|
|
What’s the real cost of rationalising quangos? Forget efficiency savings argues Marc Cetkowski, Head of Government and Public Sector at global project management consultancy PIPC
It is hoped, of course, mainly by the coalition marketing machine, that the potential devastation caused over the next 6-12 months will be quickly superseded in five years time when the coalition parties stand on the re-election platform and announce -we made the savings…we bought the deficit back into control. But what of the localities and a plethora of half dismantled organisations left in the wake of needing to make cuts at break-neck speed?
Whilst the current model of service delivery could certainly work better, the Government’s rally for reform would be more empowering if there was sight of a master design, a public showcasing of how the new arrangements will deliver improved and more efficient services to people. In education, for example, we currently have significantly sized NDPBs, such as QCA, CWDC, TDA, and NCSL that form a major part of central government’s delivery chain and support network down into front line service staff. While not all of these agencies named are set to be obliterated (some are still under review), they will all be impacted by government’s austerity plans. This may lead to a better delivery model, but the worry must be that without a blueprint for the ‘end state’ design or how we’re going to get there, it’s a bit like setting sail for the New World but scoffing the notion that maps or a navigator might be useful for the journey.
The merging of existing quangos and the return of key functions back into central government departments requires careful assessment and planning – particularly during a period where civil servants with all the experience and historic knowledge may be receiving redundancy packages. How can the government ensure continuity of services to the people of England? ‘Localism’, the coalition will argue, will be the answer. In other words, central government bought us back from the brink in terms of the deficit but under ‘Big Society’ it was always going to be up to localities to decide what to do in response – to make it all work. Without this blueprint of what we are moving to, many predict we will soon arrive at a prolonged period of disjointed activity at most levels of government. This will be marked by inaction and navel gazing as some organisations and localities try to make sense of it all. This will result in inactivity and stagnation, but even this may be preferable to others’ knee jerk reactions causing medium and longer term damage to the service delivery chains across the main government service areas; leading to inconsistent and, in some cases, opposing models of providing services.
So, that’s part of the puzzle – creating and articulating a plan – but even when defined, what of the costs of getting us to the new model? The reality is that change in itself costs money; closing or merging quangos, downsizing organisations and departments, could well be more costly than the savings. The closure of the nine regional development agencies could cost as much as £1.5billion in pension payments; getting rid of the Audit Commission will cost something in the order of £490million in payouts and liabilities; and the Crown Prosecution Service has indicated that its merger with another body will cost around £40million. If the savings are there, then great; but let’s make sure that we know what they are and what the costs of reaching this utopia will be; there should be no excuse for a lack of detailed analysis or planning, a public scrutiny of costs versus benefits, cost savings versus the costs of transformation itself.
Even in the private sector we have seen this time and time again. We often hear of cost savings through consolidation and reorganisation – yet all too often the finance it takes to implement this scale of change is under-estimated. In the private sector, where accountability is king – over 50 per cent of integrations still fail to achieve the benefits promised. Without a plan or integration expertise, what does the Government expect the results to be in the public sector? Mergers and integrations are complex – the private sector would rarely undertake such initiatives without external support, yet the Government is about to embark on one of the largest change programmes in its history at a time when it’s cutting away the expertise to deliver such a change successfully; by which one could define as driving out the maximum benefits at the lowest cost to the tax payer.
One thing’s for certain, we are yet to see any plans or associated costs that, in a transparent and accountable way, provide the future service models that will support the Big Society challenge. Efficiency savings…….unlikely!
The news that Wikileaks supporters had brought down the Mastercard, Paypal, the Swedish Prosecutors office and Swiss PostFinance Bank has highlighted the issue of “cyber demonstrations” by activists. Potentially these will cost businesses millions, and bring down government services.
Where traditionally protestors have stormed buildings and mailed threats, they now use the internet to sabotage websites; the customer channel for most major corporations today. The term coined is – “cyber-retaliation”.
Activists download ‘attack codes’ which create a ‘botnet’. A botnet is malicious software spammed by criminals to exploit vulnerabilities in the security of the recipient’s web site.
The objective of the coordinated attacks is to flood the website with so much traffic it website crashes. The result for the activist is recognition and / or financial gain.
Standard network security tools cannot differentiate between these attackers and real users. The more tech savvy the activist groups get, the greater the incidence of cyber-demonstrations will be.
The Wikileaks attack has done nothing to slow the growth of cyber-activism. It has highlighted botnets as being an extremely effective way of bringing down multiple organisations in return for mass publicity.
Ron Meyran, Director Security Products, Radware is available for information or interview. He can cover any subject relating to network and internet security and the impact this can have on business, governments and society.
About Ron Meyran
Mr. Meyran is an industry security specialist. His views have been published in the press globally. He is also a frequent speaker on the conference circuit and has been invited to lecture as an expert commentator. Mr. Meyran holds a B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Ben-Gurion University and MBA from Tel Aviv University.
Kodak (NYSE:EK) has announced that Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s Emergency Department has installed a File Stream electronic document management solution (EDMS), with Kodak i1320 scanner and tethered A3 flatbed accessory, to manage the emergency records of 70,000 patients seen every year. The hardware and software was supplied by Staffordshire-based, Ascot Business Solutions, in a deal worth around £15,000.
Serving a rural and urban population of around 225,000 people, Barnsley Hospital’s Emergency Department has a clinical staff of seven consultants, 18 doctors and around 50 nurses who provide emergency medical care 24/7, seeing on average 200 people per day.
A huge volume of paper is generated as a result which was causing the department issues in terms of storage, management, and then subsequent access to information. Records were kept in department for 6 months, then moved to a basement area for a year and ultimately transferred to a remote and inaccessible area of the hospital â€- nicknamed ‘The Bunker’ for long-term 5 year storage.
Dr Dyfrig Hughes, project leader, explains, -The longer records are in storage, the harder they are to find as each movement increases the chances of files getting mislaid. Something only needs to be slightly misfiled for it to become a really time consuming effort to later source. Secretaries were traipsing to-and-fro to get emergency cards which clearly isn’t productive or efficient.
Each time a person visits, an emergency department record is produced a document containing 5 or 6 sheets of A4 which lists the patient’s name and address, demographic information, a summary of the treatment provided, along with a letter to the GP which summarises the problem and care given. With the high volume of people treated annually, the department was sinking under paper, while also consuming a lot of precious space which could be better utilised for clinical care.
Dr Hughes adds, -Accessing records is important especially when treating children’s illness as the past medical history is important, and we often need records for legal purposes when we have to support the Police with their inquires. With the old paper-based system, we just weren’t able to access information quickly or easily.
