Broadcasts

Weekly Broadcast   Thursday 29 July 2010

Last chance to book Socitm 2010 at early bird rates!

The special offer comes off at the end of this month, so book now. Some new speakers and topics have been confirmed this week, including UK Digital Champion Martha Lane-Fox, who will be our final speaker on Tuesday 12 October. Check it all out online and download the pdf for mailing to colleagues.

Graham Williamson Challenge - call for applications

The Graham Williamson Challenge is a travel award that enables a person starting out in Information Technology and Management to undertake a short period of work experience abroad. It is a tremendous opportunity and if you, or someone you know, could meet the challenge be sure to have the application in by 31 August 2010.  The winner is announced at Socitm 2010, Brighton on 10 - 12 October. More details at socitm.net

New on Socitm.tv: benefit e-forms save money, improve customer service

Torbay Council has improved customer service and saved money by swapping paper housing benefit forms for an electronic form that enables claimants to apply for benefit online.  This video, viewable at www.socitm.tv/Torbay demonstrates how the e-forms from IEG4 are streamlining benefit claims and more than halving processing times. Torbay Council is on track to save over £10,000 this year on printing costs and will also reduce paper consumption significantly.

New Community of Practice for Website takeup service subscribers

Socitm Insight has launched a new discussion forum for subscribers to its Website takeup service. Using the Communities of Practice facility hosted by the IDeA, the WTS community is open to anyone in subscribing councils. If you are not sure whether your council subscribes, visit the Website takeup service page on the Socitm website. The new community is linked to the Website Improvement and Usage community, open to all, that has 900 members.

Get your free copy of the 2010/11 IT Trends report

But first you need to download and complete the Socitm IT Trends survey from socitm.net and send it to ittrends@socitm.net by 9th August. You do not have to complete all the sections in the survey to qualify.

Weekly Broadcast  Thursday 22 July 2010

Socitm Applications Register: have you updated your data yet to secure your free subscription?

More than a quarter of all councils have already updated their data on the Applications Register, just two weeks' after our initial announcement, making 1454 changes to records made during this time. Those that have, have secured their free access to all the data and helped ensure accurate information is available for other users. During this period, the site has seen a higher than anticipated number of visitors - more than 1200, with 60% of visits to the site being new users.

If you are a public sector organisation, please register at the site and update you data. We will be writing to private sector organisations soon with information about how they can subscribe, but to do so right away, email applicationsregister@socitm.net

Socitm member John Callan joins CIO Council

John Callan, who is Head of ICT at Liverpool City Council, has joined the CIO Council and will attend his first meeting in the near future.

John joins the small group of local authority CIOs that sit on the CIO Council alongside CIOs from central government departments and other parts of the public sector. Other Socitm members on the CIO Council include Socitm President Jos Creese and Vice President Glyn Evans. John is also a member of the Local CIO Council, set up by Socitm in April 2008 at the invitation of Government CIO John Suffolk.

John has been Head of ICT at Liverpool since October 2009, where he is responsible for ICT governance and the ongoing shaping and delivery of the LCC IT Strategy. He is a member of the LCC Community leadership team and is responsible for all ICT service provision from the current incumbent vendor partner BT via the joint venture partnership Liverpool Direct Ltd.

Weekly Broadcast  Thursday 15 July 2010

Information Assurance and Data Handling - online Q&A 21 July

Socitm's Mark Brett will be leading a live Q&A discussion in the Government Connect benefits realisation fund Community of Practice on 21 July. All you have to do to take part is register with the CoP, and you'll be able to discuss issues, challenges and latest developments around information assurance, CoCo, and the data handling review. If you are not available on this date, you are welcome to post a question anytime before 21 July. For queries, please email ioana.serghiuta@idea.gov.uk, or call her on 0207 296 6153.

Send us your completed IT Trends questionnaire...

...and get your copy of the 2010/11 report free of charge. The survey is easy to complete, and there is no requirement to complete all the fields on the survey. Download a copy of from the IT Trends page on the Socitm website, or contact ittrends@socitm.net to have one sent. Apart from getting your free report, completing the survey helps Socitm compile vital and accurate information about the state of IT within local public services - which we need to represent your work to government opinion-formers. Please complete and return the questionnaire by 6th August 2010.

