BizTech - E-government by Lyonsdown

Security

Page 5

What went wrong at RBS?

E government

Page 8

Get ready for “digital by default”

Profile

Page 11

Local government boss Jos Creese on the online revolution

biztechreport.co.uk

What decision-makers need to know

SEPTEMBER 2012

On your marks… As ministers promise the fastest broadband in Europe, we sort the winners from the losers in the regional information race

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Business Technology

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

September 2012

Foreword

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We must build on potential Publisher Bradley Scheffer info@biztechreport.co.uk Editor Jonathan Watson editor@biztechreport.co.uk Production Editor Amy Dickson amy@biztechreport.co.uk Production Assistant Fleur Hollett production@biztechreport.co.uk

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For more information on any of our supplements please contact us: Telephone 020 8349 4363 Email info@lyonsdown.co.uk

Contributors Jonathan Watson regularly edits Business Technology reports for Lyonsdown. He is a journalist specialising in law, business, telecoms and technology. Before going freelance in 2004, he worked for Euromoney and Screen Digest. Michael Newlands has written for titles including The New York Times, South African Sunday Times and the Times. Now settled in the UK, he freelances for telecoms and IT publications.

Toby Hill reports on business and technology for Lyonsdown. He is a freelance journalist writing about business, telecoms, local economy and government policy for a variety of media and research organisations. Michael Cross has reported on the e-government scene for national newspapers and specialist publications for nearly 20 years. He is currently news editor of the Law Society Gazette.

Society is going through a switchover into a new digital age – and government must follow. Can e-government learn from its mistakes to keep apace? “Central government wherever possible must become a digital organisation,” said cabinet office minister Francis Maude in the foreword to the government’s civil service reform plan, unveiled in June. “These days the best service organisations deliver online everything that can be delivered online… government has lagged far behind.” It’s difficult to argue with him: if you had to come up with a list of the best service organisations, it is unlikely that the government would be anywhere near the top. That will have to change.

“The best service organisations deliver online everything that can be delivered online… government has lagged far behind” – Maude It’s not just TV that is going digital society is going through its own digital switchover, and so is government. Its

officials, both at national and local level, have no option but to master this transition. As e-government consultant Tom Raggett says in his column on p16, this process has produced some disappointing failures. However, there have been some remarkable successes, too. They offer valuable lessons both for public and for private sector organisations who are striving to give their customers what they want online. The launch of faster mobile broadband services, which should now happen next year once the regulator Ofcom has auctioned the spectrum needed (see p11), will add another dimension to digital service delivery. UK local authorities are already witnessing a huge upsurge in use of mobile devices to access their websites, and with the advent of 4G this will increase even more. While some may argue that designing e-government apps for mobile phones is a case of trying to run before you can walk, the possibilities are tantalising and the potential for savings are immense. Let’s hope that the

government means what it says and “digital by default” will soon become a reality, rather than an empty slogan like the muchderided “Big Society”. Jonathan Watson Editor

Big plans: Francis Maude

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Briefing

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Contents

IN FOCUS

In a nutshell “BYOD” is the latest buzzword in IT circles. It means Bring Your Own Device – and the trend for employees to access work networks from their own smartphones, tablets and PCs is not limited to the private sector. For government departments and local authorities, it could mean a cost efficient, workerfriendly new era of getting the most out of machinery – but with sensitive public data at stake, its crucial to get the security settings right.

Business Technology looks at BYOD

On your marks... page 12

System wipe

The “bullet”. Your IT department needs to be able to wipe the system if it believes its security has been compromised

Security

With sensitive information being transmitted, security is top of the list. Allowing BYOD doesn’t mean sacrificing security. IT must establish WiFi security, VPN access and ideally add-on software to protect against malware

Banking on disaster

Sooner than you think

Feel the power

The force of four

Putting the UK on the map

Lessons to learn

What caused RBS’s computer systems to fail so badly?

Jos Creese paints a bright picture for the future of local councils

Lasting power of attorney is the latest service to go digital

4G is coming soon. How will it benefit your business? Data waiver

Personal and business data can be easily mixed on personal devices, so employers need to protect themselves if it goes wrong. If the device is lost or stolen, employers may need to destroy all data – employees should sign a waiver agreeing to this before being allowed to use their own device

Jeremy Hunt wants us to have the fastest broadband in Europe

E-government has a rocky reputation, but it can get better

With thanks to the following organisation:

App security

Some applications could compromise the security of your business data, so you’ll need an application control system in place to prevent blacklisted apps being downloaded once the device is hooked up to you network

Identification

If a wide range of users and devices are to be allowed access to the network, it’s critical to identify and authenticate each device and user

Management

The IT department needs to select a mobile device management system. Look out for one that offers simple user interfaces as well as the security features you need

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Worst kept secrets

September 2012

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Security

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Islington’s data disaster Fifty-one residents complained to the council about anti-social behaviour and drug taking on the Andover Estate

The council took action, preparing legal injunctions against 13 people to ban them from the area.

This year’s glut of embarrassing data breaches shows why councils need to tighten up on security

Islington was forced to put extra police on the streets of the estate to protect complainants who feared reprisals.

