Socitm Insight news
IT chiefs should be leading broadband initiatives for UK 'not-spots'
Published: Monday 23rd January 2012
Socitm is urging local CIOs and Heads of ICT to take a leading role in council initiatives to bring broadband to the UK's 'not-spots.'
IT Trends 2011/12 out now
Published: Thursday 19th January 2012
IT management appears to be wielding greater influence in local public services as local public services turn to technology in response to austerity, says the latest edition of IT Trends, out now.
Social media survey of local authority Heads of ICT
Published: Wednesday 11th January 2012
Socitm Insight is running a survey about social media. Our aim is to gather information from CIOs, Heads of ICT and others with responsibility for the ICT function in local authorities.
Council digital channels show mixed performance on strike day
Published: Monday 5th December 2011
A survey by Socitm Insight of council website and social media coverage of the public sector strike on 30 November shows wide variation in practice and performance.
Socitm Insight surveys number and size of council websites
Published: Tuesday 8th November 2011
Socitm Insight is undertaking a survey into the number and size of websites being run by individual councils.
CIO or CTO? - time to choose says new Socitm briefing
Published: Tuesday 1st November 2011
Manage the technology or drive transformation: now is the time for ICT professionals to choose says latest briefing from Socitm Insight, available free of charge to subscribers from this website.
Efficiencies from better hospital websites - join our improvement survey this autumn
Published: Tuesday 6th September 2011
Your stakeholders, be they patients, carers, NHS managers, GPs, or job-seekers, increasingly expect to find and do things online.
Important changes to the Better connected 2012 report
Published: Thursday 25th August 2011
Socitm Insight announces important changes in the way in which council websites will be assessed for the Better connected 2012 report.
Socitm publishes mini-survey of NHS hospital websites
Published: Friday 22nd July 2011
Socitm Insight has carried out a mini survey of the usefulness and usability of nine high profile, city-based hospitals in England.
Socitm Insight launches Cookie management service
Published: Thursday 14th July 2011
Socitm Insight has launched a new service to help public sector website owners to deal with the implication of the EU 'cookie' directive effective from 26 May 2011.
Agile Pathfinder Programme
Published: Thursday 30th June 2011
Socitm Insight and IndigoBlue Consulting Ltd are joining forces to support a new programme for testing the agile methodology in delivering radical business change in local public services.
Socitm Insight produces toolkit to improve libraries online
Published: Monday 27th June 2011
Socitm Insight has produced a Toolkit to help library teams, web managers, and providers of library systems to address shortcomings in the customer experience of council library services online.
Need to save will overcome barriers to sharing
Published: Monday 6th June 2011
The funding crisis will focus local public service decision-makers on the best routes to savings, including shared services, which have tended to fall at the political hurdle in the past.
New briefing highlights outsourcing risks
Published: Wednesday 4th May 2011
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 loss of flexibilty.
Making public services 'digital by default': new Socitm guide
Published: Monday 18th April 2011
What is the case for making public services 'digital by default', as UK Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox is urging, and what do organisations need to be doing to make them so?
New briefing from Socitm Insight calls for shared services to boost self-service
Published: Monday 4th April 2011
Councils looking to improve their websites and accelerate development of cost-saving self-service models of delivery should be thinking about their sharing web resources with other public services.
Better connected 2011 - out now
Published: Tuesday 1st March 2011
Socitm’s annual report on the usefulness and usability of council websites is out now. Assessments of websites from 49 other public sector organisations subscribing to Socitm Insight are included.
New report from Socitm Insight highlights major savings opportunity
Published: Tuesday 15th February 2011
The report from Socitm Insight says councils should bring all front office customer contact, whether face-to-face, by phone, through the web or other means, under the same governance and management.
IT functions delivering more for less says IT Trends 2010/11
Published: Thursday 20th January 2011
IT functions in local public services are delivering more despite reductions in budgets and staffing, says the latest issue of IT Trends, the annual survey published by Socitm on 20 January.
Cloud computing key to better, cheaper public services
Published: Thursday 6th January 2011
Only a move to the cloud can make affordable the increased efficiency needed to keep public services affordable says Heading into the cloud, the latest briefing from Socitm Insight.
