(To all of you who have just come to the blog from our e-shot make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed - there's instructions in earlier posts on how to do that. Then we can send you the updates from this blog rather than you having to come to us).
More and more we see mobility becoming crucial in cutting costs whilst also being central to the Green agenda. Now it appears that the CBI have come out urging the treasury to start focusing on encouraging technology that's green and still delivers a return on your investment.
The CBI is also calling for a review into lengthy procurement regulations that can halt the uptake of this technology in the public sector. Certainly that's very valid point in that if emissions need cutting immediately, waiting a year to purchase new technology is hardly the best way to go about dealing with our carbon footprint.
Given our long involvement with mobility in the public sector, the efficiency and green agendas have always been closely linked to the way in which we approach the design and deployment of our solutions so this isn't exactly groundbreaking news for Consilium.
However, it does show that mobility solutions - either tactical or enterprise could be on the verge of making some serious headway with Councils should the CBI be successful in exerting their influence over Alistair Darling.
See the summary report below.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which represents UK business, has called on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to use the Budget to push ahead with shared corporate services in the public sector and reduce procurement delays for major contracts as a means of saving £2.5 billion. It wants to see greater efficiency in the public sector. It also wants to see £500 million to fund technology innovations that will help accelerate the shift to a low-carbon economy.
Digital agenda centre stage
In its letter to the Chancellor on efficiency, the CBI’s decision to focus on efficiency, shared services and accelerating the shift to a low-carbon economy puts IT centre stage. While this is pleasing to the software and IT services (S/ITS) sector as a whole, and especially pleasing for suppliers to the public sector, the longer-term message the CBI has conveyed is not so heartening. The CBI wants to see more public spending now to stimulate the economy, but less public spending when the recession ends. If adopted this would help suppliers in the short term and cause issues in the future. Suppliers would therefore be well advised to prepare for even tougher times to come in the public sector at the end of the recession. Indeed, the Chancellor delivered this message himself in the November pre-budget statement.
The CBI’s February forecast shows economic activity contracting by 3.3% this year and remaining static next year. It believes that recovery will be gradual and protracted. It estimates that public sector net borrowing will peak above 10% of GDP, while unemployment will reach 3 million in 2010.
Shared services
The CBI is right to give yet another push to shared services. Sharing core back-office services between government departments could save public money without impacting on front-office functions or services. To date we have seen some welcome piecemeal developments, but their scale has been nothing like what was expected following the push that the Gershon efficiency review gave to the idea back in 2004. If the government does follow up the CBI initiative, suppliers are well equipped to address the shared services agenda, once they have overcome their surprise that something big has finally happened.
Green agenda – more immediate opportunities
The green agenda presents more immediate opportunities to the S/ITS sector. A dramatic and speedy reduction in carbon emissions is now deemed essential, with many looking to IT solutions as the only way forward in the short term.
The CBI’s push for investment in the green agenda is something that is more likely to get a ready response from the government. There is a big role for IT to play in delivering this agenda, so suppliers are well advised to take it seriously.
The green agenda is gaining real traction, especially with the Obama administration in the US taking the matter very seriously. Scientific opinion is of the view that early projections of the rate of climate change were far too optimistic. Even Sir Nicholas Stern, who carried out the review of the issue for the UK government, says he was too optimistic.
Suppliers would be well advised to understand the green agenda and identify areas where they can contribute. As the green agenda moves centre stage it becomes more important as a commercial opportunity. It will not just be about ‘greening’ existing offerings but also looking at new, innovative opportunities.
Source: www.cbi.org.uk
Monday, 30 March 2009
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Forms, Forms, Forms
Here's a very interesting post from 'The Social Care Experts Blog' and I think it sheds some light on the current methods of data collection within Social Service delivery...
"Spending more time with clients and using our discretion rather than box-ticking will help prevent the tragedy of more Baby Ps. Now the initial media frenzy over the death of Baby P has subsided it is possible to have a more sober look at the situation.
