President's Reflections on 2011 Conference

Socitm 2011 was a resounding success. All delegates that I spoke to had found their attendance of tremendous value and had got a lot out of both the plenaries and the roundtables. The exhibitors were universally pledging to come back next year. The venue worked really well. Maggie Philbin proved to be an excellent chair of the plenary sessions - and an energetic one too, to the extent of sprinting round the hall with a microphone to get questions from the floor. And, looking around the bar in the small hours, the socialising also seemed to be successful.

Like any delegate, there were highlights for me. I thought Martin Reeves got the conference off to a flying start with his endorsement of the role of IT as a key enabler of transformation of both organisations and places, and the leadership role of IT professionals in telling the narrative of that change. Very refreshing from a chief executive of a major city council, even more so as he'll be president of Solace next year. These messages were replicated from a political perspective by David Hopkins.

And I think everyone was impressed by the assured and witty presentation by Jamie Kirk, last year's winner of the Graham Williamson Challenge who gave an overview of the growing use of apps in the US public service.

The conference also saw the launch of the first Planning the Route pocket guide, on leadership, complemented by the guidance from Jos Creese on how to be a great CIO. Indeed, there was a perhaps unplanned but very obvious common theme running through the conference - that IT professionals need to have the boldness to grasp the opportunity that is there to become leaders of change in their organisations.

Conferences as good as Socitm 2011 do not happen by chance. I'm sure all the delegates and exhibitors would join me in thanking everyone involved in the planning and delivery of a great event. Their only problem will be to make Socitm 2012 even better.

A Big thanks to all our sponsors:

Asidua, Checkpoint Software Technologies Ltd., CSC, Dell, Eduserv, IBM, Imerja, Microsoft, Oracle and Virgin Media Business.

The Conference Programme Highlights

Socitm Conference 2011

Collaborate Innovate Re-design

Tuesday Evening

This year's conference was the first of the mid-week format so it started informally on Tuesday evening with a reception followed by dinner sponsored by Oracle who addressed us briefly before the dinner.

I think it was the first time I heard the words "free" and "Oracle" in the same sentence, I had just observed this when its context was explained. It related to the case study on their stand at which Calderdale, an Oracle customer, is demonstrating their bespoke client records system.

During dinner each table completed the traditional two music quizzes and the first prize went to a team aptly named "the winners" on table 11 with a 100% score.

Rocitm then treated us to a tight set of numbers, however very few took the opportunity to make use of the dance floor - still it left lots of room for Mary and me!

Rocitm Line up

Mark Wheatley - Guitar & Vocals

Pete Kendal - bass, Guitar & Vocals

Marcus Wheatley - Guitar & Bass

Mike Porter - Drums

Lynette Ground - Vocals

Simon Schouten (hidden) - Keyboards

Graham Jordan - Drums (Not on photo)

Wednesday

Wednesday the serious business started with our chair Maggie Philbin (radio and TV presenter/reporter on gadgets and technology)

IT Leadership

Maggie opened the day and introduced the first speaker

Martin Reeves - IT leadership see his slides here http://www.socitm.net/download/1081/martin_reeves-it_leadership

Dr Martin Reeves is Chief Executive of nearby Coventry, my employer for much of my career. Martin was talking about leadership in public services, he drew on his experience to both pose and start to answer the question - are IT professionals ready willing and able to meet the leadership challenge? As Glyn remarked it was uplifting to hear him recognise the significance of IT. A far cry from my experience there in 1990's when IT was seen as a problem to be outsourced.

The second session presented by Sue Spafford looked at knowledge sharing.

See her slides here

http://www.socitm.net/download/1082/sue_spafford-knowledge_sharing _in_challenging_times

This is becoming increasingly significant as we move to more and more collaboration across the sectors and adopt more evidence based decisions.

A later session on the third sector highlighted the varied quality of information held by public and third sector on the same customer base.

The event then split into the first round of discussion tables: - facilitated forums on a range of topics.