Picture this: you’re running a local council, and you receive numerous complaints about anti-social behaviour on a notorious estate. You decide to take action, but when you serve the culprits with injunctions, you also accidently send them the names and phone numbers of the people who have complained about them. It’s the stuff of nightmares – but it an immediate investigation. The Information happened. Islington Borough Council was Commissioner has also been informed. We’re forced to provide extra police patrols on the already working to improve the protection of Andover Estate in April after sending the information within the council and we will details of residents who had complained about now be intensifying our efforts to ensure all anti-social behaviour to the perpetrators. staff receive appropriate training.” It’s just one in a string of data blunders to For the Information Commission, have come to light this summer. Two weeks which has powers to levy hefty fines on ago, Essex County Council admitted that the organisations that breach data security, this names, addresses and benefits of up to may be too little too late. The watchdog, 400 people had been compromised by which has yet to comment on events an ex-employee. In July, Islington in Islington, signalled a tough new accidentally published personal data approach to local authorities earlier relating to 2,376 of its residents in this year. Following a spate of response to a Freedom of Information breaches, it wrote to all authorities request, weeks after the Andover in February to remind them of their Christopher responsibilities. Commissioner Estate incident, where it mistakenly Graham handed over the names and addresses Christopher Graham warned: “Failures of residents to suspected drug dealers not only put local residents’ privacy at about whom they had complained. In June, risk, but also mean that councils could be in Dumfries and Galloway Council published line for a sizeable monetary penalty.” details of the salaries of 9,000 of its workers – Most of the time, data breaches by days after announcing a new data protection local authorities stem from human error policy. – workers innocently making mistakes A contrite Islington has apologised for without malicious intent. “Local councils both incidents, which took place within three look after a lot of sensitive information, so months of one another. A spokesman said: quite a high degree of awareness is needed “We are extremely sorry, and we launched among the people handling it,” says Andrew

Socitm’s Top 10 tips for Data Handling 1. Ensure you understand which legislation affects your business area.

6. Ensure all staff are trained, updated and aware of their responsibilities.

2. Ensure a named individual in the business, not ICT, owns the risk.

7. Undertake regular risk reviews of all processes and procedures.

3. Ensure there is an effective incident reporting mechanism in place.

8. Ensure all key information assets are classified and are resilient.

4. Regularly monitor, measure and audit your processes and procedures.

9. Have robust risk-driven processes in place for “ad hoc” situations.

5. Establish a Corporate Information Governance group.

10. Have documented policy-driven processes and procedures in place.

But when Islington Council served 10 of the perpetrators with injunctions, it also handed over a log of all calls reporting anti-social behaviour, including names, phone numbers and, in some cases, street and estate names.

Miller, PriceWaterhouse Coopers’ head of government information security. “It comes down to education, awareness and culture.” Miller says that computer-based training programmes are not necessarily the best way to tackle this problem. “Each individual has their own value system, and a change in culture has to encompass all of these, from diverse cultural backgrounds. It has to bring them all up to a certain understanding and respect for the information they are handling.” Councils can tackle this through education programmes. Miller says viral campaigns can be particularly effective, and recommends targeting leaders and key individuals within the organisation, influencing them to lead change by example. It is all the more important for local authorities to understand and respect information security with the advent of cloud-based services. By storing data with third parties, local authorities will introduce a new layer of risk. “The Cloud might provide cheaper and more flexible platforms,” says Miller, “but local authorities need to understand the risks: who are they handing the information over to, and how do they make sure those third parties are doing the right things?” The Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) and the Local Government Association have jointly issued guidelines for local authorities. However, the flush of recent blunders suggests the guidelines are not being followed – and for the residents of Andover Estate, and other vulnerable victims of data breaches, the culture change cannot come soon enough.

OOPS! Data blunders that have landed councils in trouble l Essex County Council apologised to 400 residents in August when an exemployee compromised their information by sending it to a home computer l In July 2011, an employee of Brighton and Hove Council emailed the details of another member of staff’s personal data to 2,821 council workers. l Dumfries and Galloway Council tightened its security procedures after confidential social-work files were lost in a car park. They were found by tourists. l Islington Borough Council said sorry (again) when confidential information was leaked in a spreadsheet sent out in response to a Freedom of Information request. l In July 2011, an employee of Brighton and Hove Council emailed the details of another member of staff’s personal data to 2,821 council workers. l Midlothian Council was fined earlier this year after personal papers about a child and its mother were read by the woman and not her former partner who they were intended for.

Business Technology

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

September 2012

Profile

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k c s i away... l We c w ’re e just a f Jos Creese says the uptake by local councils show life as ‘digital by default’ in the workplace isn’t as far away as we think Michael Cross

Digital by default is already a reality for many local public services. Two thirds of the 600 million contacts that local councils have with their local residents are now online, research by the IT managers’ association Socitm (Society for IT Management) revealed in August. Almost a quarter of web visits are to carry out transactions such as reporting faults or paying fines. However there is still a long way to go, especially in joining up different arms of government - and persuading reluctant citizens to go online. These are among the challenges facing the Local Public Services CIO Council, formed this year to co-ordinate efforts across the UK’s local public services, including health, police and fire services - and local councils. Its chair is Jos Creese, chief information officer at Hampshire county council, which has long committed to the “digital by default” way of life.

According to Creese, success in e-government is not merely a matter of copying the private sector, as the challenge is very different. “We in the public sector are less choosy about our customers, we are there to serve the public. We cannot just turn off outlets if that means we disenfranchise people who depend on our services.” He also points out that the private sector has a chequered record when it comes to migrating services online – the banks’ experience in closing high street branches, for example.

Best of both worlds “Some elements of the private sector do this exceptionally well. You can’t point the finger at the public or private and say that one’s best… we should be picking the best from both.” However, he admits that the public sector still lags behind in integration and transferring information from one transaction to another. “It is not easy to do across public services boundaries, that’s why it should be a priority to rationalise the underlying infrastructure, for example to exchange data between health and social services.” Local authorities including Hampshire have already shown take-up of almost 100

per cent in electronic services such as school admissions, Creese says. Transactions with business are another obvious target. However, there is always the human factor. Creese says it is important to distinguish between people who cannot use digital services and those who simply prefer not to. “For people who cannot, we need to be

accommodating and flexible,” he says. “But for the ones who have always done it on paper or face-to-face and see no reason to change, we need to encourage a different way of working.”

