Public sector ICT fails to learn private sector lessons

The UK public sector is failing to learn from the ICT lessons of the private sector according to a new report released today by Mercury.

While private sector ICT is currently optimising to boost business performance and address the errors of investment experienced in the 1990s technology boom, the public sector has not moved as quickly. Despite the ongoing e-government drive and its imminent targets, just 34% of public sector professionals feel that ICT is ‘well integrated into core business operations’, compared to 70% of their private sector counterparts.

In gauging the views of employees on issues such as pay and recognition, the situation again appears in favour of the private sector. A massive 94% of the public sector respondents believed that their salaries were worse than the private sector equivalent role, compared to just 4% having this view among the private sector participants. Also, 85% of the private sector participants felt that their job satisfaction and recognition was better than that of the public sector.

“These findings will make IT professionals and senior management alike draw a sharp breath – in both sectors. The bottom line is these investments, by shareholders or taxpayers, must be well governed for the long term. Both public and private sectors need to ensure, ahead of time, that IT projects are well planned and that applications will function properly when live,” commented Andrew Smith, Head of Public Sector for Mercury UK.

“This study shows lessons need to be learned if public sector IT projects are to deliver on their goals avoiding the mistakes some high-profile private enterprises have made. Only then will the public benefit from optimised technology,” added Mr. Smith.

Carlisle hails ‘telemedicine’ success

Carlisle Housing Association and Carlisle and District Primary Care Trust have praised the success of ‘telemedicine’ following clinical evaluation of a pioneering healthcare initiative.

The telemedicine system, using equipment from telehealth specialist Tunstall, measures and records patient temperature, heart rate, pulse oximetry, breathing rate, ECG and non-invasive blood pressure then sends the information via a phone line to an electronic patient record database, which is then accessible by clinicians and nurses.

When employed at Carlisle, telemedicine has helped the treatment of respiratory diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), reducing the need for hospital stays by almost 50%, from 10 days to 5.5 days.

"This initiative is at the forefront of healthcare delivery. It's a win-win situation for patients and their carers, who are now benefiting from more effective chronic disease management,” said Kay Douglas, Senior Clinical Manager Intermediate Care Team for Carlisle and District PCT.

"This service enables us to deliver more proactive care and support for patients, who can remain living independently with the reassurance that help is at hand should they need it. Telemedicine units enable us to make early intervention, helping us to adopt a more preventative approach to care, which has helped to reduced hospital readmissions."

e-Gov boost for Wealden

Wealden District Council has announced a complete revamp of its website in a bid to meet upcoming e-government requirements. The changes will focus on improving e-service delivery and accessibility targets, along with general functionality and usability. As part of the overhaul, Wealden will use eVisit Analyst Government, a website analysis system designed to offer an insight into user habits and site performance.

The system will offer detailed reporting that will allow Wealden to strategically assess the different sections and services on the website.

"This is a major web site upgrade programme so we need to ensure that we understand how our customers are using our site and what they require, as well as measuring traffic and improving reporting processes. We chose eVisit Analyst because it offered a very comprehensive stats package and included additional features such as link checker and online surveys. The eVisit Analyst team made it clear that they were constantly developing additional services according to their customer’s needs,” said Anna Jones, Web Services Officer at Wealden District Council.

John Harrison CEO of Maxsi added; "eVisit Analyst Government has been developed specifically to meet the unique requirements of local government website analysis. Many of the features we have introduced on eVisit Analyst Government have been suggested by councils themselves. We are also working with the Wealden web site team to provide support for ODPMs Priority Outcome reporting.”

Tayside Fire & Rescue password plan

Tayside Fire and Rescue (TFR) will employ new password management and biometric fingerprint solutions to deal with the growing number of ICT users at the organisation over the last two years. Using Imprivata OneSign, the system will be implemented across the twenty-four TFR stations in North East Scotland.

“We have a relatively small IT team that supports 800 users across 24 offices and resetting passwords was becoming a major logistical headache that required a significant amount of time,” explained Gary Bellfield, ICT Manager, Tayside Fire and Rescue. “With the demand for new applications rapidly increasing, the issue of password resets was threatening to impact user productivity, so we had to find a smart and affordable solution to stem the problem. Imprivata OneSign has given us exactly what we were looking for.”

The number of ICT users at TFR has risen from less than 60 to more than 800 since 2003, and each user has access to as many as ten separate applications. The demand for covering password resets took up as much as two days a week of one ICT team member’s time.

“With such a high demand for computer access it is vital that each terminal is used as effectively as possible by being simple and easy to use,” explained Stephen Hunter, Chief Fire Officer, Tayside Fire and Rescue. “Having a single log-on that just requires a fingerprint is proving extremely popular with users and is also highly secure. Imprivata has provided us with a future-proof solution that will enable us to take advantage of new technology developments as our needs evolve, as well as allowing IT staff to concentrate on the maintenance and development of systems rather than password resets.”

Midlothian unveils VoIP solution

Midlothian Council has made the switch from traditional telephony to VoIP, across its one hundred sites, improving infrastructure management at the local authority. By installing four Mitel 3300 Integrated Communications Platforms (ICP), Midlothian is carrying out a phased introduction of VoIP, retaining its existing equipment.

The complexity of Midlothian’s phone system has been an issue since the 1996 merger with Lothian Regional Council which formed a unitary authority, and IP had been earmarked as a solution since 2003. VoIP enables increased call volume capacity and reduces call costs, among other benefits over traditional telephony.

“We have a lot of small systems in our sites and it was difficult to move staff from one site to another, now we have the IP solution it is much easier and saves the IT team time to focus on other areas. The IP solution has enabled us to put the voice traffic on the data network, and provided an increase in call volume capacity to meet future requirements,” explained Doug Kinnaird, Head of IT, Midlothian Council.

“Using a triangulated data network in combination with the resiliency features available on the 3300, ICP has been a lot more cost effective than putting a traditional business continuity arrangement in place for voice alone. The Mitel IP solution has also helped reduce call costs by putting all internal calls across the IP infrastructure and making them free,” he added.

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