Leadership, governance and organisational change

Strategic commissioning and supplier management

Shared services

Professionalism: developing the skills and capabilities to drive

ICT-enabled change

Information governance, management, assurance and transparency

Cloud-based services: it's happening and what needs to happen

See notes here http://www.socitm.net/info/158/events/103/socitm_2011/9

Myths in the Cloud

Before lunch we had a plenary on Cloud Security from Chris Ulliott, Deputy Technical Director, CESG who tried to dispel some myths and lo and behold he suggests we find nothing new.

New dad Chris set about laying our "fears uncertainty and doubt" (fud) to one side.

If anyone can do this Chris who is a chief security architect who helps build secure solutions should be able to.

He said all too often he hears it asked "If cloud is new how it can be secure?"

He started challenging this by reminding us that much of the function of a "cloud" has been around a long long time: - The ability to upload and to share information started with CompuServe in 1969 - other examples include web mail since 1996 flicker 2004 etc. ...

So what do we mean when we say Cloud is "New?"

Chris referred to the NIST definition - (I page) basically a shared commoditised item - he went through the 5 characteristics listed and suggested that none are really new; On demand, self-serve, Network access, Resource pooling, etc. have all existed in some form and even the security issues have been tackled already. His hypothesis is that nothing about cloud is totally new.

He asserted that we can apply knowledge from past lessons, he referred to examples - including DWP and Cabinet Office etc. he encouraged us not to be afraid of the Cloud. He then went on to dispel some of the common Myths referring to Wikipedia he touched on areas like Data Protection, Identity Management Physical or personal security, Availability, Compliance, BCDR and legal issues - existing dispersed solutions.

He agreed there are some new aspects we need to adapt to like buying commodity solutions, new styles of governance, and in general more responsibility on the business to check that the solution on offer is adequate rather than the IT specialist specifying one that meets requirements. We also need new procurement models, a topic dear to my heart. When will we have any mature model agreements?

In Chris's view G cloud will allow us to do it once, well and then reuse the solution. Clearly this makes security easier for him.

Exhibition

In the breaks there was time to visit the exhibition area and network and talk to suppliers. With over 30 stands there was plenty to see and talk about.

Helping the Third sector

Martyn Croft CIO Salvation Army, Mark Walker SCIP. See slides at http://www.socitm.net/download/1083/mark_walker_and_martin_croft-three_ways_local_authorities_can_help_the_third_sector

Mark introduced the subject and explained his background lies in supporting IT for third sector organisations, he highlighted that they are involved in delivery to clients who are shared with their local government neighbours.

He focused on 3 ways to help - volunteer, intelligent commissioning, and partnership

He shared some information about the sector, looking at charities 56% are less than £10k pa so there are many very small organisations. There are other larger bodies in the sector and some international ones. However many are community based and are un-constituted, based on local neighbourhoods, so a major challenge is how to engage with them as they are so informal.

He highlighted the differences compared to local government, including scale, as most have only one (old) server, also many use volunteers so the culture is very different. What they have in common is geography - they operate in the same patch, and they have the same clients, and they have the same outcomes.

The first topic Mark covered was Learning from volunteering - provision of local help, he suggested that they are using similar technology such as web sites, databases etc. For those interested there is a web site www.it4.communities with 8,500 registered supporters!!

The second topic is Intelligent commissioning - a well organised forum that puts IT in a language that can be understood. He spoke of " Information is beautiful" and work to compare data from Amaze/DWP on Children in Brighton with special needs - it highlights that the 3rd sector knows lots about clients - he showed a map of data differences and it was noteworthy that the areas of greatest need showed the biggest differences .

Supporting Partnerships - Martyn Croft spoke on this topic; he said he felt a little out of place. The Salvation Army is a huge global, not for profit organisation. He sees his role as a kind of "technical evangelist". The SA's mission is to serve suffering humanity, in particular the homeless. They have 120 centres + 2,000 staff and provide 3,500 beds a night. Their service is called "lifehouse" and it aims to be much more than a place to stay. They aim to help people turn their lives around. He explained that many have mobiles and/or email so can be reached via digital services, as they turn more people into e citizens too.