Better information management key to cost-saving 'place-based' public services
Published: Monday 6th December 2010
Potential for saving public funds through place-based budgeting could be frustrated without better understanding of how to manage and use information.
Prepare now for the Public Sector Network
Published: Friday 5th November 2010
ICT leaders and their chief executives in local public services should be preparing now for the Public Sector Network (PSN), says a new report from Socitm Insight.
Customer Access Improvement Service Briefing Issue 4
Published: Tuesday 31st August 2010
Our latest edition of this briefing presents a case study from Surrey CC in customer access strategy that is very relevant in today’s political environment.
Tomorrow's public services: some stories from everyday life in 2012
Published: Tuesday 10th August 2010
What will it be like to use or provide public services in two to three years’ time, when public spending cuts and high levels of demand have done their worst?
New briefing available on open data and transparency
Published: Wednesday 4th August 2010
Socitm Insight’s latest briefing covers the Government’s drive for open data publishing. This includes the requirement on councils to publish, by January, all spending and contracts above £500.
Online services for business 'at best patchy' finds Socitm Insight
Published: Thursday 8th July 2010
A survey by Socitm Insight for the Department for Business shows implementation of an EU directive to make it easy for businesses to find out about licensing, regulations etc is patchy at best.
Update your data
Published: Sunday 27th June 2010
From 28 June, public sector organisations are being invited to add new, or update existing, data previously held on LB Brent’s eGovernment Register and Socitm’s Software Index.
Elections 2010: council websites could do better
Published: Monday 7th June 2010
Local and national government websites could do better when it comes to publishing information to support the democratic process, according to a new report from Socitm Insight.
Get IT Trends 2010/11 for free
Published: Thursday 3rd June 2010
Regular participants know that Socitm’s IT Trends survey report is free of charge to the organisations that complete the survey, which is available now, and should to be submitted by June 30. Pre-populated survey forms have already been sent to organisations that have taken part recently.
Time for the 'Cinderella resource'
Published: Friday 14th May 2010
Information management is ill-understood and poorly managed by public sector organisations, yet holds the potential to protect them from the worst consequences of the current financial crisis.
What chief executives must know about their websites
Published: Thursday 8th April 2010
Chief executives should be asking three key questions about their websites, now that most customer interactions are online, says a new briefing from Socitm Insight.
Better connected 2010
Published: Monday 1st March 2010
This year's report is available now to all Socitm Insight subscribers who have paid their 2010 subscriptions.
Twitter gritters: new briefing shows how councils are using the web and social media to help manage local emergencies
Published: Monday 15th February 2010
Councils are starting to use social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as hyperlocal, community websites, to communicate with their residents and businesses when local emergencies arise.
Continued IT budget cuts will compromise delivery of savings elsewhere says IT Trends 2009/10
Published: Thursday 21st January 2010
This is the key finding of IT trends 2009/10: stretched to breaking point the latest edition of Socitm’s annual survey of IT trends in in local public services, published on 21 January.
Underperforming websites could be costing councils £11m a month
Published: Saturday 9th January 2010
Underperforming websites could be costing UK councils collectively up to £11m a month as people unsuccessful in accessing online information and services turn instead to other channels.
Call for stories around web takeup, customer access and channel shift
Published: Wednesday 18th November 2009
Do you have projects that might be suitable to feature in a new Socitm Insight report on this topic? If so we want to hear from you, as we are starting work on a follow up report to Better marketed
Your views sought on proposed new ranking system and updated assessment criteria for Better connected
Published: Thursday 13th August 2009
Our proposals for a new ranking system and updated assessment criteria for Better connected, our annual survey of all local authority websites are now available to download.
Customer Access Improvement Service briefing 2
Published: Thursday 2nd July 2009
This is the second half-yearly briefing and results summary from the Customer Access Improvement Service. We report on results collected in March 2009...
Learning from Better connected 2009
Published: Tuesday 5th May 2009
Socitm Insight has published a new briefing based on research in its annual report on council websites.
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