The emergency department first considered scanning emergency records some years ago, but it was a small flood in 2008 in the storage area which tipped the balance and the Trust recognised it needed to implement an alternative computer-based solution.
Reseller, Ascot Business Solutions, supplied File Stream’s EDMS solution and a Kodak i1320 departmental scanner, with tethered A3 flatbed accessory, for use in the reception area. Mark Ingram, Ascot’s managing director, says, -Barnsley Hospital took a package from us. A Kodak scanner solution was recommended because of the reputation for reliability, and ability to integrate and working faultlessly with File Stream.
Compact but high performance and ergonomically designed, the duplex Kodak i1320 scanner can process 40 pages a minute in colour [1] both sides and documents up to 34 inches long, making it an excellent desktop workhorse for the department.
Featuring 600 dpi optical resolution, the i1320 scanner comes with Kodak’s Perfect Page imaging technology which ensures that the best possible scanned images are produced first time, every time irrespective of paper type which is ideal for a hospital environment.
Gary Jones, File Stream’s UK marketing manager, said, -It’s a busy little scanner. When you arrive in the emergency department, the receptionist extracts information from the PAS [2] about who you are, prints a top sheet, adds blank pages for medical staff to then fill in and puts the whole lot in a folder. This then follows the patient around, making a loop around the department, with the whole file then scanned in at the end, and the paper destroyed.
The File Stream EDMS has also improved the integrity and security of the emergency record. Urine tests, blood results and heart tracings are all produced using different pieces of coloured paper which the Kodak scanner easily copes with. Everything is now scanned and incorporated in the electronic file thus avoiding any possibility that paper could go astray.
Accessible to authorised medical staff, searching for information is now a breeze and can be done on date of birth, date of attendance, GP, gender, emergency department number and so on. The new system allows doctors to email documents to each other if required and offers instant access to information on patients. Dr Hughes explains, -If I am on a ward, I can call up the notes on a patient who came in the previous day without the need to find the physical records or ring down to secretaries to ask them to find or copy them.
In addition, a lot of time and effort managing emergency cards is saved, with the storage space in the department freed to make room for an expanded children’s area.
Neil Murphy, Kodak’s UK sales manager for document imaging, says, For a relatively modest investment, Barnsley Hospital has installed a simple-to-use yet robust departmental solution which does away with paper and means staff can focus on helping critically ill patients get better rather than wasting time managing an unmanageable paper process.
Thousands of educators came to experience the first ever BETT Middle East at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, proving the show to be an outstanding success.
Held on Sunday 21 and Monday 22 November 2010, BETT Middle East provided the opportunity for teachers and education ministers from in and around the Middle East to touch, test and discover the very latest technology in education solutions. Co-located with Building Future Education (BFE) MENA, the event highlighted the phenomenal impact that technology can have on teaching and learning.
On the first day, H.E. Humaid Al Qatami, UAE Minister of Education attended the opening ceremony along with a number of other prominent dignitaries. This was then followed by a keynote address from Prof. Ralph Tabberer, chief of schools, and COO MENASA, GEMS Education, on the achievement of ‘world class’ learning in the Middle East. He was supported by a number of exceptionally experienced panellists including Haif Bannayan, CEO, Jordan Education Initiative and Dr. Hala Taweel, President, University of the Middle East Project (UME) to name just two.
On the second day of this two day event, show organisers, Emap Connect, were honoured to welcome H.H. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Vice President of Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC).
Throughout the show, the popular World Class Learning central feature attracted hundreds of visitors, wanting to see children demonstrating to teachers their use of ICT solutions in a real learning environment. Led by Professor Stephen Heppell, the feature demonstrated how technology can help to break down barriers and enhance communication. Richard Noble OBE invited students to take part in a competition to design a BLOODHOUND vehicle to raise awareness of the importance of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) in education. During the afternoon of the first day, the BLOODHOUND SSC challenge sponsored by Promethean awarded certificates to the student winner and runner up in each age group category.
Debbie French, event director for BETT Middle East commented: -With technology increasingly recognised as a successful tool for transforming teaching and learning, BETT Middle East really did provide a phenomenal opportunity for educators within the middle east to see this for themselves. We are thrilled by the region’s response to the first BETT Middle East, and are grateful to all the exhibitors who offered inspiring demonstrations. We look forward to an even bigger and better show next year.”
Endorsed by the Abu Dhabi Education Council, BETT Middle East, its feature areas and exhibitors inspired a wide range of educators over the two days. Nearly 100 percent of exhibitors have already confirmed their booking for BETT Middle East 2011. For more information please visit www.bettmiddleeast.com.
There are those who argue that the age of Cloud computing is merely in the minds of the more far-sighted IT visionaries. I have even met those whose businesses are indifferent to the Cloud. This indifference may cost them dearly – and soon. The UK’s new Coalition Government is implementing the – ‘G-Cloud’ strategy (actually the strategy of the last Government) and there are some who claim that it will save the government £3.2bn from its annual £16bn IT budget of £16bn. That’s not just a big saving for the Government – it’s an obvious opportunity for suppliers who can ensure it is secure.
The proposal is to replace the present ad-hoc network of department – hosted systems with a dozen dedicated government secure data centres, costing £250m each. The G-Cloud plans could support everything from pooled government data centres to a communal email solution and collaboration. By 2015 the plan is that 80% of government departments could be using this system. But will it be secure enough?
Safeguarding the IT infrastructure from unmonitored access, malware and intruder attacks grows more challenging as the operation evolves for cloud service providers. And as a cloud infrastructure grows, so too does the presence of unsecured privileged identities – those so-called super-user accounts that hold elevated permission to access sensitive data, run programs, and change configuration settings on virtually every component of IT. Privileged identities exist on all physical and virtual operating systems, on network devices such as routers, switches, and firewalls, and in programs and services including databases, line-of-business applications, Web services, middleware, VM hypervisors and more.
Left unsecured, privileged accounts leave an organisation vulnerable to IT staff members who have unmonitored access to sensitive customer data and can change configuration settings on critical components of your infrastructure through anonymous, unaudited access. It can also lead to financial loss from failed regulatory audits such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), Health Insurance, Portability and Accountability Action (HIPAA) of 1996, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 standards that require privileged identity controls.
One of the largest challenges for cloud service customers inside and outside of government is attaining transparency into how public cloud providers are securing their infrastructure. How are your identities being managed and secured? Many cloud providers won’t give their customers much more of an official answer than a SAS 70 certification. How can we trust in the cloud if the vendors of cloud-based infrastructure neglect to implement both the process and technology to assure that segregation of duties are enforced, and customer and vendor identities are secured?