One of the clients in our centre, Gavin, approached them with the idea for a 'Residents' Forum' on the internet for residents of Army hostels. Martyn appealed for delegates to get involved - he is hoping to provide them with a safe, secure, public forum - This was his call to action!

Collaborate or Die

http://www.socitm.net/download/1077/geoff_connell-collaborate_or_die

Geoff Connell is CIO Newham and Havering, he is employed by one, and part funded by the other. "Collaborate or die" is a challenge to traditional models - he recognised that he is trying to predict the future, to a potentially hostile audience in period of change - quite a challenge.

Geoff gave us a whistle stop tour of many examples of how collaboration had responded to funding cuts, and improve efficiency of front line services, delivery back office and ICT efficiency and created additional capacity. He cited the use of shared mangers, interims, multi-sourced services, local added value, local pooling and external resources, centre of excellence, vendors offering changes - the focus on low cost Business as usual (BAU) , adopting BYOD(bring your own device) Supply contract management, Sweating assets - traditional skills.

See his slides for examples of South London, Cheshire and East Anglia.

Other Examples of collaborative include the Athena project with a common finance system delivering a standard solution, and joined up Libraries. He cited the South London Boroughs and Cheshire with saving of £6.7 m

He equated the progress that had been made to condensing 100 years into 7! Each had a different focus and both achieved their aims. The collaboration brought Newham savings and Havering gained an uplift of its IT infrastructure.

He shared some checklists from Foresight and spoke of future plan to look at line of business apps.

He urged delegates to learn from others, to adopt the path laid out in Socitm's Planting the Flag to not only survive but to evolve.

In response to questions he confirmed that Microsoft had supported the idea to adopt single licence and aggregate across the organisations, regarding reinvestment of savings? - Geoff said yes this applied at Newham but not at Havering.

More Discussion Tables

(repeat of morning topics) http://www.socitm.net/info/158/events/103/socitm_2011/9

Digital Government

The last Plenary of the day was given by Mike Bracken, Executive director of Digital, Cabinet Office. He gave us a view on "digital by default" and how the pan government initiative is progressing. (See also the item above on Launch of Government Digital Service)

See also the Guardian's report on Mike Bracken's presentation http://www.guardian.co.uk/government-computing-network/2011/dec/08/mike-bracken-government-digital-service?newsfeed=true

Awards Dinner

This year's dinner was renamed from Gala Dinner to the Awards Dinner; the formal black tie dinner included various awards, presented between courses. These included best service, best website, and the Graham Williamson Challenge. Mark Brett thanks his mentor Mary Wintershausen when he received his award, see photo.

The after dinner speaker was Scott Garrett (CEO of Storytellers) who treated us to some moments from his experience with the F1 Williams team, and he cleverly related this high-speed multi-million pound world to the conference agenda and issues like being Agile. As to be expected he spoke of technology and the role IT can play in reducing the time to develop innovations and improvement not just between seasons but between races, in the face of fierce competition. But he also spoke of the softer issues like the challenge of instilling a no blame culture across a mixed discipline team.

Thursday

We cannot afford the future

Andy Burns Director of Finance and Resources, Staffordshire County Council.

See slides here http://www.socitm.net/download/1078/andrew_burns_we_cant_afford_the_future_unless_we_change_what_we_do

Andy's rather pessimistic title developed into a plea for more investment in ICT to enable change, coupled with his 3 S's simplify streamline and standardise, drawing in his experiences at Staffordshire. He outlined their finance strategy with a savings target of £105M and explained their operating model and talked about Staffordshire Direct, the shared services across 10 local authorities and blue light and voluntary sector. His final slide reinforced the themes emerging throughout the conference.

"It's not just about the ICT" - it is also about Business leading, ICT enabling, Business Cases and Benefits Realisation, Commissioning (more) and delivery (less), Simplify, Streamline and Standardise - reduce transaction costs and transaction volumes. Efficient ICT important, but don't salami slice your IT budgets - invest to save!