Fashionable nudge “People who generally ‘can’t’ need to be accommodated and those who ‘can but won’t’,

Helping to deliver a better public sector Vodafone is playing an important role in transforming the public sector by helping to make the delivery of public services more efficient, which in turn will reduce costs and boost employee satisfaction. INDUSTRY VIEW

“T

he public sector plays a crucial role in the UK’s economic recovery but it must reduce costs while continuing to best serve the citizen,” says Vodafone UK enterprise director Peter Kelly. “Public sector transformation is a multibillion pound challenge, but it is achievable by addressing four underlying areas: people, property, processes and technology. “We are already in dialogue with government departments to help them find better ways of working and to understand how this transformation can be enabled by information and communications technology [ICT].” As part of this strategy, Vodafone equipped community health workers at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with tablets that enable secure access to systems and patient records. Using the tablets, clinicians

no longer have to visit the office to collect paperwork before setting out to see patients, reducing administration and travel time. “The tablets are used to access and update patient records at the point of care, and securely log in to corporate email,” says Kelly. “Providing better access to information combined with more efficient scheduling of patient visits can increase productivity by 15 per cent, which can mean one extra patient visit a day.” If these simple changes were rolled out to all 330,000 social and community workers in the UK, Vodafone estimates that tens of millions of extra visits could be carried out annually. Furthermore, by visiting more patients, many hospitals could avert the need for hospital admissions by monitoring and treating patients in their own homes. Flexible working solutions such

as tablets can benefit not only healthcare, but all areas of the public sector, including local and central government and the police. Increasing numbers of organisations are embracing the use of technology, and this will be accelerated with the introduction of the government’s new public sector ICT purchasing framework, the Public Services Network (PSN). With its strong heritage in partnering with the public sector, Vodafone has been successful in achieving a strong presence on the new framework, providing access to innovative ICT solutions such as Unified

Communications (UC) and converged fixed-mobile services, enabling better employee collaboration and, ultimately, increased efficiency. Further savings can be made by smarter use of an organisation’s property estate. Currently a typical worker has an individual desk with a PC and fixed telephone line. “On average, this fixed desk costs around £12,000 per year,” says Kelly. “By using mobile technology, such as tablets and smartphones, and getting rid of fixed desks, that cost can be reduced to around £6,000, and through home working this can be cut to just £3,000.” Fundamental changes to traditional processes, better use of property and deployment of mobile technology, have allowed Vodafone itself to accommodate an additional 1,700 employees at its own headquarters without any additional office space. Similar technology could help the government achieve its

stated aim of reducing property costs while supporting the same number of employees. Vodafone commissioned a recent survey that showed 86 per cent of managers in the public and private sectors have seen a demand for flexible working; 75 per cent of employees said it boosted their job satisfaction; and 54 per cent said it made them more productive. “When ICT is deployed as part of a programme of transformation covering the four key areas – people, property, processes and technology – it will deliver the most impressive results. “This will support the better delivery of services for the citizen, more job satisfaction from employees and reduced costs for the government. We would encourage those that are interested in finding a better way of working to come and speak to us.” 0845 8942 710 vodafone.co.uk/publicsector

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EasyJet uses cloud for up to 20 per cent of their applicatons

in figures

per cent

Average web visit “failure” in 2011 for council websites. That’s the percentage of visitors who gave up trying to find the information they were looking for and went off to make a cup of tea instead. Another 20 per cent failed to find part of what they were looking for. Source: Socitm

%% %%

Is the proportion of public services the government aims to deliver online under its “digital by default” strategy

It’s also important to make sure the customer is in control, Creese says, by advising them what they should expect to happen and what use is being made of their data. Over the last 15 years e-government has become more mainstream, Creese says. “There are still some areas where IT is perceived as a bolt-on, a risk, rather than as a source of transformation. However, more than has ever been the case in the past, it’s now the latter.” The only issue is it’s a movable feast, new trends such as cloud computing and social networking meaning “we’ll never finish the job”. But Creese is an optimist. When will digital by default become reality? “We’re pretty close. In two to three years at most we’ll be there.”

million Amount of money local government could save each year by bringing all social housing tenants online, according to Race Online

18m

£ £ £ £ £ £ £ ££ ££££££££ Is the estimated amount that was invested in public sector ICT in 2010-11

£2.2

Source of transformation

£360 * In 2011 Jos was named the most influential and innovative CIO in the UK

need encouragement.” Persuading such people may take more than the fashionable nudge. Creese suggests that it can done by “making sure the digital channels are as well designed to use as possible – which they are not always – when important transactions are hidden behind layers of web guff. “It’s essential to make sure that the transactions most people want to do are only a few clicks away, so that it’s more straightforward to do online. “We found with school admissions that take-up is exponential if the service is easy to use. If it is, why wouldn’t you do it online?”

