Issue 102 June 2008 (150KB) Download a PDF version of the latest newsletter.
Index
Socitm Steels itself for changes
Consulting Update: A revolution in Learning
New Information Assurance briefing
New Rules on SME's
Insight Update: Revised Website Guidelines
News from the Regions
Socitm MBA
Virtual Desktops: what's best debate hots up
Welsh Wails (excuse the Pun)
Innovate08 Competition
Implications of our 'instant access society' to be examined at Socitm 2008
OGC Model Services Agreement Update
Socitm News Hounds
Editorial
Report from AGM EGM - Terry's report
The milestone Socitm AGM/EGM took place in the British Library alongside the SPIN conference on 24th April 2008. That was a bad day for the London underground and would be voters and attendees were caught in the mayhem that resulted from “signal failures” and other problems that beset London Transport that morning. As a result the preview presentation was mostly attended by officers and very few members were there to see it.
The real business started at 10:30 with some frantic counting to ensure the meeting was quorate. The AGM sailed by with the new president Richard Steel, being elected unopposed and a formal short presentation and handover of the chain of office to Richard by Rosie. See the press release on Socitm's new President, Richard Steel.
Then the EGM was held with a brief explanation of the process and a chance for questions. The change to the constitution was unopposed and the change from Chief Executive to Managing Director was a done deed.
A few questions came from the floor, mostly on the theme of lack of communication, with news of the proposed commercial changes only coming to light in Socitm News however it was pointed out that this was an extract of the NEC minutes which had previously been publish on the Socitm website. It was accepted that communication and openness needs to improve and there was a promise of a more open regime including the president's blog.
The president's agenda for the Society in 2008 includes:
- Governance
- Strategy
- Business relationships and partnerships
- Code of Conduct
- Efficiency
Many things about Socitm are under review and changing as a result. It is not practical to track them all here, so please refer to Richard's “blog” and a monthly report for more up-to-date information.
One change involves the publication of Socitm News. From Issue 102, June 2008, it will no longer be sent out in hard copy form. Readers may either access the information directly on the Socitm web site or may download the PDF file and if they wish browse this, distribute it to colleagues, copy extracts, print it locally. The use of sponsorship for Consulting News is on hold.
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Socitm's provision of training and education services to members is referred to as Socitm “Learning” and it is undergoing a makeover, and is to be re-launched in July.
In an effort to make “Learning” more focused on the specific needs of our membership, we are currently reviewing our course offerings and in July will be launching a completely new programme for the next 12 months. The new programme will offer a wider range of course, at more locations, and with more detail provided on each, to help you judge better who to nominate for the course, and the likely benefits to be achieved from it. In addition the Learning portfolio will be expanding to cover workshops, to encourage and facilitate sharing of knowledge and experience amongst participating local authorities, and a wider range of e-learning packages in support of the Socitm Continuous Professional Development scheme.
In response to feedback, our programmes will be issued further in advance, and once published, the courses advertised will not be cancelled except in the very extreme case that no-one subscribes (which virtually never happens). All our new courses will be supported by high quality notes and support material - for use as a reference after the course, and to support the value offered by the course. As previously, in addition to the scheduled public courses, we will be offering on-site courses, tailored to local needs, and in most cases, these offer better value for money for councils where there is a training demand for several staff.
Watch out for the new schedule - it will be published on the Socitm website, as well as being sent out to members and to key relevant staff in their councils.
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The latest Socitm Consulting briefing examines Information Assurance and the resilience agenda in local authorities. The briefing was written by James Royds, a Socitm consultant who is currently working with a number of local authorities on various aspects of Information Assurance, which encompasses information management, risk management, legislative compliance, security, business continuity, disaster recovery and resilience. James argues that addressing these issues is a strategic priority, explains why a holistic approach is crucial and highlights the principles that will underpin success.
Information Assurance is a topic close to the heart of our new President Richard Steel and Richard has contributed an introduction to the briefing. The briefing will be distributed to members shortly and is also available on the Socitm website. I'd be pleased to discuss any queries members may have on this topic.