The Cloud Vendor’s Challenge: Accountability
Cloud computing has the potential to transform business technology, but it brings a spectrum of security issues that IT organisations should consider before trusting their sensitive data to the cloud. These issues cause security experts and auditors to rethink many fundamental assumptions about Privileged Identity Management in terms of who is responsible for managing these powerful accounts, how they manage them, and who exactly is in control.
Historically, IT data centres have always been in secured physical locations. Now with cloud computing those locations are no longer maintained directly by the IT organisation. So the question comes down to this: how do you get accountability for management of physical assets that are no longer under your physical control, and exactly what control mechanisms are in place? Can you trust your cloud vendor to secure your most sensitive data? Moreover, if there’s a security breach in the cloud, who is to blame? Is it the cloud vendor that disclaims all legal liability in its contract, or an enterprise that relinquishes control of its sensitive data in the first place?
From the vendor’s standpoint, cloud computing promises to reduce customer headcount, make IT more efficient and deliver more consistent service levels. However, there’s a paradox that when it comes to security (and control over privileged identities in particular) cloud services are often among the least efficient. Many cloud service providers’ processes – based on ad-hoc techniques like scripting of password changes – are slow, expensive and unreliable. And that’s dangerous.
Fortunately the industry is starting to move beyond paralyzing discussions about the security and compliance problems that arise from cloud computing to address them head on. One example of this is the Trusted Cloud Initiative, which was launched at RSA Security Conference 2010. The goal of the initiative is -to help cloud providers develop industry-recommended, secure and interoperable identity, access and compliance management configurations, and practices. However, only time will tell if it will help standardise cloud computing or turn out to be a technology certification of little use.
In addition, several major cloud vendors and ISPs have begun the difficult task of integrating security solutions that are capable of managing the large number of privileged identities that make up their infrastructure (hardware, VM hosts, VM Image OS, application stacks). This has really broken the fundamental model of IT being in control of security and has started to blur the lines between vendor and customer when it comes to the management of security.
The End User’s Challenge: Transparency
In my opinion, the cloud is a really good, compelling idea. It can reduce the cost of IT dramatically. Given that cloud computing is available, the idea of building new data centres these days seems like a last-century way of doing things. On the other hand, for enterprises, the ability to see and touch your own systems in your secured data center does give confidence that you have some measure control of your destiny. But most large corporations don’t have enough IT people or security talent to manage the IT resources they have, and so are turning to outsourcing. Cloud computing is essentially the next generation of outsourcing, so that we’re not only reducing man power, but we’re getting rid of our hard assets entirely by moving them over to data centres anywhere on the planet that are going to manage this more cheaply than we ever could. And the idea of outsourcing security and liability is extraordinary compelling.
Enterprises should ask the right questions of their cloud providers before taking the leap into cloud and blindly assuming that their data is safe there. Every point of compliance that you’re asked to meet an IT organisation and every question you’ve been asked by an auditor should apply to your cloud vendor – and needs to be asked of them. And because today’s cloud vendors offer literally no transparency and little information, don’t be surprised if you don’t like the answers you get. Most cloud vendors would say that for security purposes, it’s on a -need to know- basis, and you don’t need to know. Others state that they’re SAS 70 compliant, but that’s really just a self-certification.
Here are some questions you must consider asking
What kind of security does the cloud service provider have in place to protect your privileged accounts and most sensitive data?
Do they have a Privileged Identity Management technology in place?
How do they control privileged accounts used in cloud infrastructure to manage sensitive systems and data?
How do they manage cloud stacks at the physical layer and application stack layers?
What is your access to audit records?
Whatever regulatory standards your organisation must meet, so too must your cloud vendor. So if you think that by venturing into the cloud you’re saving yourself regulatory headaches, think again.
Conclusion
Security is the greatest barrier towards adoption of the cloud, and it’s no great surprise that cloud security – managing, verifying and trusting it – was a major theme at this year’s RSA Conference. Unfortunately, improvements in cloud security won’t be seen as a priority until a major breach has a significant enough impact on one or more cloud service vendors and customers. That needs to change. When it comes to cloud security, it is the end-user’s duty to understand what processes and methodologies the cloud vendor is using to protect the customer’s most sensitive assets. We don’t want the Government’s ‘G Cloud’ to be compromised- that would be a public humiliation that would have Cloud doubters in their own little Heaven.
Manchester mum Karen Harris, 31, and her stepson Alex Harris, 16, are both embarking on the same BTEC course to become police officers.
Both mum and son are studying at Hopwood Hall in Rochdale. Mature student Karen decided to go back to the books last year to enrol on the Uniformed Public Services BTEC National Diploma and now Alex is joining her on exactly the same course with a view to pounding the same beat when they graduate.
The commitment to being a copper certainly runs in the family as Alex aims to go directly into police training while Karen hopes to go to university before either entering the force or training as a teacher of Uniformed Public Services.
The Uniformed Public Services BTEC prepares students for a range of careers including the Police, the Fire and Rescue Service, the Ambulance Services, the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force, the Prison Service and HM Customs and Excise.
Karen and Alex are just two of the millions of students, who for over 27 years have taken BTECs in vocational subjects ranging from business studies to engineering to animal care.
Said Karen Harris: -This BTEC will open up doors to new opportunities for me. And now Alex is joining me at school, I can keep a closer eye on him and make sure he’s behaving himself! I hope that doesn’t make me bad cop!
Said Alex Harris: -I was a bit worried about starting at the same school as my step-mum, but I’m quite enjoying the competition between the two of us. She can drive me in every morning now too!
No speeding into college for these two though, or Alex may find himself arresting his mum!
TRIBUTES are being paid to a Lancaster police officer who died at the weekend.
Detective Inspector Glen Oldham, 44, had served with Lancashire Constabulary for over 24 years, all of which he spent based in the north of the county. His last role was heading the CID team at Lancaster.
Sadly, Glen died suddenly while on holiday in Scotland at the weekend. He leaves his wife Audrey, who works at Lancaster police station as a HR advisor. The couple lived near Lancaster.
Superintendent Richard Spedding, Lancaster Police, said: Glen truly was a top officer and he will be sadly missed not only by those he worked with, who were proud to call him a friend as well as a colleague, but also by the local community who he was dedicated in serving.
-His death has had a devastating effect on the Northern policing family and beyond. We will remember him as a committed and well respected officer, who cared deeply about his work. Glen was always optimistic and hard working, his constant focus on assisting victims touched many and ensured that offenders were brought to justice. His loss will be felt by many and our thoughts are particularly with Audrey and his family at this sad time.
A funeral service will be held at The Priory, Lancaster, at 11.30am on Wednesday December 8.
Improved hand hygiene amongst hospital staff is almost certain to be the major factor in the dramatic fall in healthcare associated infections, new research has found.