Does The Public Sector get IT?

Glyn Evans Socitm President & Corporate Director of Business Change Birmingham City Council -

I missed this session but Microsoft reported that Glyn's focus was on the future impact of technology and how to bring about change. Glyn suggested that technology is always overhyped in the short term and its impact is underestimated in the long term, and that the impact of technology on society has been profound, but asked if the impact of technology on our own organisations been equally as profound? Glyn suggested that because public sector organisations are generally rigid and autocratic, this makes it difficult to innovate and be flexible. So a transforming council should be entrepreneurial, innovative, flexible, constantly in flux, able to manage risk and digitally enabled from end to end. This is all about change, which linked neatly with the first talk from Andy Burns.

See slides here http://www.socitm.net/download/1080/glyn_evans-does_the_public _sector_get_it

Round Tables (2)

The second day's Topics included:-

Public Services Network

Innovation - open data and apps

Agile Projects: What are they and what are their pros and cons?

Designing and delivering a channel shift strategy

Mobile & flexible work, property consolidation

A members View

After the break David Hopkins deputy leader of Milton Keynes Council talked about the challenges facing local government and the role of technology in addressing them. He drew heavily on the vision of his own authority Milton Keynes as a "Smart City". He referred to the 8 p's: Political Priorities, People, Property, Procurement, Practices, Productivity and Partnerships. The vision is to have smart economy, smart living, smart government , and a smart ethos. All of which requires re-engineering underpinned by technology.

See his slides http://www.socitm.net/download/1075/david_hopkins-is_now_finally_the_dawning_of_a_new_era_for_ict_management_in_the_public_sector-and_local_government _in_particular

Graham Williamson Challenge

This fascinating session was the feedback from Jamie Kirk, last year's winner about his stint in US.

He treated delegates to an insight into how the US were personalising the experience of government by using smartphone apps and mobile technology to engage with citizens. Of particular note was the projected cross over from desktops to mobiles for access to the internet.

See slides : Jamie Kirk - State of Apps in North America http://www.socitm.net/download/1076/jamie_kirk-state_of_apps_in_ north_america

Discussion tables

(repeat of morning)

Post Bureaucratic Government Open Platforms Innovation -

Why Government IT should never be the same again.

Mark Thomson, Futures Advisor Cabinet Office.

Mark pulled no punches in his review of what he considered had happened:-

Public sector aggregated supply, not demand

No reference model across government; widespread "we're special"

Government 'outsourced' strategy & architecture

Contracts priced for risk, which was never outsourced

'Intelligent Customer' skills leeched away from public sector

Track record of "stupendous incompetence" and bungling

He cited much press coverage and then explored the theory and impact of service development from monopoly to commoditisation (see chart).

He also explored how the skillset required changes as the service matures, and he related the models to local government. Finally he used an analogy with video technology and spoke of a Betamax government compared to a VHS government". His final slide was of a Betamax recorder.

Some Impressions of Socitm 2011

The overall impression from the conference speakers and comments is that the message that ICT is the enabler of greater efficiency and service improvements is finally being heard, understood, and in some cases, played back to ICT service managers. After 25 years of Socitm this is exciting news.

Another theme is more accountability of services to engage and exploit their ICT to achieve benefits.

The days when ICT could adopt a policeman role and block new initiatives are seemingly numbered too. Service and Business managers expect and demand a flexible "can do" response. Those who cling to the status quo (are there still any?) do so in the risk they will be bypassed.

The balance of accountability for issues like information security is rightly shifting to users.

Sadly but understandable many authorities have imposed restrictions on travel and attending events like the conference, so some members were unable to attend unless they were self-funded. Despite this there were good sized audiences for the plenaries and round table events.