Doug Maclean, Consulting Manager
doug.maclean@socitm.gov.uk
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Implications for Local Government Procurement
In the 2008 budget there are provisions for SME (small medium sized enterprises) that have implications on local government. Viz:
“Plans to reform regulation, improve access to finance by expanding the small firms loan guarantee scheme, help female entrepreneurs and for a goal to give at least 30 per cent of public sector procurement to small and medium-sized businesses all have our support. These plans will need to be backed up with real action.”
So an interesting question is how will the goal of 30% be measured, how does it relate to EU public procurement policy and Local government Act and contract regulations. If you have come across this and have a contribution to make to the debate please contact me terry.street@socitm.gov.uk or see the SME space on Gov-x.
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The Central Office of Information, the latest guardian of online standards and guidelines, published last week two updates of guidelines that apply to all public sector websites in the UK.
The first is entitled Website evaluation, usage and analysis. This provides a useful overview of what usage statistics web managers should be collecting and why. It also offers some pitfalls that they should avoid. By and large it provides a relatively uncontentious statement and checklist. The really interesting guideline is one that is under development that will focus on visitor feedback. Vicky Sargent and I had a meeting in mid-May at his request with the head of digital policy (David Pullinger) who has shown much interest in our Website take-up service. As a result of that meeting we have invited him to talk at our next website take-up event on 24 June at the Barbican, London (now part of our new Customer Access Improvement Service).
The topic of the second publication is website accessibility entitled Delivering inclusive websites. This is more contentious in that it reinforces Level AA of WCAG1.0 as the target for all public sector websites. Those who have read our publication A world denied: a supplement for Better connected 2008 on website accessibility (April 2008) will, however, not be surprised with this news. Some are critical about this guideline, maintaining that conformance does not guarantee a fully usable website for all types of disabled people in all circumstances. This criticism is valid, but those critics usually then fall into the trap of saying that the guideline is not useful. This is a mistake because failure to conform certainly does make a website inaccessible for the disabled person (it also makes the site less usable for everyone). Our supplement shows without a shadow of doubt the negative impact on a blind person of the five most common failures. We know because we asked a blind person and reported fully what he had to say (Robin Christopherson, Head of Accessibility Services at AbilityNet).
Just as a reminder, in Better connected 2008 we found that 37 councils (8%) passed Level A compared with 64 the year before. None passed Level AA (two the year before). There is then, a long way to go on this journey.
The revised guidelines from COI make it clear that all public sector websites should conform with Level AA. They also state that central government departments should conform by December 2009 and central government agencies and non-departmental bodies by March 2011. Although local authorities are covered by the point that all public sector websites should conform with Level AA, the guidelines make no reference to any date by which this should be achieved, this being presumably a matter for Communities & Local Government (CLG) in England and the devolved administrations elsewhere in the UK.
One sting in the tail, however, applies to the new unitary councils being created in eight county areas in England from April 2009 (and three more potentially in April 2010).
The guidelines state that all new (public sector) websites must conform with Level AA from the point of publication. In the case of these councils they should conform from day one (i.e. April 2009 or April 2010). These councils, therefore, do have a clear target by default!
In conclusion, this is more than a useful guideline to accessibility. It will help sites to be accessible to disabled people and more usable to everyone. Our supplement sets out seven steps for achieving this target, and we recommend that if you have not done so you read this report and use it as a basis for improving the accessibility of your website.
Martin Greenwood, Insight Programme Manager
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Just one entry received this time, from London.
The last event is on the London Connects website - 1 May 2008 and has lots of text and even pictures. My colleague Matthew Smith should take the praise for this, as it is all his work.
The next event is on the London Connects website - 10 July 2008, but may be blank until it is populated with details.
Steve Pennant, Chief Executive, London Connects Ltd
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Socitm sponsors a number of MBA students each year. This year there are three students: Craig Wilkins of Sedgemoor, Andy Szuszman of Dudley and Steve Durbin at Bridgend.
