PublicTechnology.net

Best Practice: 3 Cs for CIOs - crime, consolidation and Cloud

Stuart Lauchlan — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:04:47 +0100

Today’s IT department needs more technologies than ever before to protect effectively against attacks - both internal and external. As the internet continues to gain momentum, it’s also essential to safeguard IT processes and corporate communications on a 24/7 basis.

Salesforce: why we like UK Cloud prospects

Stuart Lauchlan — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:42:09 +0100

Vivek Kundra is one of the more interesting new hires at Salesforce.com. A career (American) civil servant, his most high profile role to date has been his stint as the national CIO for the US government and the executioner of President Obama’s Cloud First policy across all branches of the American Federal computing market.

It was a demanding role, and one that inevitably ran into some resistance at local level from the more luddite of federal CIOs.

Big Police outsourcing project IS on hold

Gary Flood — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:39:05 +0100

West Midlands Police Authority has duplicated its partner Surrey’s decision, and decided to postpone implementation of its controversial shared services project to allow the public to have a say.

We reported at the start of the week how Surrey had hit the pause button, but quoted West Midlands at being much more

Opinion: Bringing together BYOD, Cloud - and users...

Gary Flood — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:11:32 +0100

For the University of Ulster's Kevin Curran, the combination of Cloud and BYOD may raise security questions we'll find hard to answer

Recent research from BT into BYOD policies revealed that although over four in five companies say they already allow BYOD or will do within the next 24 months, there are still significant security concerns, placing BYOD in the same threat league as cyber-security when it comes to corporate network risk.

But it is one thing for employees to want to access organisational resources from w

From £55bn to £2bn: BSF's successor sees light of day at last

Gary Flood — Fri, 25 May 2012 10:58:51 +0100

Remember Building Schools for the Future (BSF), one of the first casualties of the incoming Coalition government’s drive to pay off the deficit two years ago?

Yesterday Education Secretary Michael Gove finally announced details of what he plans to do instead in terms of refurbis

Do civil service job cuts now equal fat consultant fees later?

Gary Flood — Fri, 25 May 2012 09:20:22 +0100

Is the drive to cut costs in government risking a rebound where Whitehall may later have to pay outsiders to do what its own staff used to?

At the same time that the Cabinet Office has been leading a drive to re-skill mandarins in management, leadership and ICT procurement skills lost over a generation of outsourcing, one of our biggest Ministries, Defence, seems to be going the other way.

That at l

G-Cloud second procurement round opens

Gary Flood — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:42:41 +0100

The G-Cloud team in central government has announced the next stage in procurement for G-Cloud, ‘Gii,’ has now opened.

On the G-Cloud blog today the team’s Engagement Manager, Eleanor Stewart has flagged to suppliers who “missed out last time” or “have a new service you want to sell through the CloudStore” – well, now’s the time to sing out.

“Why are we doing ano

Trustmarque Launches Nimbus Mobile Device Management Service

EmmaCox — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:43:26 +0100

Trustmarque partners with Sophos to deliver a Mobile Device Management security service to customers through

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Unions: we'll fight to save UK HP jobs

Gary Flood — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:40:31 +0100

Unions says they have called for urgent talks with supplier HP to try and "safeguard" up to 1,600 jobs under threat at its UK operations.

It's reacting to teh onfirmation this morning that the US headquartered firm plans to cut 8%/27,000 jobs across the globe by the end of 2014.

Unite believes that the figure will be applied to the UK cohort, 20,000 are under threat – and Unite will be working with frat

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Viewpoint: Five things we need to do to make Open Data work

Gary Flood — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:22:41 +0100

Charlie Boundy of information intelligence experts BAE Systems Detica, Open Data may be really starting to ‘come of age’

After the previous UK government responded to a series of Free Our Data campaigns by setting up data.gov.uk, the ‘Open Data’ cause has been fully endorsed by the Coalition in order to help improve public accountability and openness.