The potential annual saving of moving 50 per cent of local government services online, according to Digital by Default

2012

Creese: It’s essential to make sure that the transactions most people want to do are only a few clicks away, so it’s more straightforward to do online

Was the year that the Local CIO Council merged with Socitm Futures group. To reflect this, it is now know as the Local Public Services CIO Council

Don’t be an easy target As more employees use personal devices for work, employers must refine and strengthen security to protect sensitive data from hackers and malware. INDUSTRY VIEW

valuable. It is hard to blame them – it is exceptionally convenient and easy access to information makes us more productive. very day in SophosLabs we see over While IT security managers are aware of 200,000 new pieces of malicious code, the noteworthy risks of these platforms, they the vast majority carried over the web. are often disillusioned with marketing hype Every few seconds we find newly infected and failed projects. Therefore organisations websites distributing malware. The majority are often turning a blind eye to many of of these are legitimate businesses that have these new advancements and the security been hacked and are now part of the problem, risks they bring, faced with the unattractive distributing malware to their customers alternative of blocking them entirely. or bleeding personal information. The net result is more easy targets The headlines are filled with for cyber criminals and greater new stories of data breaches, some risks of casual loss of data. accidental due to poor policy The principle best advocated adherence, others due to targeted when dealing with this problem malicious code or hacktivists. is defence in depth, or ‘complete Cyber criminals are using smarter security’; building up layers of secu and more widespread automation rity controls at different points of platforms to build, test and even the enterprise at endpoint, mobile, re-sell their malicious code, making the risk of security breaches higher for James Lyne network and even extending into cloud services. Unfortunately many everyone. At the same time, the plethora struggle with adopting this approach of new devices, platforms and technologies as security controls are too complex, being demanded in the workplace is too restrictive or too costly to adopt. challenging the traditional approaches At Sophos, based in Abingdon, UK, we to policy and security enforcement. As a work with a wide variety of organisations result, organisations now have to extend to help them refine their security strategy their security capabilities while finding and controls to balance flexibility, security ways to support these new platforms. and cost. We also provide a series of Data too is becoming far more fluid, free resources to help educate staff on being processed by third parties and stored the latest threats and how to use these in the cloud casually by users trying to new technologies. One example is our work effectively from the road on these IT Security ‘do’s and don’ts’ toolkit. new devices. Recently, we’ve talked to an astonishing number of organisations whose employees make widespread James Lyne is director of technology use of cloud storage services such as strategy at Sophos Dropbox to transfer information – often www.sophos.com proprietary, sensitive or commercially ukcentralgovernment@sophos.com

Business Technology

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

September 2012

E-government

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A flexible future Going cashless is a way to combat future payment problems, with potential to deliver real benefits INDUSTRY VIEW

Epay can offer businesses many benefits

Lasting power of attorney is the latest service to go digital. But with the government’s sketchy reputation on cost is the basic alchemy of e-government. But, as the powers of attorney consultation tacitly big IT projects, will it admits, there are problems, too. Potential obstacles include digital exclusion – people thrive or dive? most in need of dealings with government are Michael Cross

Jason Thompson is managing director at epay 0844 800 0233 www.epayworldwide.co.uk

percentage of electronic claims Rochdale council receives – one of the highest online take-up rates in the country

e’re all familiar with the term ‘cashless society’, but what does it actually mean within public services, and how can it deliver improvements and efficiency savings? For local authorities and governments, robust payment technology is key to ensuring cashless systems and processes will actually save money and be well received by the public. Epay are perhaps best known for providing mobile top-up within newsagents and national retailer outlets throughout the UK. Our cutting-edge technology and expertise in electronic payments means we’re well placed to develop bespoke public service solutions, including reloadable cards for school dinners, employer rewards, travel, and government benefit payments. Our vast retail network means that payment and loading is highly accessible – we provide payment services at more than 150,000 UK points of sale including convenience stores and large supermarkets. So, for a member of the public, paying a bill or loading a school dinner money card could be as easy and convenient as topping up their mobile phone or doing their weekly shop. Going cashless also offers benefits in reducing paperwork and administration. Electronic payments offer fantastic reporting capability and spending can be better tracked. Benefit recipients can also receive their payment via an auto top-up card, rather than via direct debit or cheque, which are typically costly to process. These cards could be automatically re-loaded on set dates via a central system, and we have the technology in place to make it happen. There is of course no ‘one size fits all’ approach to the delivery of public services, but with flexible technology that is already trusted by consumers nationwide, we provide the public sector with a solution that can be quickly integrated and most importantly, embraced by the members of the public they serve.

D B

Few transactions are more sensitive and emotive than applying for powers of attorney to manage the affairs of an incapacitated relative or friend. Yet this is the latest procedure nominated to go online under the government’s programme to make all public services “digital by default”. A decade and a half after it first became government policy, e-government is now at the heart of public service reform. Unveiling plans to reshape the civil service earlier this year, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said government “needs to become digital by default, in its skills, style, how it communicates and how it enables users to interact with it”.

Obstacles and opportunities Online applications for powers of attorney, at the moment still at consultation stage, illustrate some of the opportunities – and obstacles – lying ahead. Alan Eccles, the public guardian, said of the plans: “More and more people are now taking the important decision to apply for lasting power of attorney. The proposed new online application process will make applying simpler and quicker, while the changes we plan to make in the back-office will make the whole service more efficient.” Providing a better service while cutting its

generally the least ready to go online – to the difficulty of authenticating citizens’ identities online. There is also the government’s dismal reputation for running big IT projects. Over the past year, a new team at the Cabinet Office, the Government Digital Service (GDS), has attempted to tackle these problems by behaving more like an innovative social media start-up than a Whitehall department. Mike Bracken, head of the GDS, has already given a firm indication of the direction of travel. He says the government has much to learn from the private sector about the way it interacts with its customers. At a recent conference, Bracken rebuked previous e-government projects for neglecting the “user journey”. One example was the transaction for registering a vehicle, which after successful completion ended with a user seeing a screen asking: “Do you want to register a vehicle?” This is a wasted opportunity, Bracken said, rather than asking users if they want to carry out the process they have just completed, why not direct the (presumably) satisfied customer to another online service?