Microsoft had this to say in its blog

"Reflecting on the event as a whole, what stood out was that all of the public sector organisations taking part demonstrated a thoroughly progressive approach to fostering technology for innovation in ways that can achieve efficiency gains going beyond just cost saving and the back office. From Mike Bracken's talk about how focusing on usability and long term digital trends can pay dividends and create an innovation culture, to Jamie Kirk's presentation on how mobile websites can bridge the digital divide. The entire conference, considering the austerity measures the UK is experiencing, was refreshing and thought-provoking."

The conference also was launch pad for a number of new items, the A.. B... CIO paper from Jos Creese on a personal view of leadership, an ICT version of hungry caterpillar (I probably only understood it because of reading it to my granddaughter recently).

The Awards featured some established categories and some new ideas, Socitm continues to evolve and move forward after 25years it needs to be responsive and flexible to adapt to the emerging new landscapes.

Start of a new era?

Looking back over many years at the evolution of online government services I have rarely returned from a launch of a new policy that has convinced me that it was right, that it will make things better and, crucially, that it will be implemented by people who really know what they are talking about. The launch of the Government Digital Service (GDS) on Thursday 8 December was the exception.

Those who heard the excellent talk by Mike Bracken, the CEO for the GDS at Socitm 2-011 on 30 November will have had a foretaste of the new approach from the new service. It all stems from the report by Martha Lane Fox that was commissioned by Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office in 2010 and created the 'digital by default' policy. One of her recommendations was the need for a senior manager to have complete control of the user experience with online government services. That person is Mike Bracken who is putting together the team to deliver this objective.

The launch

The event itself had contributions from Ian Watmore (ex-Government CIO and now Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office and Mike's boss), from Mike Bracken and five of his direct reports plus Francis Maude and Martha Lane Fox. They all spoke with a single voice, best captured after the launch by Martha.

I am still reeling from the energy, excitement and talent that is now being deployed to make public sector services better. 
There were some short presentations and speeches from Francis Maude and Ian Watmore, then I did a ten min recap of why I believe this new team and work is so vital.

It's pretty simple for me. The government in the UK has the opportunity right now to not only create a world class tech team that builds extraordinary digital talent and services but also to transform the lives of millions of people by encouraging them online.

For the most socially excluded people in the UK the internet is a vital tool. Government is also one of the key relationships in their lives so brilliant services can and should go hand in hand. There should be the same focus and energy on making customer friendly services as there is at Apple or Google or Facebook.

I want the UK to be a place that has the whole world admiring the way the government has used the internet. Yes we have tech city, yes we have silicon roundabout and yes we have incredible open data - let's not stop there but instead help this new team to shape in a dramatically different way how citizens interact with the state. I want this team to be a place that our best UK talent wants to work - turning down jobs abroad or at a bank or at Google so they can work in the public sector. 
It already happening and this is only day one. Long may it continue.


Looking at the building is a great starting point from which to observe the real change that is happening. It's taken a huge amount of work by the team but they are now located in one open plan and creative space with things on the walls and people talking to each other and smiling which is scarily rare in the world of government departments.

The new approach

A new team (at last a deliberate move away from reliance on outsourcing), a new building (Aviation House on Kingsway, just opposite Holborn tube), a new IT base (Apple, open source, wireless telephony with an 80% saving over previous IT base!) and, above all, a new approach, this promises to be what with hindsight the local e-government programme (2002 to 2005) should have been about.

Space does not permit a detailed analysis of what this new approach involves, but, in short, it involves the creation of a single web domain for government websites, based on:

A strong focus on meeting user needs (not building websites!)

An obsession with user feedback and constant user testing

A priority on the common case (not the exception)

A determination to achieve a consistent user experience for all parts of online government.

In particular, the means of achieving this consistency will be through what the new team calls the global experience language which will define all aspects of online design (e.g. use of words, buttons, layout, fonts etc.).

Speed and momentum of change are also critical to this approach. Use of fast and cheap agile methods distinguish it from the slow-moving programmes associated with the e-government era, he said, quoting the example of the e-petitions service, built by five people working closely together in four weeks and costing less time and money than it would to prepare an old-style IT procurement tender. In 100 days it has processed 25,000 petitions signed by 3m people with six reaching the 100,000 limit triggering a debate in the House of Commons.