As part of the sponsorship deal 50% of their fees are paid and they are invited to update us on their experiences and these are published in the Socitm News and on the web site. For more information on the scheme see the MBA scheme webpage.
We hope to publish the other updates in the next issue.
Steve Durbin, Bridgend County Borough Council, started the MBA with Socitm in 2005 and will now qualify in November.
“The final course I'm doing is the compulsory Evidence-Based Initiative - you have to do something that “makes a difference” in your organisation using the knowledge learned from the MBA and your personal research. This gives me opportunity to consolidate learning from the MBA and prove that it's improved my ability to manage - to others as well as to myself. You can also use this work for professional membership of the Institute of Management if desired.
Doing the MBA has made a difference to how I work. It's a bit like having a better toolbox; you could put up a shelf with what you had, but now you'd feel equipped to build a bookcase instead. It's also very good for your networking; I now have non-IT contacts in practically every industry you care to name, as well as an extended government network.
The other noticeable change is in analytical skills; I find it much easier to analyse complex situations and be sure I've not missed a significant issue.
It's been a long hard haul - be nice to have my weekends back for a bit after I finish the MBA. Think I've forgotten what having a weekend off means!”
New applications
Full and Associate members of Socitm should apply by the end of July for one of the bursaries, which will enable them to start on their studies from this autumn.
Contact: Brian Wescott on 07890195888
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Citrix ,Terminal Server or Parrallels?
Many authorities are looking afresh at thin clients (or virtual desktops), this time with the future of the planet on the agenda too. Thin clients can be a major contribution to the greener ICT agenda not just from lower energy consumption but also reduced travel for on site repairs, etc.
A few years ago the only serious contender was Citrix and this was the favourite thin client technology deployed in local government. Some authorities and some applications favoured Windows Terminal server but larger installations favoured Citrix.
Recently I saw it reported that Windows Terminal Server has finally caught up with Citrix in terms of functionality and so it now offers a potential saving over Citrix licences. But another player has come to my attention that seems worthy of consideration.
The down side to any thin client solution is the server farm required to support multiple workstation images. This can be considerable for a large estate and comes with its own energy requirements heat output and support implications.
The third alternative is OS-based desktop virtualization with Parallels Virtuozzo Containers. This has much less of an overhead in terms of server capacity. The sales pitch goes along the lines of:
“It's in a whole different league. It is possible to host multiple instances of a standard, single-user desktop PC operating system on one server. That's Terminal services on steroids.”
The claim is that on efficiency: you can get more than 150 desktops on a single standard server. Up to 5 times more than with Terminal Services. And that translates to a lot less hardware.
Also it is claimed that Administration/Provisioning is vastly superior as you can provision each desktop in less than a minute. Admin tasks like patching, upgrades and antivirus management are done once in a few minutes. With other solutions, you have to administer your desktops one by one.
Performance: is claimed to be orders of magnitude better because resources are shared more intelligently. The user experience is optimized, even with streaming video and other resource-hungry applications.
But the best bit is this. Parallels' VDI solution will cost you less than half of what you'll be paying for other desktop virtualization approaches.
Is this claim true? have you considered Parrallel's VDI solution if not why not?
See http://www.parallels.com
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Spring is sprung... time to get the Watkins Rapier down from the loft; pull out the Swiss Army knife and whittle some new drumsticks; stop swigging the Brasso and apply it to the old saxophone hanging on the study wall.
Still mystified?
ROCITM is the amateur musical soiree held on the first night of the annual conference after the quiz which follows the dinner. Various combinations of delegates come together to perform upbeat numbers for the bemused (and sometimes energetic) throng. All those with a musical bent are welcome to join in.
It works like this:
- Known song titles are swapped via e-mail and a set-list is drawn up;
- Appropriate combinations of musicians are allocated to sections of the set.
- P.A., microphones, amplification and some instruments are provided;
- There is a quick sound-check;
- The “set” is performed without the aid of proper rehearsals or a safety net.