Spotty teenagers The basic problem is that citizens don’t necessarily behave in the way that the designers of online transactions expect them to. One example, cited by Carolyn Williams, head of Electronic Vehicle Licensing at the DVLA, is the large number of people who,

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E-government

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Potential obstacles include digital exclusion – people most in need of dealings with government are generally the least ready to go online

when applying for their driving licence online, cancel at the point where the systems asks if it can import the user’s passport photograph. When users were asked why they were cancelling requests, it turned out that most were 17-year-olds who did not fancy having a photo from their current passport, which might show them as a spotty 13-year-old, on a card they would use to get them in to nightclubs. Williams admits on the GDS blog that there’s

not a lot the DVLA can do about that at the moment - but understanding behaviour is the first step towards changing it. This is very much in line with Bracken’s ambition for government to emulate the best of the private sector in the way it understands how its online service users behave. Early fruits of the GDS’s approach are already online. One is the new single domain for government websites. The constantly evolving “betagov” prototype is at www.gov.uk. The project’s development is an example of the GDS’s “agile” approach to systems, a dramatic change from past government practice of exhaustively specifying IT to the extent where systems are frequently obsolete before they go live. The GDS’s e-petitions service was built on agile principles and cost less time and money than preparing the procurement bureaucracy for a conventional system, Bracken said. Central government and its agencies are only part of the story, however. The vast bulk of most citizens’ interactions with officialdom happen at local level. While in theory all have offered full online services since 2006 or earlier, in practice the design and take-up of services varies widely, especially among citizens most in need of public services.

Promising progress However, some pioneers are reporting promising progress. Rochdale borough council is responding to the ‘digital by default’ challenge by offering housing and council

tax benefit claimants the chance to sign electronically. Rochdale receives more than 90 per cent of claims electronically – one of the highest online take-up rates in the country. It hopes that encouraging claimants to sign online will raise the percentage and greatly cut the back-office costs of handling paper. Councillor Farooq Ahmed, cabinet member for finance said Rochdale is “working towards becoming a digital and paperless council”. Another locally led effort is a system to check availability for free school meals. An online eligibility hub developed by the Department for Education and Hertfordshire County Council allows parents to check their own eligibility and - if they qualify - to apply online for free school meals for their children. The big test for digital by default will be the government’s Universal Credit single benefit reform. Hopes for the reform are centered on claimants applying digitally – yet the target population tends to be the digitally excluded.

Strategy for change Will digital by default succeed? Of course, the jury is still out. However the government’s new approach for running big IT projects without disasters, set out in an IT strategy last year, have so far had a qualified welcome. Earlier this summer the think tank Institute for Government (IfG) reported the strategy is moving in broadly the right direction. However the IfG warned the government “still lacks the information it needs to judge whether use of ICT across government is improving”. It stressed the need to publish reliable and comparable data on the cost-effectiveness of ICT in different government departments. The IfG’s biggest worry about the strategy is the lack of buy-in by civil service leaders outside the ICT community. This is most evident in the low take-up of agile techniques. The trouble is that embracing agility requires a change in mind-set far beyond the IT management community and it’s a lot easier to achieve this for standalone projects such as e-petitions than for the development of massive mission-critical transaction systems, like Universal Credit. Being agile means being prepared to fail in public, then to tweak, and then try again. That will be a big culture shock for ministers, as well as IT managers.

Exploit internet benefits Digital entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox is spearheading the government’s drive to get public services delivered “digital by default”. Lane Fox (below) is famous for co-founding lastminute.com, chairs the government’s digital advisory board, which will support the Government Digital Service (GDS). The GDS arose out of a report Lane Fox wrote for ministers in 2010, which focused on bringing government online. She is also behind Go ON UK, an initiative to encourage small businesses and charities to use the web more productively. Speaking to the Telegraph earlier this year, Lane Fox said: “The UK leads the world in most indicators of digital capability: the internet contributes more to our GDP than that of any other G20 country and is predicted to grow 11 per cent a year to reach £221bn by 2016. However, many individuals and organisations still struggle to exploit the broader benefits of technology, a problem that is particularly acute for our small businesses, older people and charities that are currently at risk of being left behind.” For more information see www.go-on. co.uk

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Will 4G signal the birth of true flexible working? As the 4G ball finally gets rolling, Toby Hill speaks to the powers behind it to ask how businesses can benefit

download speeds

times faster

After months of delay, Ofcom’s plans for the UK rollout of 4G mobile internet are finally gaining momentum. Everything Everywhere, the owner of Orange and T-Mobile, will be able to launch services on its existing bandwidth from 11 September. A full auction of the 4G spectrum will take place in early 2013. We asked the people involved – the regulator, mobile operators, and telecoms consultancy Analysys Mason – how 4G will benefit businesses.

Capacity and coverage In the simplest terms, the arrival of 4G will mean two things: faster mobile internet and wider coverage of rural Britain. Max Taylor, a marketing director at Everything Everywhere, outlines how the increased capacity will translate into benefits for business. “The 4G network is built for data in a way 3G wasn’t,” Taylor says. “It has four times faster download speeds and ten times faster upload speeds, which will take flexible working to a new level. “Companies using mobile internet and email apps will see improvements. Users will be able to upload documents without risk of clogging

Four benefits of 4G Better coverage in rural UK - great for field workers Greater speeds will allow for quicker document uploading and conference calls Improved capability will encourage flexible working Remote access will become easier

up emails. Video conferencing will improve, with better latency and faster speeds.” The improved coverage of rural Britain will bring opportunities, too. Ofcom have made it a condition that one of the operators will have to provide mobile broadband to 98 per cent of the UK population by 2017. A Vodafone spokesperson describes the potential: “It will bring significant benefits not just for businesses that are based in rural areas, but for businesses that have staff who need or want to work in more rural areas,” she says.

