Broadcasts

Weekly Broadcast Thursday 26 May 2011

Slides from Learning from Better connected 2011 now available
Socitm Insight subscribers can download slides from Tuesday's well attended and highly successful event. Presentations include: achieving a four star site (Edinburgh and Surrey Heath); improvement through sharing (Carlisle); the 'top tasks' approach (Liverpool); The mobile web (SNT Media Network); social media (Walsall); Socitm speakers on libraries online; customer access and channel shift; and changes to Better connected for 2012. You may still be able to catch the very lively Twitterstream at #lbc11.

Planting the Flag - full version available for download
Planting the Flag, is a 'call to arms'. This Local CIO Council initiative, led by Socitm's Futures group, was launched by Jos Creese in his last act as Socitm President at our Spring Conference on 11 May. Now the full version of Planting the Flag is available for download. Endorsed by Joe Harley (Government CIO), it sets out an overarching, national vision for ICT-enabled local public service reform and includes some initial pointers to action by CEOs, CFOs and CIOs. It will be followed by a second phase, Planning the Route, that will involve working with partners at the regional and sub-regional levels to develop more detailed plans to turn the vision into practical reality on the ground. Discussions have already started with SOLACE and CIPFA about workshops and other supporting activities and guidance to make this happen.

Weekly Broadcast   Friday 13 May 2011

Socitm's New 2011 President

Glyn Evans, Corporate Director of Business Change for Birmingham City Council was confirmed as Socitm's new President at the Society's AGM on Wednesday. 
 A Socitm member for over 20 years, Glyn's involvement with Socitm has included Chair of the policy group, Socitm Futures and of its forerunner, the Socitm Information Age Government Group.  In these roles he has been active in lobbying government on policy and implementation issues.

Glyn has over 30 years experience of working in local government in various IT support and management positions. In Nover 2003 he joined Birmingham City Council with the remit to drive forward a business transformation programme across the Council.  This programme has grown to be the largest IT-enabled change programme in UK local government. Glyn led the development of the Council's approach to transformational change - CHAMPS2 - and the creation of a joint venture company with Capita to support the change programme.

Glyn says, "It is one of the greatest honours for anybody to become President of their professional body.  I am greatly looking forward to my year of office, representing Socitm on the national and international stage. More importantly I will be doing all I can to help Socitm's members continue their role in supporting the delivery of high quality public services at a time of unprecedented financial challenge in the public sector."

Members can read about Glyn's thoughts on the year ahead in his incoming President's statement in the Socitm Annual Report 2010 which can be downloaded from the AGM page

Socitm's new VP Appointment 

Nadira Hussain, Transition Manager at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets was confirmed as Socitm's new Vice President at the society's AGM on Wednesday.

Nadira is currently project managing the Future Sourcing Project; devising and implementing the options best suited for providing ICT and wider BPO functions for the organisation. Prior to this role, Nadira has championed building the relationship between ICT and the business to ensure that ICT is used effectively to deliver appropriate solutions, realise business benefit and RoI and as the catalyst to achieve transformational change.

A proactive member of Socitm for a number of years, Nadira has worked with the Members Services Group, the national IT Profession Group to establish a framework for IT professionalism and has been the Vice-Chair for the London Socitm region for the last 2 years. She is also a key player on the ICT East London Solutions (ELS) Group, championing a collaborative approach to service delivery.

Following Wednesday's AGM, Nadira commented "I am delighted to have been selected as Vice President, this is an ideal opportunity for me to continue to champion the work I am doing with the society, but moreso to reinforce the contribution that ICT can make to reform public services in such challenging times, both in my own organisation and further afield. 
 
One of my goals for this year is to start an initiative within Tower Hamlets' schools that will allow me to work more closely with young women of school-leaving age. I will share my experiences, offer mentoring and encourage them to consider ICT as an achievable career path.  Watch this space, will keep you all posted of my exploits and progress! 
 
Hope to see

A resounding success! 

The Socitm Spring Conference was without doubt one of our most successful Spring events in recent years.  From the arrival of the first delegates there was a 'buzz' and a feeling that it was going to be a worthwhile day.  The venue, The Royal College of Surgeons provided the ideal setting, allowing very easy networking for delegates and between delegates and our supplier members and sponsors. The programme was particularly strong and very relevent with a mixture of plenary sessions covering digital services, with a refreshingly honest contribution from Chris Chant and the launch of 'Planting the Flag' the first stage of the The Routemap for Local Public Services Reform - enabled by ICT.   Also covered in plenary session were multi organisation shared services from Zack Pandor, customer accessible website and channel shift from Amanda Wilde of East Riding, a high energy and challenging view from Tony Ellis of Brent and, from Tim Holyoake of Software AG, one of the best supplier presentations I have seen.  Between the plenary sessions there was a series of highly interactive round table discussions, case study based, facilitated by senior practitioners, dealing with real issues and situations. The delegates I spoke with, who came from public, third and private sectors commented on the value they had received from their participation. Perhaps one of the most important comments came from one of the CIOs I spoke with who said "this is as much as a training and development opportunity as a conference." My impression can be summed up as relevant, engaging, real and enabling on both personal and professional levels.  This event, and the launch of 'Planting the Flag' forms a great foundation for our focus and activities throughout the year which will culminate in Socitm 2011 - 29 November to 1 December at Hilton Metropole Hotel, Birmingham. 

A truly inspiring event
Glyn Evans, President of Socitm commented " I found the Spring Conference far more than useful, it was really quite inspiring. Of course, a personal highlight was becoming Socitm President at the AGM; a huge honour and a mark of confidence in me which I hope I can live up to. But leaving that aside, I and all the delegates I spoke to gained a huge amount from the event. The conference sessions successfully covered good practice, leading edge thinking and policy, so there was something for everybody. With respect to policy, having has some involvement in its development, it was great to see the launch of 'Planting the Flag' with its emphasis on the role that ICT can play in public service reform. It is something that everyone who is involved in public service delivery, local and central government, private and third sectors should engage with as it's taken forward. I reflected at the end of the conference that we may well at a tipping point, that the critical role that ICT can play in reforming the delivery of public services is increasingly being appreciated by Chief Executives and politicians, not just ICT professionals. If that is the case, despite all the budgetary challenges we face, the next few years will tryly be an exciting time."

How was it for you?
It's important to us that we receive your feedback on your attendance, to enable us to grow and enhance future Socitm conferences. So, if you haven't already had the chance to do so, please complete our Spring Conference Feedback Form available from Monday on our website, and fax it back to 01604 497610. Thank you in advance for your support. 

Performance Improvement Survey

In co-operation with Software AG, Socitm is conducting a survey to establish the maturity of process improvement and business transformation initiatives across the public sector. The results of this survey, which consist of 5 simple questions, will tell us who drives these initiatives, the challenges they face and the methodologies used to support them. The results will be shared in future issues of Socitm News so please take 10 minutes to complete this short questionnaire and return it.  If you misplaced your questionnaire, this is available to download on the Socitm website.

Weekly Broadcast  Thursday 5 May 2011

New Insight briefing warns of dangers of outsourcing ICT
Local authorities' face many risks in outsourcing ICT and those that follow this route without a full appreciation of them may pay a heavy price, both financially and in terms of loss of ability to respond to change. This view, recently expressed in Socitm's evidence to the House of Commons' Public Administration Select Committee, is developed in Costs of outsourcing - uncovering the real risks, the latest monthly briefing from Socitm Insight. The briefing, published at the end of April, is available free of charge to Socitm Insight subscribers, and can be downloaded from Socitm.net