While there is a core group of past participants to make sure things keep going, any musician can be accommodated for a few numbers; however, singers, brass players and sound engineers are particularly welcome.
If you are interested in participating or want to know more, please email mark.wheatley@socitm.gov.uk and CC david.goddard@socitm.gov.uk. Otherwise call me on 07985 142 897.
While it may be on the programme, this is a fringe event which is organised on a voluntary basis and is (currently) not funded in any way shape or form by the main conference income or sponsorships. Costs are covered by participants. Mrs Wheatley is still unaware of the real cost of hiring the PA and sound engineer in Belfast last year. I had to dig out an ancient Singer and run up the new bathroom curtains, in order to divert cash to a more worthy cause.
Talking about ancient singers, Terry S... (Censored Ed.)
Mark Wheatley, Past President
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Closing date 24 July 2008
Microsoft and LGC with the support of Socitm and the IDeA is proud to launch Innovate08 “Innovate yourself”. Do you have an innovative idea that could change the face of local government? Would your project benefit from expert advice and support from Microsoft and LGC?
LGC and Microsoft are calling all free-thinkers in local government to submit ideas for launching Innovate08, a new competition that not only showcases, but develops ground-breaking ideas in local government.
We are looking for teams that have innovative ideas to tackle some of the biggest issues facing councils today: social inclusion, place-shaping, community engagement and environment. These ideas may have a technology element to them, but we are really looking for solutions that demonstrate how local government is at the heart of innovation in the UK public sector.
In return for entering, LGC and Microsoft will work with the teams that have the most inspirational ideas, providing a mentor to help develop and 'incubate' concepts followed by a judging day on 8 September 2008.
But it doesn't end there. We want to make sure that local government can learn from its innovators, so the winning concept will spend two days with a team from Microsoft to prepare a potential implementation and roll-out plan. Innovate08 may just produce the next technology solution to help the whole of local government.
LGC will keep you up to date with progress and make sure we're sharing best practice with the rest of the sector.
You can submit your ideas in one or more of the following categories:
- Environment
- Community engagement
- Social inclusion
- Place-shaping
The competition closes on 24 July 2008. Finalists will be announced in early August. The mentoring days will take place throughout August, with the judging day on 8 September.
You can enter by following the links on the website http://www.lgcplus.com.
Prizes on offer
- Winning local authority presented with the prestigious Microsoft/LGC Innovate08 trophy and certificates for innovative use of technology.
- Winning local authority receives a two-day development workshop and report with Microsoft technology specialists to develop the idea into an implementable plan for developing and rolling out the solution.
- Winners receive prominent coverage in the LGC feature on Innovate08 and Microsoft Government newsletter.
- Winner will have the opportunity to present their innovative solution at the Socitm annual conference.
Finalists
- All finalist teams win £1,000 (retail cost) of Microsoft Software (Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Windows Live One Care).
- All finalists will be allocated a mentor from Microsoft who will team up to input on ideas and make their proposition as strong as possible for the Innovate08 Day.
- Finalists are promoted in LGC coverage and Microsoft Government newsletter and blog.
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- Conference runs 12-14 October at Celtic Manor, Newport.
The implications of our 'instant access society' in which customers and service providers expect information to be constantly and immediately available will be a recurring theme on the agenda for the Society of IT Management's annual conference taking place 12-14 October in Newport, South Wales.
The expectation of instant access has implications for mobile access, web 2.0 type interaction, channel management, information sharing, security, information assurance and many other issues that feature on the conference programme.
Featured speakers in Newport include Conference Keynote Paul Sloane, best selling author, lateral thinking guru and founder of business consultancy Destination Innovation. Back by popular demand following an appearance at a previous event, he will be speaking about how innovative leaders inspire their teams and drive creativity.
Also speaking at the conference is the former Head of Accreditation at the Central Sponsor for Information Assurance (part the Cabinet Office), Harvey Mattinson, now a consultant for CESG an arm of GCHQ, with primary responsibility for risk management and IA professionalism and founder of the CCT Mark, he will be speaking about Information Assurance.