First, as Professor Colin Pritchard has noted, child protection services in England and Wales are among the most effective and most improved in the world. Despite this ... one telling fact is that 80% of social workers' time is spent form-filling rather than seeing their clients." (Source: Steve Rogowski)
The ICS system is going to come under some serious scrutiny and I think in many ways, it will be justified if found to have introduced an unprecedented amount of bureaucracy into service delivery. Reports from the front line of social care and social work professionals does seem to indicate that the nature of their role has been changed by the introduction of various technologies over the years.
This is nothing new. Technology often is the easy target in these situations but has the introduction of a new IT system within social work changed the very nature of the job?
I'm not too sure it's that simple.
Technology exists to support people's roles in order to help them do their jobs. The whole point of introducing a new system is to maintain a high standard of delivery in the most cost effective way, with a growing population and reducing budgets. What IT isn't designed to do is change the actual role of the social worker and morph it into something new.
More investigation will be needed but surely enterprise mobility has a role in all of this? In order to remedy these 'form filling' exercises isn't the answer to simply find a better way to collect the information at source and in a structured manner that doesn't require any re-entering at a later date? This would also mean that the critical information that is being collected can be securely made available to the right people at the right time (and not sitting on admin's desk in paper format where it's no help to anyone).
In this day and age when technology should be preventing the rise of administration overheads in government services, we see reports like the one above appearing that lead us to question where our taxes are going.
I think the reality is that the ICS and the providers of those systems have most likely pulled together extremely useful software packages that are capable of sharing data with the relevant authorities in line with the government rules and regulations that have been created through the Childrens Act 2004 and the more recent Adult Services changes. This notion however, works on the assumption that the data was easy to get into the systems in the first place.
By the sounds of things, that's the issue. So ask yourselves the question:
"How am I getting my data into my systems (or even better 'when' am I getting my data into my systems)?"
And can a mobility package allow your workforce to deliver the services they are trained for?
Tom
(Business Development Manager)
"Spending more time with clients and using our discretion rather than box-ticking will help prevent the tragedy of more Baby Ps. Now the initial media frenzy over the death of Baby P has subsided it is possible to have a more sober look at the situation.
First, as Professor Colin Pritchard has noted, child protection services in England and Wales are among the most effective and most improved in the world. Despite this ... one telling fact is that 80% of social workers' time is spent form-filling rather than seeing their clients." (Source: Steve Rogowski)
The ICS system is going to come under some serious scrutiny and I think in many ways, it will be justified if found to have introduced an unprecedented amount of bureaucracy into service delivery. Reports from the front line of social care and social work professionals does seem to indicate that the nature of their role has been changed by the introduction of various technologies over the years.
This is nothing new. Technology often is the easy target in these situations but has the introduction of a new IT system within social work changed the very nature of the job?
I'm not too sure it's that simple.
Technology exists to support people's roles in order to help them do their jobs. The whole point of introducing a new system is to maintain a high standard of delivery in the most cost effective way, with a growing population and reducing budgets. What IT isn't designed to do is change the actual role of the social worker and morph it into something new.
More investigation will be needed but surely enterprise mobility has a role in all of this? In order to remedy these 'form filling' exercises isn't the answer to simply find a better way to collect the information at source and in a structured manner that doesn't require any re-entering at a later date? This would also mean that the critical information that is being collected can be securely made available to the right people at the right time (and not sitting on admin's desk in paper format where it's no help to anyone).
In this day and age when technology should be preventing the rise of administration overheads in government services, we see reports like the one above appearing that lead us to question where our taxes are going.
I think the reality is that the ICS and the providers of those systems have most likely pulled together extremely useful software packages that are capable of sharing data with the relevant authorities in line with the government rules and regulations that have been created through the Childrens Act 2004 and the more recent Adult Services changes. This notion however, works on the assumption that the data was easy to get into the systems in the first place.
By the sounds of things, that's the issue. So ask yourselves the question:
"How am I getting my data into my systems (or even better 'when' am I getting my data into my systems)?"
And can a mobility package allow your workforce to deliver the services they are trained for?
Tom
(Business Development Manager)
Friday, 6 March 2009
Welcome to the Ctechs Blog
Hello and welcome to the Ctechs blog and the newly relaunched website!
This is the section of the website where we are going to be posting news, information and media surrounding mobility and the impact it can have on your service delivery.
One of the things we have noticed that's missing on the net is a blog that demystifies what mobility is all about for the people who could really benefit from using this technology.