The vision is strong and clear. Will it be implemented? Will it work in practice? Only time will tell. One should not under-estimate the task in rationalising government websites and getting the civil service onside with this target of joined-up government online. Seen as a success story with 31m visits per month and high levels of user satisfaction (72% in 2010/11), Directgov will, however, be phased out , because it does not meet the needs of tomorrow. Getting all parts of the civil service to give up much of their control of their websites will probably involve much argument and conflict, maybe a few battles.

Impact on local government

What does all this mean for local government? The talk was about central government, but the impact should and, will inevitably, spill over into all parts of the public sector, and certainly into local government. How this might happen is not yet clear, but its force is too powerful to ignore.

The challenge for all local authorities will be whether they will grasp this nettle in terms of leadership, governance and priority that Whitehall seems to have. Web managers, in particular, who have suffered from the lack of this direction, have some reason here to be reassured that change might be just around the corner and, for once, that it might be in the right direction.

Socitm's role

Those who follow Better connected and related initiatives can be reassured that the strategic direction based on top tasks that we have recommended over the past two years fits in very well with this new approach. Tom Loosemore, the architect of Alphagov and now Betagov, stated that People do not visit government websites for pleasure; they have a task in mind and it needs to work!

Local authority expertise, and specifically the experience of Socitm in measuring the volume and usability of online transactions, needed to be harnessed for the government's programmes to develop a new generation of user-centred online public services. One of the most important metrics to capture, according to Mike Bracken, is how often the user fails in their attempts to transact with government. Socitm's Website take-up service already collects already collects this information, based on returns from around one third of all council websites. So far in 2011, for example, 20% of web visits are known to fail completely, with another 21% failing partially.

Mike has already invited Socitm to contribute its expertise and experience to the rapidly developing programme with a meeting early in the New Year.

Conclusion

In short, my strong recommendation is that all involved in local online services throughout the UK keep a very close eye on this new approach and, where they can, contribute to its implementation in their organisation.

Martin Greenwood

Socitm Insight Programme Manager

Website take-up service

New Services from Socitm

One way in which Socitm is adapting is with new services; a recently announced new advisory service called Socitm Advisory, this complements consulting to address a perceived gap where local authorities are looking at transformational change. Representatives of Socitm Advisory were on the Socitm Stand to explain how the new service complements Socitm's established Consulting services and Insight's research service.

Another new service is the Socitm joined up offering covering web services and related issues.

What if there were a one-stop shop for web improvement?

There is, and it's called Socitm.

The new service helps you focus your website on what your customers really want...

Too many public and not-for-profit sector websites reflect the organisation's structure and internal politics rather than what its customers want to see. Poor design and implementation result in up to 40% of visits failing wholly or partly to achieve their aim.

Our evidence-based approach can help you to re focus your website so it delights your customers and becomes a money-saving asset rather than an expensive liability.

First of all we help you to identify the top tasks customers want to carry out and make them quick to find and easy to use. Wherever the customer journey starts (e.g. from Google or the home page), it's vital that it goes smoothly and achieves a satisfactory result.

Then we use sophisticated survey techniques to uncover what customers like and dislike about your site in general, and use this to define a prioritised improvement strategy.

Our expert analysis will reveal quick and economical wins - often in the area of navigation. You can be sure that your site will serve customers better.

But the service is also about improving efficiency:-

If you want your digital strategy to achieve significant channel shift in a reasonable timescale, external support is vital.

Our people will help your in-house team to develop and implement effective improvement programmes that deliver rapid payback. Coming from outside the organisation, they are free from internal pressures and can fairly assess how your online services work for real-life customers. And they have a huge database of detailed comparative performance data to guide them.

We have a special focus on encouraging increased take-up of online services by improved usability and better promotion, including the use of social media and exploiting the potential of access via smartphones and TVs.