Alex Butler is director of transformational strategy at the government's Central Office of Information. Being responsible for COI's interactive cluster, and consolidating core digital and contact skills she is perfectly placed to talk about Mobility and Innovation.
Donna Hall, Chief Executive at Chorley Borough Council, has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with delegates following work across northern local authorities notably, Salford, Blackburn and Chorley. She is a member of the Communities and Local Government's National Innovation and will be speaking about the Local Government's Delivery Council of which she is also a member.
Prof. James Woudhuysen, Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Montfort University will provide an overview of the future of virtual worlds and its relevance in the workplace. James has written many articles on the future of IT, and has contributed to The Economist, IT Week and spiked-online.com.
In addition to the plenary sessions, delegates will be able to attend four out of the twelve parallel sessions. The choice will be from a wide range of highly relevant managerial or technical topics, including; customer access, service orientated architecture (SOA), business continuity, security, greener ICT, Web2 (e-democracy) and using geospatial information amongst others. Further information on the content of these sessions will be published on the Socitm website.
On Tuesday 14 October, delegates will be able to see presentations on the shortlisted entries in the Local Government IT Excellence Awards. The Awards are a collaborative venture between Socitm, SOLACE and Intellect, and aim to demonstrate how IT has been used effectively and innovatively to deliver best value public services.
Attendance at the conference is a qualifying activity under Socitm's CPD scheme. Delegates who attend the whole conference will gain five points and daily delegates two for each day attended, against an annual target of 20 points.
On the Monday evening of the conference, there will be a gala dinner. Major sponsors already confirmed for the conference are BeCrypt, Cam Management Solutions, IBM, Redhat, and Thunderhead.
Other key sponsors are FrontRange Solutions UK Ltd and Siemens.
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Version 2.2 of the OGC Model Services Agreement and Guidance is now available on the Partnerships UK website.
Version 2.2 introduces a number of changes and improvements. As well as addressing various commercial issues which have arisen during consultation, we have also sought to improve the contract by revising clauses which commonly cause undue delays to negotiations. The “Welcome” and “Development Agenda” pages on the site both contain links to a table which summarises the changes that have been made in the new version.
Please also note that we have introduced a new page entitled “Before You Start” which will be used to provide information and links relevant to the development of an effective ICT Contract. Currently the page contains information on:
- Information Assurance
- Next Generation Networks
I recommend all clients to refer to this model and guidance notes - it is very well structured and full of useful information and model clauses. As I have mentioned before there is no “one size fits all” services agreements - you need to include the provisions and clauses that are relevant to your contract, and this model, now managed by PUK, is just that. The guidance informs the reader what each provision is about and when and why it is/isnot required
If you have any queries about the changes or on the guidance generally please contact me on 07785 916060 or via e-mail terry.street.socitm.gov.uk or call the PUK help desk via the guidance website.
Terry Street, Procurement and Outsource Product Manager
Source: Office of Government Commerce/Partnerships UK May 2008
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Socitm News relies on contributions from members and the suppliers in the public sector ICT market place so please consider suggesting a topic or contributing an article or case study.
Maybe you have recently won an award - share with us your secrets and the myths of how to catch the judge's eye(s).
Found a good product or supplier - then write us a review
Attended a good seminar or course - let us know.
Want to air some views? (Within reason - we don't need another PSF tirade or to perpetuate any scandals). Drop us a line.
Are you reading any good “blogs” or joined any good “forums” recently - then let us know. Credit will be given - literally not “moniterialy”.
Terry Street, Socitm News Editor
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Closing date for items for the next issue is
31 July 2008. Please send your letters and items of interest including interesting case studies, details of promotions, moves, etc to Terry Street, Editor.
Note: Comments published in Socitm News are those of individuals and may not represent Socitm's corporate views.
Terry Street
Tel: 07785 916060
Email: terry.street@socitm.gov.uk
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