98%

of UK will have mobile broadband by 2017

Fixed lines These are clear benefits for companies that currently rely on mobile working. However, Joe Smithies, a communications manager at Ofcom, suggests that they will apply to only a limited number of businesses. “I think the impact for businesses won’t be as great as for consumers,” he says, “because businesses increasingly need high capacity bandwidth, so they often use lease lines that transfer data between fixed locations.” Philip Bates, senior manager with Analysys Mason’s consulting division, can see this point of view: “Of course, benefits will depend on the kind of business,” he says. “Whether everyone works in an office or if there’s a lot of people out in the field.” On the other hand, he suggests businesses should consider adopting or expanding mobile working in preparation for 4G’s rollout. “The introduction of 4G is a good opportunity for enterprises to re-think their mobile data strategy and how they can use it to make their business as efficient as possible.” Both Vodafone and Everything Everywhere agree that the introduction of 4G should spur businesses to embrace mobile

upload speeds

times faster

working.“There is a perception that flexible working is only suitable for certain parts of the economy – such as large organisations or ‘trendy’ consultancies – but that is absolutely not true,” says Vodafone’s spokesperson. 4G’s increased capacity will make it even easier for people to carry out tasks on the move that they may traditionally have had to return to the office to do,” she continues. At Everything Everywhere, Max Taylor sees 4G as the moment when flexibility and Bates: 4G is an remote working opportunity to become viable s es sin make bu practises for all as efficient as areas of business. possible He suggests looking abroad for ideas, learning from markets where

4G has been in place for some time, such as Germany and the United States.

Internal innovation However, as these ideas intimate, 4G is unlikely to bring with it a raft of radically new services and applications. Bates of Mason Analysys says: “I’m not sure we’re seeing many things that are completely different to what’s being done on 3G. But the things we can do now will become easier and more reliable with a 4G network. This will significantly increase the productivity benefits of flexible working.” To take full advantage of 4G, businesses must realise that the most important innovations will come not through tangible technologies, but through the evolution of their working practises.

On the road to change A hotly anticipated service-sharing network promises public sector benefits, including saving money and tightening security INDUSTRY VIEW

he Public Services Network (PSN) has been positioned as an initiative that’s ultimately going to save the public sector money whilst enabling the industry to get its hands on the latest technology.

Early days The connectivity and services frameworks for the national PSN were put in place earlier this year. It’s still early days, however, there are already examples around the country of more established,

people to access video services. early adopters of PSN helping So, the benefits of PSN are public sector organisations. clear, especially when it comes We’ve been lucky enough to improved services and a to be involved with better way of working. But some of the very best what about the bottom examples with the saved a nn line? Because of HPSN2, likes of the Hampshire by Ham ually p Hampshire County and Isle of Wight Council shire becaus Council now saves Partnership and the e of HPSN 2 £1 million every year. creation of one of the first PSN frameworks, the Hampshire Public Efficient working Services Network (HPSN2). Since On top of this there are fewer its launch, HPSN2 now boasts obvious benefits, such as cutting 16 partners and a framework down on travel time and sharing that offers better telecoms, more knowledge better. It’s difficult secure data transfers, and allows to put a figure on these kinds of

£1M

PSN networks can enable better data security and file sharing benefits, but it’s leading to more efficient ways of working. The challenge with PSN is getting people to think in a new way and ultimately, work together. What would help is more success stories like HPSN2 coming to light, with data readily available on the benefits a sharing mentality has

had. Couple that with useful advice and information on overcoming security concerns and the road to a more collaborative public sector could be a much easier path to navigate. www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk

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an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

September 2012

Technology

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he UK will have the fastest broadband of any major European country by 2015, former culture minister Jeremy Hunt has pledged.

Speaking earlier this month, the Hunt defended what he called his “relentless focus on speed” arguing that it is impossible to estimate future demand, and that the country must be ready if its economy is to remain competitive (see box). His comments followed the release of Ofcom data showing that UK consumers’ average broadband speed is now 9 megabits per second – two and half times faster than when records began in November 2008. The launch of several new “superfast” packages such as Virgin Media’s “up to” 60 megabits and BT’s Infinity 2 “up to” 76 megabits packages has contributed to the rise in average speeds. In May 2012, over two-thirds of UK fixed-line residential broadband users were on packages with advertised speeds of more than 10 megabits, an increase from 48 per cent in May 2011.

Learn the lessons: Hunt says broadband must not suffer same delays as rail

The need for speed The government has promised to give Britain the fastest broadband in Europe, but the House of Lords warns that some areas could be left behind

Left behind

Not everyone agrees with Hunt’s focus on the speed of the broadband network. The House of Lords has warned ministers that they risk leaving people and businesses in certain areas of the UK behind. Issuing a report at the end of July, the Lords select committee on communications chairman Lord Inglewood said: “Our communications network must be regarded as a strategic, national asset. The government’s strategy lacks just that – strategy. “The complex issues involved were not thought through from first principle and it is

Schools need a lesson in ICT Today’s social interaction relies on ICT, but experts warn the lack of professional training for this generation is serious

£500,000

every is awarded IET year by the hips in scholars

INDUSTRY VIEW

joined forces with the Computing at Schools Group to build on the considerable success they have achieved so far in the promotion of teaching computer science.

leading UK expert on information and communications technology says that the teaching of ICT in England and Wales is 20 years out of date and, as a result, a whole generation who could have designed the systems of the future has been lost. He places the blame on the government for failing to set an appropriate curriculum. Dr Mike Short CBE, president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), said: “Whilst the current generation, often referred to as the ‘net generation’, are heavy users of ICT in their social interaction, very few have been taught how to understand, design and build upon the technology that underpins most of our daily lives. “The current school ICT syllabus is not appropriate for the digital generation since it does not equip our young people to be able to

Pooling resources

understand or compete in the modern world. “There is an urgent need for schools to be teaching the current generation computer science as a subject in order that our future workforce is equipped to design, build and maintain the next generation of infrastructure, systems and products. “All of which require elements of computer science and engineering, but also sufficiently qualified, experienced and informed young people to take advantage of the plentiful career opportunities within

the digital and computing industries.”