The DaRo Group, which manufactures hand hygiene inspection cabinets used by NHS organisations for staff training purposes, carried out in-depth research over three months to assess the impact of improved hand hygiene practices in hospital settings.
The research included gathering important information and statistics from key agencies such as the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). It also involved engaging directly with a number of leading infection control experts.
Annette Jeanes, Consultant Nurse and Director of Infection Prevention and Control at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: -In terms of reducing infections such as MRSA and C.diff improved hand hygiene has been the key. Microbiologists and infection control experts have known the importance of hand hygiene for many, many years. However, the real difficulty was changing the hearts and minds of people and getting them to take the issue seriously.
-In recent years patients, politicians and the press have become involved, which has helped to raise awareness of the issue. However, the fact levels of infections are now statistically measured and people are being held responsible for performance is the main reason for improved behaviour towards hand hygiene in hospitals and this had lead to a major reduction in infection rates.
Dr Tony Elston, Consultant Microbiologist and Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust said: -I would certainly agree that improved hand hygiene amongst hospital staff has been the principle reason for the reduction in MRSA rates and, along with a other measures, has played a vital role in helping to reduce a number of other infections such as C.diff.
-In recent years HCAIs have been falling at a significant rate and it is no coincidence the reduction has happen after stringent hand hygiene improvements were introduced. Hand hygiene for staff is extremely important. Our clinical staff now undergo vigorous hand hygiene training, which includes testing their hand washing competence under an ultra violet ‘glow box’ which highlights any bacteria which is left after the hand washing process.
HPA figures show healthcare associated infections, such as MRSA and Colstridium Difficile have fallen dramatically since the NPSA launched the Clean Your Hands Campaign in 2004 with the aim of improving hand hygiene amongst healthcare staff.
Between April 2004 and March 2010 MRSA rates in hospitals across England fell from 7,233 to 1,898. Similarly, cases Clostridium Difficile (C.diff) in hospitals in England have fallen from 55, 498 in to 25,604 in recent years.
Damon Goodyear, Managing Director of the DaRo Group, based in Sudbury, Suffolk, said: -We wanted this research to be a real fact finding mission. A lot of resources nationally have gone into raising the importance of hand hygiene to stop the spread of infection. However, what we haven’t seen is any report which shows how effective the improvements have been and how much of a role improved hand hygiene has played in terms of helping to reduce HCAIs.
-Our research, backed by the opinions of leading experts, clearly show improved hand hygiene amongst hospital staff is the major reason for the fall of HCAIs in hospital settings. We feel it is only right to make our findings public to ensure the importance of hand hygiene retains a high profile.
Health experts across the UK, Europe and America now agree that improved hand hygiene has played a major role in reducing HCAIs and as a result in May 2010 the WHO launched the ‘Save lives, clean your hands campaign’ inviting hospital workers and healthcare professionals to actively promote hand hygiene to reduce infections. To date 11,500 healthcare facilities representing 6.5 million healthcare professionals have registered their commitment to the campaign.
Washing hands for 20 to 30 seconds according to NHS and WHO guidelines is known to significantly reduce risk of cross contamination, therefore reducing risk to patients becoming exposed to infections. Healthcare professionals should clean their hands before touching a patient, before a medical procedure, after being exposed to a patient’s body or body fluids, after touching a patient and after touching a patient’s surroundings.
-Although improved hand hygiene is helping to reduce HCAIs this is no time for complacency and there is still much more work to be done. Micro-organisms and viruses are becoming much more sophisticated and resistant so we have to keep ahead of the game. Although there is almost a 100% compliance with the national hand hygiene requirements in some organisations, many individuals still do not clean their hands properly and this is something which needs to improve, added Annette Jeanes.
For more information of the hand hygiene inspections cabinets go to
www.handinspection.co.uk
Before we can hope to achieve best practice, we need to address ‘best thinking’ – that is, to assess the patterns of thinking amongst our managers. How managers think will affect the way they manage and interact with their team, ultimately affecting the success or failure of a project or initiative.
In order to bring a project to a successful conclusion and if they are to develop and maintain a strong relationship within their team, a manager needs to have a clear sense of their role.
Over recent years I have started to consider how people think and whether everyone has a mental crib sheet, a ‘to do’ list in their head. As a trainer and mentor, I am a great supporter of management training which focuses on competence and behaviour, but I also believe that the way managers think has a huge impact on their management style.
In fact, I was so convinced that the way managers think defines them as leaders, shaping the way they allocate their time, making decisions and ultimately delivering, that we at pearcemayfield decided to conduct some research into the subject. We carried out a modest research study among practicing portfolio, programme and project managers and assessed the views of their senior managers on their abilities.
The study revealed some intriguing patterns of thinking and it quickly became apparent that the most highly regarded managers are those with a clear sense of direction, who understand why they make a particular decision and are able to articulate the reason for making that decision. This self-awareness doesn’t come easily to everyone and can separate the drivers from the driven.
We asked our sample of managers to make their own personal action list at a particular point in their project or initiative and, of course, no two lists were the same. Where some people are inclined to concentrate the majority of their time reacting to and solving problems, others spend their time more proactively – clearly separating the managers into two groups. We also found that everyone does have a mental cribsheet but that the think-act mechanism varies from one person to another.
The self-aware manager should understand that relationships are central to success and this trait did emerge from our findings, with the leaders showing a distinct bias towards developing and maintaining relationships. By committing between 60 to 85 per cent of their time to engaging with stakeholders, our high performing managers illustrated they were thinking about their relationships in a real and active way, rather than just ticking the right boxes.
Most of us are able to examine the success or failure of our projects and programmes and have the means to measure the performance of individuals. Research from Harvard indicates that personal performance is actually based on being part of a team and on joining a new team those previously performing well experience a drop in performance. If this is the case then perhaps we also need to address the role of the extended team.
From other studies among high-performing project managers it has been revealed that there is a tendency for them to assess unexpected issues which arise before committing them to a formal part of the management process or logging system.
These high performers advocate a cooling off period when faced with unforeseen circumstances, on the premise that many apparently serious issues often come to nothing. They believe it is unnecessary to complicate matters by formally recording an issue which can force unnecessary urgency and demand on the management team.
It seems to come quite naturally to the successful project manager to build extra time, or what we call a personal float, into their working schedules, to allow sufficient time to cover for unplanned events. Interestingly, not everyone in our study was able to work in this way, or was capable of thinking ahead, leading us to examine the ‘knowing-doing’ gap. This differentiation between people seems to come down to someone’s level of self-awareness and self-confidence which they constantly measure against their management capabilities.
Out of our study three particular patterns emerged relating to the way project, programme and portfolio managers think. They are all self-aware, have a bias towards building relationships and an ability to build a personal margin into their thinking.
