March 2012

IN THIS EDITION....................

The main publication at this time of year is always Better connected. This year it contains some important messages that resonate clearly with the new Government Digital Service now fully committed to the replacement of Directgov (readers outside England should on this occasion take more than a passing interest). However, we should not ignore other important publications this quarter, more of which overleaf.

Better connected 2012 is out!

The launch

March 1 was as ever the critical date, despite the benefit of the extra leap year day, as our package provided grows each time. This time we added two features. Firstly, we produced a separate two page briefing for top management teams that we urge all subscribers to circulate in order to improve awareness of the important management issues now emerging. Secondly, we provided 'Your council spreadsheets' for each subscribing local authority, which show the answers in the main survey, alongside the questions and the reviewer's guidance notes

Insight subscribers downloaded 60 copies of the full report before 9am, 162 by the end of the day, and 399 sets of the headline results for public use; all these figures indicate the high level of interest. Later, the responses emerge. One manager from a new four star council commented:

We are all thrilled with the outcome of the review, it just endorses the approach and journey we have taken to develop a website that would work for our customers and staff. It has given the teams such a lift for all the investment of time made. Nothing lifts the spirits like a four star ranking!!

At the other extreme, came this comment from a web manager with one star ranking, expecting more: I have to say I'm really gutted about our result given the amount of work that we've put in.

Somewhere in between these two extremes, another commented: Negative comments from reviewers are really handy for use as ammunition when persuading other people in the council that we need to change things. I applaud the new "top tasks" approach. It's easy to pick holes, but I'd argue that Better Connected is a real force for good in our industry, so thanks to all involved.

The key messages

After all the initial excitement wears off, what really matters are the key messages. This year they are very clear.

Our recommended plan for local public services has three strands. It starts with 'Think customer'. The second strand concerns the need to 'Commit fully to top tasks'. Although getting the design of navigation right is critical, the top tasks concept is much deeper than that. It is a new model for managing websites. Finally, 'Go mobile', as we must not ignore the impact of the rapid growth of mobile devices.

The organisation as a whole must understand these messages and act accordingly. The web team just cannot be expected to deliver without strong corporate support. Taken together, the three strands of this plan make this an exciting time for all those involved. From the organisational viewpoint it provides some light in today's gloomy mood of public austerity. Above all, the customer stands to gain from the real promise of cheaper, better and more convenient services.

Further information

240 page report free to subscribers; for non-subscribers £495 (£475 for Socitm members).

Contact: Martin Greenwood

IT trends 2011/12: measuring up to diversity

Scope of report

Published in January, this year's report provides an in-depth review of the current ICT scene for the local public service provider, together with a detailed analysis of the challenges that service deliverers face. The report contains information on technology, budgets, and manpower together with views and opinions about the future. Our research is based on information from over 600 organisations.

The report features:

• Financial landscape and the use of resources
• Delivering efficiency with IT
• Improving public services
• Information governance
• Workforce and skills
• Sourcing IT and capability

Major findings

• The influence of IT managers increasing as local public services turn to technology to bring service delivery costs down.
• The spending on contracted services (including service sharing) increases.
• IT staff numbers are down by 5,000, the largest reduction in 25 years
• Organisations are undergoing a rapid change in attitude about the workforce using its own technology to undertake business tasks.
• There is a growing emphasis on strategic, rather than utility use of IT. Web-delivered services (with web increasingly the channel of choice for the customer) and information governance are other leading preoccupations within IT management's areas of responsibility.
• Local public service providers remain hesitant about exploiting partnerships with the private sector to deliver significant savings. Growth in this area may also be explained by less interest from the private sector.
• High expectations of growth in social media and SMS were recorded by the survey supporting the widespread corporate use reported in Better connected (last year and this),

Further information

Free of charge to all who completed the 2011 survey. For those who did not discounts are available to Insight subscribers

Package	Insight subscriber	Not Insight subscriber
Report	£295	£495
Report plus data	£395	£595

Contact Martin Greenwood

The technology challenge in 2011

Scope of report

In March we also published the executive summary of our annual report on strategic technology trends. This provides an overview and insight into the dynamics of the IT industry as they affect our sector. Our objective is to help subscribers reduce the risks in making investment decisions in IT by providing information about alternative options, the role of ICT and medium and longer-term impacts.