A dire situation The IET and many other professional bodies believe that ICT education is in a dire situation, which is already posing a risk to the UK and its globally competitive position. Dr Short added: “One of the side effects of this poor teaching has been to grow generations of students who, though avid users of technology, have absolutely no insight into how modern ICT systems work.” To help remedy the situation, the IET has

The IET, Europe’s largest professional body for engineers and technicians, believes that by pooling resources and effort, it can support the already considerable progress made to date. The IET will further build momentum by utilising its network of volunteers and schools ambassadors. The IET supports education through a comprehensive range of activities including teaching resources, the Faraday education programme, the award-winning Flipside magazine for teenagers, and by awarding £500,000 each year in scholarships. www.theiet.org

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Technology

far from clear that the government’s policy will deliver the broadband infrastructure that we need – for profound social and economic reasons – for the decades to come.” The Lords called for a rethink of the regulatory review and the way public funds are distributed. Commenting on their findings, Hunt said: “Their Lordships are wrong to say my focus is on a particular speed: today’s superfast is tomorrow’s superslow.” The government is committed to further development of the broadband network, with measures including: planned relaxation of the rules on overhead lines; minimum requirements for broadband in new homes; and an independent review of the Electronic Communications Code.

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Expert panel

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View from the top

INDUSTRY VIEW

Efficiency and cash come out top What opportunities do e-government services offer businesses? Kate Craig-Wood

Melissa Frewin

Managing director Memset

Acting director Intellect UK

memset.com

intellectuk.org

E-government services offer big potential for IT companies. All government agencies want software products that allow them to deal easily with the increasingly big amounts of data. The government has assured that it will open the doors to more joint ventures in government projects and has told the private sector to become more proactive and a real partner in progress than

remaining mere suppliers. Online services, if properly designed for the web, have the potential to save the public sector serious money – a real prize in these austere times. But they will also drive service and quality improvements as well as meet the expectations of millions of citizens who increasingly shop, bank, park, study, work and socialise online.

Mike Bracken executive director for digital government has acknowledged that the UK’s tradition of delivering excellent public services “hasn’t always translated to digital”. To tackle this the government has committed to an ambitious ‘digital by default’ agenda and departments have three years to ensure that transactional services are available through digital

channels. This opens up a variety of new opportunities for businesses, ranging from search technology, mobile apps development and business intelligence. The government’s open data agenda has a critical role to play in ensuring businesses can rapidly develop innovative new services, products and applications.

Will Stewart

John Paterson

Chair, communication policy panel IET

CEO Really Simple Systems

theiet.org

reallysimplesystems.com

The data show that all governments, in spite of making many services available online, are struggling to get users above 40 per cent. This demonstrates clearly that just making trusted services available online is not enough - as any online business knows. We need government to be a Google and not just a Yahoo. There is a huge opportunity for the engineering

community represented by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) to help government to get this right, and to provide intermediary services that use government data but provide a more attractive or easy-to-use interface to users; an opportunity aided by the government’s information initiative. Services on the more widely- used smartphone/tablet interface is an obvious example.

Stakeholder management and reporting is becoming key as securing government funding for Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) gets increasingly competitive. ALBs need to track their interactions across multiple stakeholders and record and report key metrics, both internally and for stakeholder consumption. Fortunately the new breed of Cloud CRM services

address these issues – fast to deploy with no installation and a one week set-up, simple to use so no lengthy training is needed and no upfront capital expenditure. The ability to pay monthly and cancel at any time gives flexibility for projects with a finite timescale. Cloud services help e-government be cost-effective by offering flexibility and reducing cost.

Emma Taylor

Rubi Kaur

Founder and managing director Business Leadership Exchange

HMG Green ICT Innovation Lead

thebusinessleadershipexchange.com

cabinetoffice.gov.uk

E-government offers businesses many cost and efficiency benefits. In contract tendering, for example, automated verification services provide instant notifications of discrepancies in submissions. The electronic audit trail and receipts it creates are also extremely useful – inside and outside the business. With big data and cloud, e-government becomes

more valuable still. A single customer view of a business across multiple state departments would cut swathes of bureaucracy, while shared data and collaboration between private and public could raise revenues or save cash for each. Identifying businesses for specific contracts by their digital footprints could also offer mutual gains.

HM Revenue & Customs

The government has already embarked on a Digital by Default Agenda which will drive more and more public services online. The digitisation of these traditional services and communication channels will eventually aim to replace the current paper and travel carbon intensive processes. This will lead to improved response times for both customers and the

supply chain; consequentially reducing costs, carbon emissions and fuel consumption. The digital transformation requires innovative ICT products and services – these must be designed, delivered and available to the public in forms which minimise the carbon impact and actively support the government’s Green Commitments.