When looking at how to get the best performance out of our managers which will lead to the benefit of them individually, the members of their team and the business as a whole, if we just focus on best practice, we are missing an important piece of the jigsaw. We obviously need to continue to concentrate on management training in core competencies, but until we start to think about our thinking we will not truly benefit from best practice.
John Edmonds is an experienced project and programme manager and head of training and development at pearcemayfield www.pearcemayfield.com. He was on the authoring team of the highly acclaimed version of the project management method PRINCE2, released in 2009. John writes in his blog called The Opsimath.
www.pearcemayfield.com
CSC (NYSE:CSC) has announced that the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust has successfully completed a proof of concept (PoC) evaluation of its Clinical Information Portal. This was developed as part of a pilot of the NHS Interoperability Toolkit.
Going live on June 10 of this year, the portal was initially deployed within the trust’s haematology and dermatology departments. During the 60 day evaluation period, the success of the portal grew to include two additional departments: cardiology and renal. Since completion in September, due to demand from clinicians, the trust extended the use of the CSC portal for a further two months to cover the period whilst it completed its procurement process of selecting a portal system to be rolled-out across all hospital sites.
The PoC was initiated to enable the trust to evaluate the use of portal technology as a replacement for paper case notes. Working with CSC and NHS Connecting for Health, the PoC project managers devised full assessment criteria against which results could be measured and opinion of clinicians assessed.
CSC partnered with Carefx Corporation, a leading interoperability platform provider, to deploy the portal which is built on Carefx’s Fusionfx platform. After announcing a partnership agreement in April 2010, both organisations have worked together to deliver the PoC at the trust.
The portal has enabled healthcare professionals to obtain a single screen view of a patient’s notes, collated from information currently held in disparate clinical and administration systems across the trust, such as PAS (patient administration system) and PACS (picture archiving and communications system). It has allowed consultants, their registrars and specialist nurses to consult with patients by viewing patient medical history, key treatments, referrals, diagnosis and test results electronically rather than by paper case notes.
Since completion of the PoC, evaluation reports indicate complete success. All of the targets set have been met or exceeded and feedback from clinicians has been extremely positive, indicating that there have been no problems seeing patients without the traditional case notes.
Use of the portal has given healthcare professionals the ability to have instant access to comprehensive patient records, meaning that treatments can be based on the latest data, ensuring care plans are as relevant and as safe as possible. Clinical and administrative efficiency has also increased significantly with clinicians reporting, on average, a reduction of clinic times by up to 30 minutes. Also, nurses no longer have to spend time moving case notes around and clerk time searching for and preparing case notes has been cut drastically, which previously could take up to 60 percent of their time.
-Just being able to view all critical information about a patient on one screen is a revelation, stated Professor Patrick Chu, consultant haematologist at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust. -The use of portals is clearly the way forward to help increase efficiency, improve treatment and diagnosis and patient safety. It will make the paperless clinic a reality which is long overdue. I wholly support the wider adoption of this technology so that healthcare professionals are free to concentrate on the care of their patients.
Supporting Professor Chu’s comments, James Norman, Director of IM&T at the trust also agreed that the success of the PoC has provided the business case required to ensure that a portal solution is deployed across the trust.
-We are aiming to begin full roll-out of a portal system at the beginning of 2011, he said. -To get us to this stage I must give credit to the support and professionalism of the CSC and Carefx personnel that worked closely in partnership with the trust staff to help ensure the evaluation was a success. It has certainly been refreshing for me to see users embrace the system and witness their delight in the end results. We are excited about the efficiencies and opportunities that a portal can bring to the trust through the elimination of case notes and improved access to the right information at the right time for clinicians.
Crucially, as the portal can integrate systems from multiple vendors, this is consistent with the trusts objectives around interoperability, protecting their existing IT infrastructures and assuring flexibility in the future.
Andrew Spence, CSC’s UK director of Healthcare Strategy, added: -This pilot demonstrates how clinical staff can benefit from this approach. By making access to relevant data simpler as part of their workflows, clinicians can spend more time concentrating on their patients rather than IT. No longer will clinicians or administrative staff have to remember multiple passwords and user names and have to interrogate different systems for each part of a patient’s record, which brings gains for everyone.
-The results speak for themselves and I believe the work with Royal Liverpool University Hospital and Broadgreen Hospital will ultimately benefit other trusts in the NHS. It is clear that portal technology can drive efficiencies and provide a more seamless service for patients.
With more than 82 per cent of the adult population now having access to the Internet, Tufin Technologies is warning IT managers of the need to prepare for a potential network overload situation as workers use their company IT resources for everything from multimedia greetings to videoconferencing connections to distant colleagues.
And that, says Rueven Harrison, the security lifecycle management specialist’s chief technology officer, is before we even begin to talk about those organisations that host Web sites in the online retail sector, or process payment card transactions.
“Even at the best of times, the Internet is well loaded with Web surfing and general email exchanges, but the current cold snap, combined with the impending holidays – and the fact that many people are taking their annual leave allocation before the year’s end – means that workers are turning to the Internet to ratchet up their work efficiency,” he said.
“Videoconferencing is definitely in vogue amongst many of the companies we encounter, but the real potential Internet killer is the number of Web site visitors – and the consequential IP traffic that these sessions generate,” he added.
According to Harrison, the potential overload situation will crank up a few more stops this coming weekend as Thanksgiving starts in the US, and Black Friday-driven online shopping starts in earnest.
Amazon, he explained, has done its bit to get users online with its UK-based Black Friday lightening sales, which has resulted in peak-time page issues with the Amazon.co.uk site.
Whilst Amazon is using all manner of Internet load balancing to ensure that users of its site only have to wait a short while for a page to load at peak times, the fact that the mighty shopping giant’s Web site is exhibiting page loading delays indicates the potential scale of the problem, he went on to say.
So what can IT managers do to stop their Web sites – and the company IT resources – from becoming seriously stretched?
The solution, the Tufin CTO says, lies in careful planning.
IT managers and their staff, he advises, need to start monitoring their systems. The firewall, he points out, is a good point for monitoring connection rates.
“If there are rules that you need to report on, make sure that audit logs are being generated. If you are not recording firewall performance stats, turn them on now – before you need them,” he said.
“Secondly, start looking for anything that can cause an interruption of service due to resource exhaustion. What is your firewall connection table limit? If it was 25,000 last year, it probably should be higher this year,” he added.
Harrison went on to say that managers need to look at what their peak IP traffic was last year and what the peak has been so far this year – you should, he says, plan for somewhere between a 20 and 200 per cent increase, depending on your business model.
You will also, he notes, want to ensure you don’t hit your maximum number of IP connections at this time of year.