Our improvement plans are pragmatic and reflect the resources available now and in the future. A key feature is the transfer of skills to your people, to ensure progress is maintained. And with a single focus on the job in hand we can manage your web improvement project through to a successful conclusion, leaving you to concentrate on the day job.

It also covers strategy and polices infrastructure even a brand new web site.

Interested? -What do you need to do? Contact Socitm to talk about it.

We at Socitm are confident that we have a uniquely comprehensive set of services for public sector and not-for-profit organisations seeking to improve their web presence. These services are backed up by the UK's most detailed dataset of comparative web performance statistics.

Whatever the digital challenges your organisation faces, from advice on web accessibility through to complete rebuilds and online strategy, we are confident we can help you succeed.

For an informal discussion, please call Diane Priday on 0845 450 0904 or email webservices@socitm.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Planting the Flag: pocket guide 1 - leadership

A.. B... CIO: a personal view - from past President Jos Creese

This is the first of six guides covering the strategic capabilities required for public service reform as set out by Socitm in the Planting the Flag, the strategy for local public services reform published earlier this year.

The five other capabilities - governance, shared services, strategic commissioning, professionalism and organisational change - will be given similar treatment in a set of future guides.

The leadership guide explains that organisations, and the people who work in them, can do nothing without information. The role of the chief information officer (CIO) is crucial in ensuring that organisations manage and exploit their information assets effectively to empower citizens, businesses and partner organisations in their dealings with local public services.

The CIO has a key role in helping organisations realise the opportunities and business benefits that better use of information presents, creating a vision for transforming the way in which information is used and selling that vision to other managers.

The role is different from that of the chief technical officer (CTO) whose key responsibility is to ensure the availability and reliability of the ICT service. However, as the guide explains, many CTOs already have skill sets that equip them well to develop into the CIO role.

These ICT professionals, says the guide, must take six key steps in order to help to change their organisation into a configuration suitable for austere times:

develop their leadership skills

further their understanding of the business, its environment and strategy

develop and validate their vision and contribution to the business strategy

learn to explain in business terms the potential of ICT, and what proper management of information assets and systems will deliver

build the credibility of the ICT function by demonstrating what difference it has made to the business.

enlist allies from the business and use their support to drive through investment proposals.

A.. B... CIO: a personal view of leadership is being published as a companion to the leadership Pocket Guide. Written by Socitm's immediate past President Jos Creese, who chairs the local CIO Council and is also CIO at Hampshire County Council, A.. B...CIO defines the role of the CIO as being to translate that potential of new technology into business benefit.

The best CIOs, he says, know the business priorities of their organisation and actively help to shape them. They will typically be at the heart of delivery of these outcomes by successfully managing transformational change programmes enabled by IT.

But CIOs need to rise to this challenge and there is an increasing divergence between the traditional Head of IT, which is more akin to a chief technology officer (CTO) role, and a modern CIO. The CIO focuses much less on managing technology, and more on integrating information and technology services in business planning to match organisational priorities.

'This 'A, B, C' guide is based on my personal experience and views' says Jos Creese. 'It promotes eight principal areas for the CIO to concentrate on and a 'baker's dozen' of leadership tips. But my first tip is to take any advice, including mine, with a 'pinch of salt'; make up your own mind and use your own instincts, since every organisation is different. That's part of being a good CIO'.

Planting the Flag: pocket guide 1 - leadership was available to delegates at Socitm 2011, Socitm's annual conference, this and A.. B... CIO are available now to download from the Socitm website (free of charge for Socitm members and £65 each for non-members),

See http://www.socitm.net/downloads/download/487/planting_the_flag_leadership

Martin Ferguson

Head of Policy martin.ferguson@socitm.gov.uk

Events in 2012

Yorkshire and Humber region

The next meeting is being held at Leeds Town Hall on 7 March 2012.

North West Region

The next meeting is on 21 March 2012.

Socitm Spring Conference 2012

25 April 2012

Building on the success of last year's Spring conference, we will be hosting Socitm's 2012 Spring conference again at the Royal College of Surgeons, London.