Local CIO Council meets today (15 July)

The Local CIO Council, set up by Socitm in 2008 at the invitation of John Suffolk, the Government CIO, meets today. The LCIO Council represents the views and interests of local government to the main Government CIO and CTO Councils. Today's discussion will mostly be on PSN, G-Cloud, the Government Apps store, and the impact of public sector cuts on IT. Notes on the meeting will appear on the Socitm website in the Policy & Campaigns section

New on Socitm.tv: David Smith (ICO) on preventing data breach fines of up to £500,000

In this interview David Smith, Deputy Commissioner for the ICO and Paul Walker, Product Specialist for Informatica discuss how automated solutions can dramatically reduce the risk of data breaches by ensuring sensitive information is properly stored and automatically removed when it should be. View the video at: www.socitm.tv/DavidSmith . The video also covers the issue of using live data for testing and how the ICO can help organisations with their data protection obligations.

Have you considered entering the IT Excellence Awards 2010?

In the current climate there is an appetite for innovative service delivery initiatives that deliver the goods and that do so efficiently. Winning an IT Excellence Award means peer recognition and good publicity for your projects but, more importantly, it is indicative of an organisation that is ready to succeed despite the challenges we all face.  Why not, get your entry form now , for the chance to be profiled as a nationally effective and efficient service delivery organisation. If successful you will be invited to present your entry at Socitm 2010 in October. The awards, run by Socitm in association with Intellect and SOLACE, cover three categories: service transformation; effective ICT partnering, and supplier excellence. Entries close on Monday 2 August.

Weekly Broadcast  Thursday 8 July 2010

Socitm report free to download: online government services for business:

Results of a special survey by Socitm Insight for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) indicates that implementation of an EU directive to make it easy for businesses to find out about licensing, regulations and other formalities of setting up are patchy at best. Only 26 websites (5%) were rated as very good, 99 (18%) considered satisfactory, 320 websites (59%) poor, and on 94 websites (19%) reviewers could find no relevant information. The report is free to download for all, since this report was funded by BIS. Simply register at socitm.net and you will be able to access Better connected for business.

Update your data and get FREE access to the Applications Register

Emails have gone out in the last fortnight inviting public sector organisations to add new, or update existing data previously held on LB Brent's eGovernment Register and Socitm's Software Index. The updated data will then be available through Socitm's new Applications Register, created by merging material from the two services, and available to subscribers later in July 2010. The subscription will be free for public sector users who contribute data but other users will need to pay in order to gain access. Please contact applicationsregister@socitm.net to register your interest.

New video on Socitm.tv: efficiency and secure flexible working

This video looks at how Hampshire County Council has worked with Juniper Networks to implement a secure remote access solution called Hantsnet Passport.  The passport system has reduced the need for travel and substantially saved on office space by enabling staff to work from home and multiple office locations.

Click here to view the video: http://www.socitm.tv/HampshireCC

Customer insight: redesigning services around customer needs

Long-term demographics and government plans to slash the deficit demand a drastic realignment of local public services. Doing the same things, only more cheaply, is no longer an option. It is time for a complete redesign of services - enabled by technology, but driven by a better understanding of what customers want. Find out more from the latest Socitm Insight briefing

Weekly Broadcast Thursday 1 July 2010

Update your data and get FREE access to the Applications Register

Emails went out earlier this week inviting public sector organisations to add new, or update existing data previously held on LB Brent's eGovernment Register and Socitm's Software Index. The updated data will then be available through Socitm's new Applications Register, created by merging material from the two services and available to subscribers later in July 2010. The subscription will be free for public sector users who contribute data but other users will need to pay in order to gain access. Please contact applicationsregister@socitm.net to register your interest. 

Have you received your Socitm membership card?

All members should be receiving their Socitm membership card by post very shortly. The personalised card is a passport to all regional events and gives access to membership benefits. It also confirms current membership to colleagues and other contacts and reinforces the message that Socitm recognizes members as individuals. You can see a visual of the card on the Socitm website. If you don't received yours, please email enquiries@socitm.net

Lessons from the Open Election Data project

Publishing government information as open, linked data is a hot topic, and some of the key issues are captured in this document from Socitm and OpenlyLocal about lessons learned from one of the first attempts to have a group of public bodies publish linked data to the same consistent standard. The exercise surfaced some important challenges for future exercises - including the requirement local authorities have to publish all spending data and tenders over £500, from January. You can discuss the document in Socitm's Community of Practice on open data publishing - go to www.communities.idea.gov.uk and search on open data.

New to view on Socitm.tv: transforming ICT efficiency in local government

With ICT budgets being slashed across the public sector it is crucial for councils to ensure their frontline services are delivering value for money. In this interview, Tim Hearn, Director for Public Sector at Juniper Networks outlines the scale of the challenge and demonstrates how partnerships, shared services and the simplification of ICT infrastructure are all key to improving service efficiency. View the video at: http://www.socitm.tv/ICT