“Most security experts advise setting this number low enough to stop a denial-of-service, but at this time of year we are expecting sudden bursts of connections, so flexibility is the name of the game,” he explained.
It’s also, he said, worth printing out some hard copies of performance trends from last year. It is much easier if you already have them handy when you are trying to understand this year’s trends.
“Also take a look at all of your disk drives. Logically, do you have plenty of space? Don’t forget to physically walk to your firewalls and make sure there are no failed drives with the little red lights on. With firewalls tucked away in data centres, and drives in RAID, we all sometimes forget to look for faults on devices, like a failed drive in a RAID mirror set,” he said.
“Finally, don’t forget the cloud. If, like many organisations you are running a hybrid data centre configuration, ensure that your cloud service provider has sufficient spare and on-demand capacity to support a surge in peak time demand,”
Using these recommendations, Harrison says that IT managers can develop a good risk analysis strategy that they can update on a regular basis.
As your IT resource grows and diversifies, he adds, your IT security planning will then not get left behind. Then, if the worst really does happen, you’ll be as prepared as possible.
For more on Tufin Technologies:
www.tufin.com or Yvonne Eskenzi on 0207 1832 833 or email Yvonne@eskenzipr.com
The University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded the top prize at the Guardian Public Services Awards 2010 for reducing its energy consumption and carbon emissions by 26% over the last three years, saving £15,000.
As well as the Overall Winner Award (sponsored by Hays Recruitment), the trust also won the Sustainability prize (Sponsored by Capgemini). All of the organisations that won individual categories were considered for the overall award, and Manchester beat eleven other category winners to win the top prize.
At the awards ceremony in London last night, broadcaster Jeremy Vine, who hosted the event, said: -With efficiency and sustainability at the forefront of the public services agenda, the judges thought the long-term energy and cost savings planned at both of the trust’s hospitals made it an extremely worthy Overall Winner this year. In addition to its use of sustainable technology, Wythenshawe – which aims to be Britain’s greenest hospital – actively engages staff to share in its ambition through the provision of employee allotments, cycle to work and car sharing schemes, and the judges said it was an excellent example of best practice.
The prestigious Public Servant of the Year award was won by John Biggin, Director of Doncaster Prison and Young Offender Institution. John, who joined the prison service 25 years ago, won the award – sponsored by Unison – for his outstanding leadership, creativity and commitment to both prisoners and staff, including bringing the Doncaster Rovers football team into the prison to offer coaching sessions. The award was voted for by members of the public.
David Brindle, The Guardian’s Public Services Editor, said: -The Public Servant of the Year category is perhaps the toughest since the candidates have to stand the test of public scrutiny. John’s commitment to the prison service over 25 years is a true demonstration of what public service is all about. Much of what John has achieved has been the result of activities and incentives that dissuade prisoners from rule breaking. For example, in the past year he has introduced media and arts activities to improve education and reoffending rates and has even encouraged Doncaster Rovers to provide sports coaching to inmates. He is a true inspiration, and my congratulations go to John and all the shortlisted candidates.
North Yorkshire Police statement regarding police officer recruitment
In relation to reports in the national media about police forces in England and Wales putting in place a recruitment freeze in response to the Comprehensive Spending Review, North Yorkshire have issued to the following statement:
Having reviewed the force’s financial position, in common with many forces, North Yorkshire Police have decided to cease the existing Police Officer recruitment process and will not be recruiting Police Officers for the foreseeable future.
We recognise that this news is disappointing for aspiring police officers with current applications pending, all of whom have by now received a letter informing them of the situation.
The English National Screening Programme for Diabetic Retinopathy (ENSPDR) is working with Quicksilva, an independent provider of software to the private and public sector, and OLM Professional Services, a specialist provider of consultancy services to the health and social care sector, to put in place a framework for automating the sharing of data between GP practices and diabetic retinopathy screening programmes.
Current information sharing processes have presented barriers to the accurate identification of screening programme participants, resulting in a significant number of individuals being overlooked. Quicksilva has developed a bespoke application, called the GP2DRS database, which will automate the transfer of patient data between GPs and local screening programmes.
At present details of people with diabetes are made available to screening programmes through various manual processes. With 8,000 GP practices and nearly 100 screening programmes in England, this represents a huge administration burden that is also prone to error. As a result, screening programme registers are often incomplete or out-of-date. Built in .NET, the GP2DRS database will automate the transfer of patient details, notification of eligibility and consent for screening, and the return of screening results to GPs.
Esther Provins, National Informatics Lead, ENSPDR said: -Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of loss of sight in the working age population. If caught early it can be successfully treated, but the current system for information sharing between GPs and LSPs represents a number of challenges due to the sheer volume of data that needs to be shared, processed and logged by both parties. This data tidal wave is impacting patients on two levels. Firstly, it restricts screening programmes from identifying individuals that need to be screened. Secondly, we don’t always have the most up-to-date information about current patients, impacting the quality of service they receive.
-The GP2DRS database will significantly overhaul how patient information is managed, resulting in a more streamlined and effective service for all concerned.
The ENSPDR is working closely with screening programmes and national NHS organisations to ensure that the new process is understood and the technology can be adopted as soon as possible.
Gayna Hart, MD, Quicksilva commented: -Without question the GP2DRS database is going to a have a positive impact on the patients’ experience. Diabetic retinopathy screening programmes are outnumbered by GPs 80 to 1, which represents a significant administrative strain for them. Automating the sharing of data will ease the pressure point and allow them to concentrate on other activities that have a direct impact on the service they deliver which they are rightly very proud of.
Quicksilva is delivering the GP2DRS data base in partnership with OLM Professional Services, part of the OLM Group, who deliver technology and consultancy solutions for adult and children’s services, health and the corporate IT market.
Peter O’Hara, CEO, OLM Group said: -In recognition of OLM Group’s ASCC approved supplier status, which demonstrates the strength of our commitment to the sector, we are delighted to partner with Quicksilva on this project. We are proud to be involved in such a vital project that will help screening programmes across England to be more efficient and proactive.
Keeping your staff’s personal information safe online
Media law expert Cleland Thom warns of the dangers of mixing business with pleasure.
Personal information
Private material on social networking sites is protected by the media regulatory codes, and the law.
In short – instruct your clients:
1. Never publish personal information anywhere on the web.
2. Assume the content of ALL emails will be published.
3. Never mix business with pleasure on sites like Facebook.
What’s personal
The European Convention on Human Rights gives privacy rights to:
1. Your correspondence – written and digital.
2. Your family life
3. Your private life
4. Your home life
5. Health and medical information
The PCC /Ofcom Codes
Publishing people’s personal information can be a breach of privacy. You may be able to protect clients from breaches.