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Securing small loans Smaller firms don’t always want large loans, but in the business world, this isn’t always simple INDUSTRY VIEW

he UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are crying out for funds to expand their businesses and create more jobs, and banks get a lot of stick for not lending to them. But such criticism is often unfair. SMEs typically want £10,000-£50,000 – sometimes as little as £1,000 – usually as an unsecured loan. In business, small doesn’t always mean simple, and it’s often impossible for banks to perform due diligence for such a modest potential return. Government

should give more support to organisations whose raison d’etre is to lend to borrowers who have viable propositions but are unable to access mainstream funding. Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) are mostly not-for-profit and either help SMEs prepare a professional business case to raise funding, or lend the money themselves – or both. “There are more than 60 CDFIs throughout the UK,” says Nicholas Nicolaou, managing director of GLE oneLondon and a director of the Community Development Finance Association. “CDFIs are often uniquely placed to help viable businesses start up or grow. Many, like GLE oneLondon, have been operating for two or three decades, so there’s

a reliable, proven infrastructure.” In 2010-11, CDFIs lent £190m to 23,000 customers – 1,500 of them businesses. More than 700 new businesses were enabled to start up and 5,700 jobs were created or safeguarded. Funds come from central and local government, charities, and private individuals and companies benefiting from Community Investment Tax Relief. The New Enterprise Allowance has seen CDFI-led funding become available across the UK. GLE oneLondon works closely with funders to design specific loan funds to meet the needs of business communities on a local, regional or UK-wide basis. Nicholas stresses that CDFIs are not a soft touch. Interest rates and charges are similar to a bank’s, and typically a third

The Pet Health and Therapy Cen tre is financed by GLE

of applicants are turned down. “If we can help a business to become a mainstream borrower we’ve achieved our objective.” www.gle.co.uk/finance www.cdfa.org.uk

A win-win solution

pus Suffolk has Universit y Cam r cent by pe cut costs by 30 rategy st IT its changing

Balancing cost cuts and service improvement demands a clear change management strategy INDUSTRY VIEW

ince the last term of the Labour government, there has been a clear move by public sector organisations to reduce their fixed operational non-pay costs. Many started by reducing their estates’ footprint and are now having to look at other areas such as IT. At the same time, chief information officers (CIOs) are having to accommodate new services and technologies. This is where good change management can deliver a win-win solution.

It’s happened at University Campus Suffolk. A programme focused on cost-efficiency has enabled this institution to reduce non-pay costs by 30 per cent and improve service delivery. IT services were refocused to concentrate on provision of core IT infrastructure and services and the IT strategy was changed to focus on the user. As part of the process, the ITS team has been coached to work with business and academic leaders to help them articulate their strategic IT requirements. Central to

the approach was helping the ITS team to understand the concept of IT as a service and help the user understand the importance of communicating their needs to ITS. This hugely beneficial approach is underpinned by a core strategic intent that IT provision should be driven from within the broader organisation and not be dictated by a central IT function.

organisation without alienating employees or causing a distraction by ‘swinging the axe’. Achieving it relies on considered change management. As a leader, your challenge is effective implementation of change to meet the strategic needs of your organisation. Done the right way it can meet the seemingly competing demands of cost reduction and service enhancement.

Swing the axe

Mark Orchison is MD of 9ine mark.orchison@9ine.uk.com www.9ine.uk.com

Cost efficiency is a very useful tool to drive change within an

Business Technology

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

September 2012

Columnist

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TOM RAGGETT, DIRECTOR OF TRC

Delivering digital success

Scale and low usage Many government services are required to cover substantial proportions of the population who use the service(s) infrequently – such as council tax once a year. This means the large target populations are effectively using the service as new each time. The understandable temptation is

to design a service for every possible end user. Giving in to this temptation usually results in unusable services. The lesson from e-government has been to focus on subgroups who can be easily served and provide other routes for the rest of the public (usually more traditional ones such as face-to-face).

Divide projects into pieces The e-government “national projects” attempted to bring all English local councils up to speed with electronic service delivery. Where these projects chose substantial service areas, such as CRM or e-payments, they were able to agree good practice, but achieved variable success in councils using them. Where projects looked at a specific service area, such as online school admissions, they were able to deliver a collaborative service across over 150 local education authorities and achieve substantial end-user take-up (more than 40 per cent of parents used the service in some councils).

Establish delivery principles Given the amount of money government spends, a crucial split has been created to ensure policy makers do not have direct access to the funds that will deliver the policies. This means policy makers must convince

the deliverers that their policies are appropriate and, critically, deliverable. The important change for government was to ensure policy and delivery teams were in contact throughout the development and delivery process. As part of this, the public sector learned it is critical to set a group of delivery principles to guide choices over the course of development and delivery.

Motivating change The public sector has no way of requiring departments, NHS Trusts and local councils to act other than using legislation. This makes e-government a tricky proposition, as people want to get the same service from every organisation they use. An effective approach is to agree best practice through joint discussion with the government staff providing the services as well as the software and service providers who will be delivering the infrastructure. Allowing commissioners and providers to discuss options outside the bidding process is an effective way of getting sensible, deliverable options. This approch means the deliverers understand why the services are changing and what it means for them, their organisation and their users.

A brief history of e-government

HMRC selfassessment

Up to 40% uptake

s ission l adm o o h c S

1999: E-government born

Driving lice nce applicatio ns

Cold failur e

The public and private sectors can be seen as too different from each other to share lessons effectively.Discussions about common e-commerce terms such as conversion rates, loyalty and cost-per-click either come across badly or are not relevant for the public sector. Electronically delivered services in both sectors consist of a provider at one end and a human at the other, which means there should be areas where the sectors can share, for example, what user interfaces and workflows are effective. Government services began to be looked at as e-government services in the Modernising Government whitepaper of 1999. It took until 2010 for the government’s strategy to be described as “digital by default”. During this time, e-government projects have produced some successes (think HMRC self-assessment) and some failures (such as Directgov).

Hot s ucces s

What can businesses learn from the successes and failures of e-government programmes?

See p8 -9

tgov Direc