There's numerous technical bloggers out there who post plenty of content for fellow developers but really there's nothing explaining what mobility means for the users and why you should care.
We are going to be collecting information from a wide range of sources and compiling it all here for you to read.
From news on the latest handsets, updates from Microsoft and of course the progress we are making with our own products and software, our weekly updates should keep you well aware of what's happening in the sector.
Given that a wide range of people in both the public and private will be subscribing to the blog Tom has posted a quick overview of what blogging is all about (including what to do with RSS feeds for the uninitiated) so if you're not an expert already please see the other post for getting started.
Colin
(CEO)
This is the section of the website where we are going to be posting news, information and media surrounding mobility and the impact it can have on your service delivery.
One of the things we have noticed that's missing on the net is a blog that demystifies what mobility is all about for the people who could really benefit from using this technology.
There's numerous technical bloggers out there who post plenty of content for fellow developers but really there's nothing explaining what mobility means for the users and why you should care.
We are going to be collecting information from a wide range of sources and compiling it all here for you to read.
From news on the latest handsets, updates from Microsoft and of course the progress we are making with our own products and software, our weekly updates should keep you well aware of what's happening in the sector.
Given that a wide range of people in both the public and private will be subscribing to the blog Tom has posted a quick overview of what blogging is all about (including what to do with RSS feeds for the uninitiated) so if you're not an expert already please see the other post for getting started.
Colin
(CEO)
The Consilium Blog and RSS Feeds
Given that quite a lot of our subscribers are going to be coming from a range of different sectors I thought it would be useful to explain blogs and RSS feeds, just in case this is the first time you have come to read one in earnest.
Our blog will be updated regularly with a host of information surrounding mobility and the efficiencies that it brings to workforces once implemented.
Blogs tend to be added to on a regular basis with what's happening to their area of specialty - not dissimilar to a diary in many ways.
Due to the frequency of these updates it can be difficult to stay in touch with more than a handful of blogs unless you use what's known as an RSS feed.
Our blog will be updated regularly with a host of information surrounding mobility and the efficiencies that it brings to workforces once implemented.
Blogs tend to be added to on a regular basis with what's happening to their area of specialty - not dissimilar to a diary in many ways.
Due to the frequency of these updates it can be difficult to stay in touch with more than a handful of blogs unless you use what's known as an RSS feed.
You can subscribe to our RSS feed through your web browser (or on the link on the side of this blog) which means that you don't always have to check the website to see whether we have added anything new - our website content can come to you.
You have probably seen the icon above in your address bar for certain websites over the past two years or so. This icon means the website or blog you are reading is capable of sending you it's information as it's updated. All you need to view this information is an RSS reader of which there are plenty.
The obvious one would be Microsoft Outlook which would pull in feeds just like email - this may be the quickest way for you to catch up on what we are doing.
Alternatively there are a numerous online programs that can help organise all of your feeds together - I use Google Reader which is great but also BlogLines, Newsgator and Netvibes are popular too.
You can even add us to your Google Homepage.
Just click on the ''subscribe' link in the box on the left of this blog or head into your web browser address bar and follow the instructions. As we add more posts, you'll be notified and can read them at your own leisure.
Really Simple Syndication - hence the name, RSS.
If you want more help check the video below which gives you a one minute overview of what this is all about.
Tom
(Business Development Manager)
You have probably seen the icon above in your address bar for certain websites over the past two years or so. This icon means the website or blog you are reading is capable of sending you it's information as it's updated. All you need to view this information is an RSS reader of which there are plenty.
The obvious one would be Microsoft Outlook which would pull in feeds just like email - this may be the quickest way for you to catch up on what we are doing.
Alternatively there are a numerous online programs that can help organise all of your feeds together - I use Google Reader which is great but also BlogLines, Newsgator and Netvibes are popular too.
You can even add us to your Google Homepage.
Just click on the ''subscribe' link in the box on the left of this blog or head into your web browser address bar and follow the instructions. As we add more posts, you'll be notified and can read them at your own leisure.
Really Simple Syndication - hence the name, RSS.
If you want more help check the video below which gives you a one minute overview of what this is all about.
Tom
(Business Development Manager)
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