It has been another turbulent year. We provide guidance on an approach for CIOs and heads of IT in facing the challenge of financial austerity, as well as advice on a number of key topics that we have selected as likely to be the most important developments in the current climate affecting the IT service.

Major findings

In recent years this report has focused on the twin drivers of technology and process change. These forces have always threatened to deliver significant

change but have never quite lived up to expectations. This year Gartner predicts that the combination of four technologies and some new

approaches to management shaped by technology will deliver that change:

• The specific technologies are cloud computing, mobile technology, consumer-driven devices and context-aware computing
• The new management approaches comprise
  • development of social organisations
  • increasing value and complexity of information
  • leadership of IT-enabled change
  • application architecture for innovation ('pace layering')
  • creative destruction of existing processes.

Moreover, this change will be several orders of magnitude greater than anything that has been delivered before. The old IT function will no longer

be fit for purpose, as users start to drive the innovation through mobile and cloud computing. IT bottlenecks will no longer be tolerated as users

bring in their own mobile devices and use cloud services to deliver innovative solutions to their problems.

Further information

This report is only available to subscribers of Socitm Insight. Our agreement with Gartner to use its material prevents sales to non-subscribers.

Contact: Tony Riding

Cookie management service

With May 26 on us, the year of grace from the Information Commissioner is fast closing. Just as a reminder, the EU directive on cookies puts a new compliance burden on website owners, including owners of sites delivered by third parties. Understanding how many cookies you have on your site, whether you really need them, and how to meet the requirements of the legislation, involves risks that can consume significant staff and management time.

Simply removing cookies from websites risks compromising usefulness and usability and is not a realistic option for organisations looking to shift more

services online. The law makes it clear that website owners must be aware of all cookies on their site, whether set by them, or as is often the case, they have been set by third parties

In partnership with Cookie Reports Ltd, Socitm Insight has come up with a simple and practical response to this new requirement. It is available to all local public services and, as it is a shared service, can be offered at

an affordable price. The service provides:

• An initial audit of cookies appearing on your main website. Headline results will be sent to all local public services organisations free of charge.
• A full report detailing all cookies on your main site and the pages on which they appear.
• A plain English 'How to' guide describing options for informing the public about cookies on your site so that you can keep on the right side of the legislation.

The ICO is keen to encourage sector-based schemes like ours that meet the challenges set by the EU directive. Many commentators believe that without such guidance and support, the directive could compromise the speed of digital development and the associated social and economic benefits.

More information from www.socitm.net

Contact Terry Madgwick

The Socitm Applications Register

Is your organisation making full use of the service?

This service is your essential route to key information about local public service organisations:

• Their IT spend
• Software, hardware and services used
• Competitors' products and market penetration
• Buyers' ratings of products and suppliers
• Acquisition and renewal dates

How much data it handles

• 2,633 suppliers
• 4,842 products
• 70 groups
• 594 buying organisations
• 30,443 records of applications used
• 156 product types

As at 29 February 2012

Top three organisations updating records in February 2012

• Broxtowe BC
• Newark & Sherwood DC
• Wealden DC

How it can be used

In Better connected 2012 we were able to show that one supplier stood out from a small group of suppliers dominating a niche market were providing a product at least 20% easier to use than their competitors. The suppliers that came out best from our review of council websites (minimum of five customers) were:

Planning application systems: Fastweb
Library cataloguing systems: Vubis and Aquabrowser

How it works

Socitm has been collecting information about usage of software, hardware and IT services by local public service organisations since 1987. Local authorities, social housing providers, police, fire and other local public services provide Socitm with their information in return for free access to information about others. This enables them to exchange notes about products and suppliers, and increasingly, to set up shared services or carry out joint procurements.

The Applications Register shows what products and services are used by which organisations, when they were acquired, and when they are due for renewal. It also gives ratings for product functionality, reliability and integration services, and their suppliers' performance on technical support, after-sales and communication.

The core data that populates the Applications Register comes from users alone, and can only be changed by them. However, Applications Register subscribers can enhance this basic listing.

Subscribers can find a wealth of information about the market, and individual suppliers, from the Applications Register. It allows you to search on suppliers by name, and on products by name and type. You can then find out what your customers and prospects think about competitors' products and performance.

