SOUTHERN
Online @ No 10 Downing Tweet
Business leaders gained an intriguing insight into how the coalition government is becoming more transparent and using digital communications technology to inform and encourage public debate about important topics
® TECH 100
Procurement red-tape problems for SMES
During his Southern Tech 100 presentation Nick Jones encouraged the business community to advise on ways to reduce government bureaucracy. In a Q&A session afterwards he was made fully aware of the red-tape pain for technology SMEs seeking public sector work.
While the CloudStore concept was applaudable, said one attendee, the procurement process had been made too complex and detailed. “The bureaucrats have got hold of it and in some cases we’ve ended up with worse than we had.“
Another suggested it was “a great idea, with poor implementation“. The mentality of the new documentation was “so wrong as to how the private sector operates“.
From left: Anthony Donohue of Barclays Corporate, David Murray of The Business Magazine, Steve Clarke of James Cowper, Andrew Peddie of Pitmans and guest speaker Nick Jones
Speaking at a Southern Tech 100 dinner, Nick Jones, head of digital, prime minister’s office and cabinet office, revealed the government’s increasing use of social media and modern communication techniques when he introduced “a new young colleague called Stefffy L“ – the all-encompassing acronym for the many online digital channels used by his civil service team.
Stefffy L – Site (website:
number10.gov.uk), Twitter, Email, Facebook, Foursquare, Flickr, YouTube and LinkedIn, etc – was enabling faster and wider communication in general, while also generating interaction within influential online user-groups, Jones said.
Following the old maxim that “sunlight is the best disinfectant“, greater transparency of public information and government policy is being provided by ’Stefffy L’ online activities.
For instance, David Cameron had Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook sites which often reported on his views and visits – recently to Waitrose in Bracknell and financial software provider Intuit in Maidenhead.
Jones exampled how social media had been used to seed public discussion and media interest on potential changes to adoption, and on International Women’s Day concerns about stalking. Using Twitter the No.10 team had highlighted a social attitudes survey which was picked up by BBC TV’s Panorama.
And, digital communications are being used to promote the Queen’s Jubilee events throughout the country, the Olympics, and the “Britain is GREAT“ advertising campaign supporting the national economy overall.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – APRIL 2012
Social media was developing fast, added Jones. “This stuff has incredible potential to change the world in a very positive way.“
LinkedIn had provided a quality business- focused response to the issue of red-tape. Twitter’s 140-character limit, Jones noted, was a valuable lesson in not overcomplicating the message. And Bambuser, a new social medium enabling the uploading of live mobile phone footage, was currently informing the world about unrest in Syria.
The government’s CloudStore, launched in February, is acting as an online marketplace through which public sector bodies can purchase commodity cloud services from over 250 different suppliers. The site achieved 250,000 visits and its first procurement transaction within a fortnight.
Last year
www.data.gov.uk was set up as a single point of access to nearly 6,000 government data sets. Its aim is to open up government. Some businesses are now using this fresh access to information to develop opportunities, said Jones.
A new website –
Gov.UK – is currently being developed to replace
www.direct.gov.uk and provide an improved, more open and user- friendly service.
But, social media required careful handling, Jones added. “If you engage in social media, you don’t control the conversation and have to be prepared to take some blows as well.“
The dinner was hosted by The Business Magazine at The Forbury Hotel in Reading and sponsored by Barclays Corporate, accountants and business advisers James Cowper and law firm Pitmans.
“The guidelines from the top translated into the monster that arrived on our desks are disgraceful.“
Others commented that tender documentation contained “nonsense questions“, favoured big vendors, and “made it virtually impossible for SMEs to succeed“.
Civil service mindset on risk was also a concern. Picking the well-known provider might be a safe choice, but possibly not the best option. “CloudStore is a good starting point but you have to stop people thinking about the risks of procurement. By using an SME you might be increasing your risk, but you might also get a better result at a better price,“ commented a Surrey entrepreneur.
“If you are giving the contract to someone who is going to manage the risk of failure for you, that is not being an intelligent client. The reason is that there is no risk. There is always someone in our IT industry, waiting in the wings to take over,“ added another speaker.
It was also suggested the Government should scrap the three-to-five year contract tender process, which “locks people out“ of the fast-changing technology market. “We have a live industry, and if we are not attuned to our competition today, we should fail. Long-term tenders are not natural in IT.“
On March 9, Frances Maude, minister for the cabinet office, announced further measures to support SMEs in winning government business. View:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/ better-deal-smaller-businesses
www.businessmag.co.uk
13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36