Just because someone uploads their details and photos to a social networking site like Facebook does not mean they have consented to the media using them.
The media can only publish personal / private information safely if it is in the public interest. And if the person is under 16, exceptional public interest must be proved.
Photos – PCC Code and the DPA
The PCC and the courts make it clear that photos involve a greater invasion of privacy than words.
Photos published in areas of someone’s Facebook that are marked for ‘Everyone’ can be used by the media, though journalists should get consent unless publication is in the public interest.
There are issues with the Data Protection Act, too.
The Information Commissioner says that he treats images published on Facebook as for ‘personal use’ , similar to ‘family albums’.
So the journalist should not publish them without consent , unless there is a clear public interest issue.
Suicides and grief
Clients are entitled to significant protection during times of grief and shock.
The Press Complaints Commission has also issued new guidelines about the reporting of suicides:
1. Photos of victims of suicides, or other deaths on Facebook should not be used without consent of the close family, unless there is public interest in the victim – whether they are obtained from the dead person’s page, or someone else’s.
2. If there is a spate of suicides, photographs of previous victims should not be used each time a new death arises.
3. Excessive detail about suicides (including photos) should not be used.
4. Precise details about methods of suicides should not be reported.
5. Journalists should beware intruding into families’ grief and shock, both with approaches for stories and photos, or with the way stories and photos, including inquests, are presented. Note – these approaches apply to those made through Facebook as well as normal routes like door-knocks, etc. There is no problem in making an approach – but it should not amount to harassment or intrusion.
6. Tributes or comments from tribute sites, or from the Facebook pages of friends of people involved in deaths or accidents are usually safe to use – but again beware intruding into families’ grief and shock.
The law
EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Redding has reminded the media: -European privacy rules are crystal clear: a person’s information can only be used with their prior consent.
The ECHR articles on privacy are worded the same as the PCC and Ofcom Codes. So the advice above applies to privacy law, too.
A reader can deal with an alleged invasion of privacy by a journalist, either under the codes, or through the courts, or both.
Readers are more likely to use the codes, because it is quicker and free.
This extract is taken from the PR Media Law Guide, price £19.95. To order a copy, contact: cleland@ctjt.biz
Cleland Thom does media law training and consultancy to a number of corporation and public authorities, including GPSJ, United Utilities, World Trade Group, Herts County Council, London Borough of Brent and Three Rivers District Council.
Trusteer’s research group has found that 30% of attacks against websites that use two-factor authentication are now utilizing real-time man-in-the-middle techniques to bypass this trusted security mechanism. These findings are based on monitoring of thousands of Phishing attacks.
According to Mickey Boodaei, Trusteer’s CEO, in a real time phishing attack the user enters details onto a phishing website which captures the banking credentials and authentication information; the stolen credentials are then immediately used to open a session on the real bank website to commit a fraud. Authentication information typically captured and used by criminals in real time phishing include: One Time Passwords (OTP) ; tokens; SMS authentication; Card and Readers, rendering them ineffective against this type of attack.
Most phishing attacks to date have been completely static. In traditional phishing attacks the victim reaches a phishing website, submits login credentials, and these credentials are stored for later use by e-criminals. The introduction of strong two-factor authentication systems, especially one time passwords, rendered these attacks useless as fraudsters could not use static stolen credentials to commit fraud. With strong two factor authentication the user is required to provide a OTP as part of the login process. There are many OTP approaches, some of them are based on token devices that users carry along with them, others are sent to the user’s phone as an SMS text or voice call each time the user tries to log on. OTP’s are limited in time. Even if the fraudsters managed to capture OTP data there is only a short period of time in which this data can be used. For some time, websites that used strong two-factor authentication reported a significant drop in phishing attacks. The e-criminals, however, have not given up.
Man-in-the-Middle Phishing
-Recently Trusteer have noticed an increase, on 3 different continents, of a type of attack called man-in-the-middle phishing or, real-time phishing. This tactic allows fraudsters to completely bypass two-factor authentication. The concept is not a new one and is well known in the security world; however, up until now, we haven’t seen too many attacks like this. The recent escalation of websites now experiencing this type of attack is a cause for immediate concern,” said Boodaei.
In a man-in-the-middle attack the phishing website is connected, in real-time, to the bank website. The credentials that the user submits to the phishing site, including OTPs, are stolen and used immediately by the fraudsters to initiate a fraudulent session with the bank website. It doesn’t matter if the website is using a dedicated OTP token, SMS authentication, Card and Reader, or any other type of two-factor authentication.
At first glance, real-time phishing seems just like any other phishing attack. On closer examination of the malicious website, however, one can determine that it is, in fact, connected in real-time to the bank. This enables any information submitted to the fake web page to be immediately posted to the bank website.
Many organizations that used strong two-factor authentication were dismissive of phishing attacks as they assumed that they were incapable of bypassing their security controls. This is no longer the case. Using phishing kits with real-time capabilities fraudsters have improved their operations to conduct fraud in real-time.
-With real-time phishing, OTPs are becoming useless. There is no update or improvement to OTP that can defeat real time phishing. The best form of defence is to implement dynamic layers of security, including browsing security, that can adapt to and block new threats,” said Boodaei.
Media law expert Cleland Thom offers some simple advice on an important law.
Copyright law protects original work. It affects PRs in two different ways:
1. The media may illegally use your copyright material.
2. You may illegally use someone else’s copyright material.
Copyright covers:
1. Written words.
2. Photos.
3. Logos.
4. MP3 / MP4 files.
5. Images.
6. Clips from YouTube etc.
7. Page designs.
8. Computer programmes.
9. Databases.
It doesn’t cover:
1. Facts.
2. News.
3. Information.
4. Ideas.
5. Slogans.
Who owns copyright?
1. Employers – not employees.
2. Freelance writers.
3. Freelance photographers.
If you are distributing material to the media (images, photos, words, podcasts etc), it is your job to check the copyright and obtain necessary consents.
If you have a photo that was commissioned for private or domestic use (eg: someone’s wedding photo, graduation pic etc) you must get the consent of the person who COMMISSIONED it. They have the right to veto publication. You need the consent of the PHOTOGRAPHER, too.
Fair dealing
EXTRACTS of copyright work can be used – free, and without consent, on two occasions:
1. To report current events – but you can only use words, not pix.
As a guide, you should use less than a third of the original. Weigh up:
How many extracts have been used?
What percentage of the original have been used?
The percentage the extracts make up of the new article.
2. For review purposes – words or pix.
You can only use as much as you need to make your point.