Finally, as a subscriber, you can check information that your customers are placing on the register about you and, if you think there are oversights or inaccuracies, you can contact them and ask them to amend their entries

Further information Contact Agnes Leskiewicz

Agnieszka.leskiewicz@socitm.net

Tel 01604 497774

Work in progress

Planting the flag - pocket guides

Since the launch at Socitm 2011 of the first on leadership in this new series , we have now embarked on a programme to finish the others by this summer. The series is focused on five strategic capabilities that need to be in place if ICT-enabled local public services reform is to be achieved in any given locality. The remaining titles comprise

• Governance
• Organisational change
• Shared services
• Strategic sourcing (provisional)

Contact Chris Head

Agile Pathfinder Programme

The formal agile working methodology promises much more effective use of scarce resources and reduced risks in meeting customer requirements.

Supported by our partners Indigo Blue, we have facilitated a programme of learning for six local authorities that have piloted this methodology. Following a debriefing workshop on 24 April we plan to document what has been learnt for the rest of the local public service community.

Contact Martin Greenwood

Benchmarking summary for 2011

We are working on the annual summary for all who benchmarked their ICT service (including the user satisfaction service) in order to identify the key trends in the performance of the ICT function at this critical time

Contact Chris Head

Forthcoming events

Learning from Better connected 2012

May 18, London

As usual we plan to give subscribers and others an opportunity to learn from the report. This year's event includes a key note presentation by Richard Sargeant, Director of Digital Strategy at the Government Digital Service, two case studies of councils that have made the startling jump from one star to four stars and a choice of workshops about the customer journeys of the more problematic tasks we tested (choice of two from five).

Further information (and how to book) at www.socitm.net

Contact Martin Greenwood

BENCHMARKING NEWS

The 2012 programme

Channel value benchmarking (with Socitm Benchmarking)

Group	Workshop	Date	Venue
8	Launch	15 Apr	London
	Results	15 Jul	tba

Group 9 for the autumn will be announced in May.

New! Following a successful pilot in January, we are also planning an operational service for benchmarking customer access, based on the volumes of contacts by the three major channels.

Contact: Sandra Milne-Skinner

Benchmarking the ICT service (with Socitm Benchmarking )

Group Title	Workshop	Date	Venue
60 London	Launch	Apr 19	London
	Results	Sep 5	London
61 UK	Launch	Jun 19	Birmingham
	Results	Oct 1	Birmingham
63 Scotland	Launch	Aug 23	Stirling
	Results	Nov 22	Stirling

Contact: Steve Hopson

Benchmarking user satisfaction

Series	Survey period	Workshop	Venue
40	January to March	17 Apr	Birmingham
41	September to November	4 Dec	tba

Contact: Terry Madgwick

The latest publications

Don't forget that you can always find the latest Socitm Insight information on www.socitm.net. You will receive an e-mail alert when reports are available in the online library. For most reports you will receive one printed copy, but can always order more within your entitlement. Printed copies might take another three weeks to reach you.

Commissioned research

Socitm Insight has completed a number of special commissions of research into a wide variety of topics. Whether you are a local public service, government department or supplier we may be able to help you find valuable information requiring independent expertise .

Contact Martin Greenwood

Contact points for Socitm Insight:

For information about the service in general (eg events, work in progress etc), contact Martin Greenwood (tel: 01926 498703 or e-mail insight@socitm.net )

Other contacts:

• Chris Head (tel: 07880 748299 or e-mail chris.head@socitm.net)
• Terry Madgwick (tel: 01483 855288 or e- mail terry.madgwick@socitm.net)
• Sandra Milne-Skinner (tel: 07717 327796 or e-mail sandra.milne-skinner@socitm.net)
• Tony Riding (tel: 0113 261 2688 or e-mail tony.riding@socitm.net)
• Vicky Sargent (tel: 07726 601139 or e-mail vicky.sargent@socitm.net)
• Steve Hopson, (tel: 01244 571386 or e-mail stephen.hopson@socitm.net

Information about administration (orders, subscriptions, copies etc) contact the Socitm Office (see below)

Feedback of your views

Do use http://www.socitm.net/feedback to give us your comments, not just about the website, but about our recent publications you have read or the ones that we are planning.

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