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Martha Lane-Fox launches cut-price ICT bundle for newbies

Gary Flood — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:49:30 +0100

A new scheme for a ‘cheap’ PC and broadband bundle’s been launched to try and bridge the digital divide.

The package is for a refurbished Windows 7 PC plus 12 months Internet for just £159 - £99 if you’re on benefits.

The brainchild of UK Digital Champion Martha Lane-Fox, the system’s targeting the 8m Brits who still haven’t ever dipped a toe into cyberspace and is supported by Microsoft and ISPs TalkTalk and Simplify

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Three East Midlands Forces link up in £2.3m shared services deal

Gary Flood — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:33:52 +0100

The three Police Forces of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire look set to become the first three police forces in the UK to share a common back office under a collaborative agreement with supplier Capita.

The new shared system, Origin, will be delivered by Capita’s secure resource solutions business under a contract worth £2.3m over 5 years.

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Gov't claims significant progress against ICT Strategy targets

Gary Flood — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:47:38 +0100

The launch of a second SME-friendly G-Cloud framework, giving more companies an opportunity to supply G-Cloud services through the CloudStore online catalogue, "illustrates the progress in implementing the Government’s ICT Strategy," the Cabinet Office has just claimed.

With an "overwhelming response to the first tender, with over 600 expressions of interest," it says, Government Procurement Service subsequently awarded framework agreements to around 250 suppliers, of which around three-quarters are SMEs.

Th

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Those Microsoft licence change details in full

Gary Flood — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:29:23 +0100

We told you a couple of weeks back that the UK public sector has been given some breathing space for upcoming Microsoft changes to the way it will charge for software.

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Viewpoint: Why are you so sure your NHS network is safe, secure and optimised?

Gary Flood — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:17:22 +0100

For Daryl White of Networks First, NHS network efficiency simply can't be 'taken for granted'

It's true that the holy grail of any network is high availability, high performance and security, making it fundamental to daily operations in any organisation. But what happens when that organisation is the health service - and the demands on the network come from both internal and external users who demand mission critical applications across large hospital sites on a myriad of devices for thousands of users?

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Legal Commentary: The challenge of shared services

Gary Flood — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:30:32 +0100

For legal expert Kit Burden, it's the practical steps to make shared services work - not just the grand vision part...

Shared services has for long been something of a "Holy Grail", particularly in public sector procurement circles. The principle is a simple one; by having multiple parties share the same infrastructure, applications and services, their cost of provision can be materially reduced. the hesitancy in adapting such strategies has probably more to do with the belief by potential customers that their requirements are too

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HP culls 8% of its workforce [Updated]

Gary Flood — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:14:33 +0100

Supplier HP, a major provider of ICT to the public sector, is to shed 27,000 jobs as part of an 8% shrinkage of its global workforce over the next two years.

As part of the restructuring Mike Lynch, head of one-time UK computer success story Autonomy, is to leave the organisation.

HP is presenting the downsizing – which it says will cut its overheads by over $3bn – as a productivity initiative designed to simplify business processes and that it will reinvest all money back into its business.

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Opinion: Beyond the security 'paper tiger'

Gary Flood — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:05:45 +0100

For John Walker of ISACA, security's not an issue that can be solved without standards

This year and last, we've been observing security breaches impacting large name brands, which, to say the least, were astonishing. These, along with a conjoined rise in cyberattacks, e-crime and the rise of 'hacktivism,' all took their toll.

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Met signs up for mobile fingerprint help

Gary Flood — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:04:42 +0100

NPIA says the Met is the latest Force to benefit from the Agency's national roll-out of mobile fingerprint scanners.

Indeed it's the 25th force to go live with the mobile identification service (MobileID) - meaning more than half the police forces in England and Wales are using the scanners since they were launched by the body in 2011.

"Identification is crucial to police investigations and giving officers the ability to do this on-the-spot within minutes is giving them more time to spend working in their communities, helping to

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Remote Cumbrian communities lose cable broadband

Gary Flood — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:57:43 +0100

One step backwards for vendor-led universal broadband today.

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