The conditions of fair dealing are:
1. The copyright owner must be given sufficient credit.
2. You must not misrepresent the work or make fun of it.
3. You must not pass it off as your own.
Don’t …
1. Lift pix from the web, or anywhere else, without written consent.
2. Use videos from YouTube or elsewhere on the web, without written consent.
3. Lift facts from copyright work, without checking they’re accurate.
4. Use ‘personal’ pix without written consent – see above.
5. Use frame-grabs from TV or the web without acknowledgement.
6. Alter graphics or pix and pass them off as yours.
7. Deep link to other sites and give the impression the content is yours.
This extract is taken from the PR Media Law Guide, price £19.95. To order a copy, contact: cleland@ctjt.biz
Cleland Thom does media law training and consultancy to a number of corporation and public authorities, including GPSJ, United Utilities, World Trade Group, Herts County Council, London Borough of Brent and Three Rivers District Council.
The ProcessFlows Text Message Server (TMS) platform was chosen by Fireco, manufacturers and installers of wireless fire safety products, as the text messaging gateway for their new Deaf Message Service (DMS) fire notification solution for the deaf and hard of hearing.
DMS has been developed by Fireco and partners – ProcessFlows, Adaptive Modules (modem technology provider) and Wireless Logic (SIM technology provider) – to meet the demand for improved emergency notification communications for the deaf community.
Using DMS, deaf people who are out and about in a public place in which DMS has been installed, can sign up to receive ‘fire alarm sounding’ notification on their mobile phone.
Text is a global success story, so it is not surprising that innovative applications are being built on top of the SMS technology.
Why was DMS developed?
One in seven people in the UK suffer some degree of deafness
Deaf people have concerns that they could remain unaware of an emergency situation in a public place
There are 76,168,000 mobile phone subscriptions in the UK (SMS mobile phone stats for 2008/2009
ProcessFlows developed TMS to be a powerful and adaptable tool – making it the ideal SMS platform on which to build wireless applications
Claire Chilton, an assessor for Level One British Sign Language exams and a TV presenter on deaf issues is profoundly deaf. Claire said -DMS is such a brilliant idea. Using text messaging to let you know a fire alarm is sounding is using something deaf people use all the time.”
How DMS works:
Stage 1 – Signing up
User visits location where the DMS system is installed – which could be your local supermarket
User sends a text with the location code to the DMS number
The DMS server receives the text and adds the user to the location given
The user is sent a text by the DMS server to let them know they are connected to DMS for that location
Stage 2 – When the fire alarm sounds
When the fire alarm sounds (unless it’s a test) DMS will send a text to the server
Users connected to the specific location receive a ‘Fire’ text advising them to evacuate
The main benefit for users:
DMS gives deaf and hard of hearing people the reassurance that they will be as aware of an audio warning of an emergency situation as the rest of us.
The main benefit for Public and Service Providers:
DMS helps service providers and employers comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). It is designed to respond to a fire alarm installed in conformity with the British Standard 5839 Part 1.
Editor’s Notes
ProcessFlows’ SMS technology is also enabling a patient appointment reminder system – SMS Patient Notification – a solution designed and developed to help cut the cost of missed appointments to the NHS.
Further information about DMS can be found at www.deafmessageservice.com
Further information about ProcessFlows at www.processflows.co.uk
Procurement specialist xynergie has called for Government savings announced in the Spending Review [Oct 20th 2010] to be achieved through improving procurement efficiencies, rather than by cutting frontline services.
xynergie chief executive Tony Lockwood said: -Government procurement inefficiencies were highlighted in Philip Green’s Efficiency Review. While the chancellor has said it will make savings by improving efficiency as well as making cuts, we are yet to see how they will achieve this. Technologies and methodologies are available and in-use in the private sector that completely rule out the levels of inefficiency shown in the Philip Green report.
-In the way it handles procurement, the Government needs to get up to speed with the private sector. It must re-engineer its procurement processes and make savings with backroom efficiency, not frontline cuts.”
For further information, go to
www.xynergie.co.uk
The emerging agreements as part of the spending review set out a clear financial expectation (required quantum and phasing of spending reduction). The challenge is to commute the expectation into practice without an unnecessary degradation in ‘front-line services’. Third Horizon experience confirms the following will be necessary:
An operational blueprint
Sponsorship from the top
An operational blueprint
The blueprint translates a financial requirement into an operational reality. Let’s take the MOD as an example. Total UK expenditure equates to 2.6% of GDP today and it is mandated that it will fall (by ~10% – according to press reports) to ~2.3% as a result of the spending review (which compares, for example to 1.8% in Australia and 1.3% in Canada). We have been spending at a relatively high level and the reduction will bring that spend more in line with our peers. But we have intractable problems within the MOD which need to be resolved as part and parcel of this spending reduction. We spend a disproportionate amount on bureaucracy and inter-service rivalry (e.g. as Liam Fox said “There is one civilian for every two armed forces personnel in the Ministry of Defence. In other words the total of civilians in the MoD is larger than the Royal Navy and the RAF combined”). This is unacceptable and must change. Defence expenditure should be primarily about achieving a security outcome rather than maintaining tradition or as a tool of industrial policy where certain businesses are propped up. The operational reality must, in the vernacular, make sure we cut the fat rather than the muscle.
Sponsorship from the top
No-one can doubt the political will to reduce government expenditure. But this does not mean the desired savings will be realised. Political will needs to be commuted to departmental intent. Sir Philip Green suggests there is scope to improve procurement across Government and he is surely right not least because other high-level reviews have come to similar conclusions. But the sceptics and cynics cry ‘why should anything happen this time’? Nothing short of a root and branch culture change will suffice and this will entail inter alia:
1. Focusing on non-negotiable outputs (rather than on inputs and processes)
2. Embedding business case thinking into all investment and change programmes (identifying the NPV taking account of risk and possible delay)
3. Removing barriers to change (whether they be people-, process- or protocol-related)
4. Effective communication (ensuring the message is heard, understood and reinforced through, for example, the reward mechanism)
Our track record
Third Horizon is currently working with a number of Australian federal and state government departments including:
The Department of Defence – a workforce and shared service review
NSW State Health Department – efficiency review and governance restructure implementation
‘Service Delivery Reform’ – a back office IT-enabled integration project across three Australian government departments (Department for Human Services, Centrelink and Medicare)
The NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet – shared services design across 13 super agencies
Department of Services, Technology and Administration – a major efficiency programme.
The overall themes of our work are:
Creation of super agencies (to deliver economies of scale and scope)
Integrating agencies at the point of delivery (to both reduce cost and improve customer experience)
Unlocking benefits from shared services (to deliver economies of scale and scope as well as improved capacity utilisation)
Better IT-enabled processes (effectively harnessing IT in both the front- and back-office).
|
NEED AN UP TO DATE DATABASE? 
|
Recent Comments