the truth remains that the staff made the most of the technology available to them.

Legal Commentary: How to avoid social media snafus

Gary Flood — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 09:34:54 +0100

Thomas Eggar's Matthew Kelly, an expert on social media, provides useful tips on how to avoid being caught out by staff slips on Twitter

No employer can afford to ignore the huge rise of social media.

NHS innovation flies with SkyDox

Stuart Lauchlan — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:16:51 +0100

In 2006 the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement was set up as a national body responsible for helping the English NHS improve the delivery of healthcare.

Nick Gaunt, Chief Information and Knowledge Officer explains that “most of our time is spent distilling best practices for improvement, innovation and change management, working out what really works in the healthcare setting. Some things work in one part of the NHS but don’t necessarily work in other areas.

Gov.uk: high hopes for cost and content

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:12:38 +0100

The government is currently running the beta version of Gov.uk, which means it is open to conscientious citizens (and CIOs!) who would like to offer feedback on the design thus far.

Best Practice: Four security trends you need to be on top of

Gary Flood — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:04:25 +0100