WRITTEN ON June 19th, 2008 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Save Time and Money, Transformational Government, What do we want?
I thought The Key was the name of the one and only piece of successful social networking inside govermment – the problem-solving community for head teachers created by TEN for the Teacher Development Agency.
But noooooooo no no, it seems it’s now to be the brand for some form of innovation project based in Warrington Cheshire by some people who do the Government Gateway. I’m so confused…. Dave, who sent this to me, says:
I can never tell if these things are real any more…
The story is that EDT which runs the Government Gateway which is a CIO Council Champion Asset at the heart of the Transformational Government strategy [but hang on, I thought the Transformational Government strategy was to converge around the Home Office's scurrilous ID scheme???] in conjunction with a tribe called DIUS [which must have done something very evil to have to change its identity so thoroughly] has launched a centre in Warrington [is that something of a contradiction in terms?] called The Key [not to be confused with The Key which tops the Google rankings for "the key" and is not that hard to find] to help SMEs market technology to government [apart, presumably, from TEN to which this brand confusion will be an annoying hindrance].
It says it has a website at http://gic.clicksandlinks.co.uk/ (and clicks & links is I think run by my mate Vin Sumner, so it cant be all bad). But the site isnt working.
Will this initiative work? Well, hope springs eternal. Maybe it can twist the arms of EDS, IBM, BT, CSC and Accenture to treat their innovative subcontractors better and allow the flexibility in outsourced contracts that allows innoation in core IT spend. Maybe it can get bits of government to adopt outside ideas pragmatically and without ego, and sensitive to the modest but urgent needs small businesses have for reasonable decision timescales and reasonable cash flow. But as I write these words, I rather doubt it.
I know how we test it. If it helps the MySociety-type innovations get a foothold in government and see their way to some revenues from government, then it’ll work. If not, then they’ll describe why it wont work better than I can.
Meanwhile:
Wibbi government didnt pinch the brand of the one and only Web 2.0 government IT success story (created of course by an SME) when trying to create a new brand to help SME’s sell IT successes to government.
Wibbi they stopped changing the names of their tribes and confusing us all. Wasnt there a policy that came out saying if you registered with a dumb name you were stuck with it? Oh yes – the benighted ID Scheme. Well anyway, if they’re serious about that principle can they please stop all this nonsense about Dberr and Dius and Defra and Fetida and Office of the Deputy PM’s Ego and DETR. Most of us can barely be bothered to learn the names first time round let alone relearn them every time they lose all their laptops of have their accounts qualified.
Wibbi they changed the reality more and the names less
Wibbi we were less London-centric. Yes – me included. Greetings to anyone north of Hatfield.
Full text of the release below. I’ve put out a call to Damien Kennedy and if he returns it there may be an update….
UPDATE: I dont think he returned the call…
Government Gateway Team, EDT, launch new Programme to Support Innovation in Government
16th June 2008
EDT with help from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills have launched a call for applications to showcase products and solutions within their new Innovation Centre in Warrington, Cheshire, called
“The Key” – Unlocking Innovation in Government .
Amongst the programme’s objectives are firstly to support SMEs and third sector organisations in marketing their technology-based innovations to government. Also, to encourage public sector decision makers to consider different and innovative technology-based approaches to policy making. As well as trying, to address the barriers of skills and knowledge of government which currently hold SMEs and third sector organisations back from being able to market their services effectively.
The centre aims to promote innovation in technology by providing suppliers with an exciting opportunity to showcase their approved innovative IT products and solutions to the public sector within state-of-the-art facilities at EDT’s base in Warrington.
The Centre named “The Key” will showcase innovative products and solutions relating to a specific theme. These themes will be identified by senior government technologists with the first call for applications looking for remote working and green IT products and solutions. Future themes are likely to include Biometrics in Government, Data Centre virtualisation, consultation approaches, engaging young people with education and improving collaboration.
A two-stage accreditation process has been developed which includes a paper-based application and a more formal ‘dragons den’ style interview with a panel of government experts, some of whom will later mentor successful organisations.
Accompanying the real life centre is a fully interactive virtual innovation centre within the popular Second Life environment. This will feature current and past innovations and will further raise awareness of the innovations programme.
The benefits for organisations who apply are two-fold. Firstly, there is an opportunity to have their products seen and assessed by both procurement decision makers and business managers across government. Secondly, successful applicants are able to receive formal support through a report and mentor mechanism which will help them to promote and sell their innovations to the public sector.
The programme is about improving the way innovations are promoted to public sector decision makers and will aim to support their adoption by providing guidance and tools to navigate government more effectively. Moreover, the programme aims to allow greater inclusion of smaller companies in public sector procurements processes.
The call for applications, which was launched at GCEXPO 2008, is open to all Companies however to ensure all suppliers meet approved quality standards to work with Government, EDT would like organisations to sign up to it’s formal partnering programme, Government Gateway Alliance Partners (GGAP), . Suppliers not belonging to the GGAP programme and who have an interest in applying to the Innovation centre are encouraged to sign up to the GGAP in the first instance.
Damien Kennedy, Head of Business Partnerships at EDT stated “The new centre provides IT partners with the opportunity of presenting their world class innovations to a pan-government audience. We want the centre to become a central hub to connect public sector needs with private and public sector solutions and to ensure all of government benefits from these innovations”
For more information, please visit www.cio.gov.uk/thekeyEnds
Notes to Editors
EDT-
EDTs primary function is the development, operational management and support of the Government Gateway. The Government Gateway is the Government’s CIO Council Champion Asset for identity services. The core function is the Identity verification and authentication for citizens, businesses and Government employees.
The Government Gateway forms a part of the Governments critical national infrastructure (CNI) and its use is at the very heart of Transformational Government.
EDT is committed to developing a set of values and approaches that enable the release of applied innovation across the public sector, in line with the CIOs Framework and Department for Innovation Universities and Skills, (DIUSs) strategy on sharing innovation across Government.
Through the Government Gateway Alliance Programme, EDT works with industry, Intellect and suppliers in promoting Transformational Government, development of Innovation and on collaborative ventures. Success in this engagement is underpinned by EDTs OJEU framework catalogue Pygmalion. This framework provides strategic commercial relationships with suppliers in the following areas;
Consultancy
Technology
Data Centre Approaches
Information Security and Assurance
Further information is available at http://www.cio.gov.uk/edt/
About DIUS
DIUS champions innovation across government and aims to make the UK the leading place in the world which to be an innovative business, public service or third sector organisation. DIUS’ recent ‘Innovation Nation’ white paper describes how the Department aims to create the conditions for innovation to thrive at all levels – amongst individuals, within communities and regions.
This means harnessing ideas from the public and private sectors, users and professionals to create more effective products, services, processes and methods of public service delivery.
Further information is available at www.dius.gov.uk
