NHS Oxfordshire deploys INOVEM

INOVEM, a pioneer of Web 2.0 technologies that enable public sector organisations and private businesses to collaborate, consult and engage with internal and external stakeholders, today announced that its Inclusionware technology has been selected by NHS Oxfordshire.

NHS Oxfordshire plans and provides local healthcare services and hospital treatment in the community. The trust works with GP practices, dentists, pharmacists and opticians across Oxfordshire as well as providing services such as district nursing, health visiting, school nursing and a range of specialist and therapy services.

Under its commitment to world-class commissioning NHS Oxfordshire has a duty to involve and consult stakeholders when new services are proposed and in the development of changes to existing services. These consultations include engagement and involvement activities with a wide range of stakeholders across Oxfordshire - including the public, patients, charities and other relevant groups - to ensure services reflect the needs and wishes of the diverse community served by the trust.

INOVEM Inclusionware is a secure online environment accessed using various levels of role-based access control, so that consultation managers, administrators and stakeholders only see those areas that are appropriate and relevant to them. It provides organisations with new and innovative ways to target and seek views of key stakeholders and local populations. The software also helps to standardise involvement practices, record and analyse the views of all relevant groups and audit how they have been taken into account.

The new service will be used by NHS Oxfordshire’s Communications and Engagement team to communicate and consult across the web with greater efficiency, transparency, accuracy and accountability.

Sara Price, Communications and Engagement Projects Coordinator at NHS Oxfordshire, explained the decision to adopt INOVEM Inclusionware: “Without a common consultation management framework in place, we were prone to duplicating effort when managing consultations and found it hard to handle large volumes of data gathered using a wide variety of consultation methods, multiple document formats and information management styles. We were concerned that this approach was too time consuming and could begin to affect the quality and efficiency of our engagement and involvement projects.”

John Glover, sales and marketing director at INOVEM, said: “Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) have a challenge to involve and engage a huge range of people and organisations, and to demonstrate a vision and commitment to healthcare services while delivering local value, and showing financial prudence. At INOVEM we empower people and groups to work together better and nowhere is this more important than across our health service. INOVEM Inclusionware can play a pivotal role in making the daily lives of engagement professionals in PCTs easier, making the business of consulting with stakeholders more efficient and speeding up processes that ultimately lead to improved public services for all of us.”

INOVEM solutions are specifically developed to help organisations such as NHS Oxfordshire manage complex consultation projects while streamlining their administration of large volumes of responses. The system is easy-to-use and simplifies the creation and management of online consultations providing a framework for continuous and meaningful engagement.

Sara Price concluded: “INOVEM Inclusionware will free our consultation managers from repetitive administrative tasks and allow us to be more creative, productive and targeted with our consultation approaches. It will enable us to form better relationships with our stakeholders so that we engage with them on subjects that they are interested in and using consultation methods that they prefer. We will now get greater value from previous best practice and a secure, yet flexible framework in which to manage our consultations. INOVEM is a very attractive solution for NHS Oxfordshire.

"It is simple to set-up, use and manage and is also very cost-effective, which is a key consideration for us as a public sector organisation. We look forward to passing on the benefits to the people of Oxfordshire, making it easier for the public and patients to have their say and influence change in their local NHS.”

Cezanne Software Announces FREE Webinar - Practical Tips for HR - How to achieve a successful roll-out of global HR software

With over 20 years’ experience in rolling out international HR systems to many of the world’s leading organizations, Cezanne Software today announced that they will be presenting an online webinar on “How to achieve a successful roll-out of global HR software solutions on Thursday, 26th November 2009 at 2:30pm GMT.

Cezanne Software will share their best practice approach and discuss with you a number of key client global HR software implementations so that you can identify the steps that you need to take to ensure the success of your own international HR system projects. Cezanne Software will also provide companies with practical tips on how to take advantage of global systems, address key strategic HR issues, and be in a stronger position to leverage resources and streamline operations across geographies.

Julie Windsor, Director of Operations for Cezanne UK & Benelux, comments, “In the past, all but the largest of international organizations have had to make do with managing their global workforce using disconnected and disparate HR systems. In the old economy this worked – just about. In today’s more competitive and rapidly moving environment, this approach is no longer sustainable, or necessary.”

As a result, organizations are seeking global human resource software solutions that deliver HR cost efficiencies, as well as higher levels of employee engagement, retention, and productivity. Such a solution is the perfect tool to help organizations sharpen their competitive edge in the global business landscape.

For more information on the webinar, please visit http://www.cezannesw.com/webinars/webinar-pages/global-hr-so...

To register for the webinar, please visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/349539961

Can unbiased editorial flourish on non-media sites?

A new series of editorial features commissioned by information risk management specialist ArmstrongAdams aims to show that quality independent journalism can continue to be supported in spite of the growing challenges faced by the traditional IT publishing sector.

The first feature to be published, entitled “How Secure Are Your Applications?" has been written by leading IT security journalist Danny Bradbury. A technology writer since 1989 and a freelancer since 1994, he writes regularly for a number of titles including the Guardian and the Financial Times. He focuses heavily on information security, consumer technology and enterprise systems.

According to ArmstrongAdams Director Tim Kipps: “We believe that quality independent editorial is vital to the health of any business sector. Given the decline in the number of traditional IT media outlets, some people fear that this will have an impact on the sources for independent review and viewpoint. However, there is no reason why commercial vendor and service sites can’t commission journalists to write bylined features. But vendors must resist the temptation to create blatant puffery. Or attempt to influence journalists to write biased features.”

Continues Kipps: “People want to read genuinely independent and valuable content. Our view is that by giving journalists and writers the same kind of editorial freedom they would have with a normal publisher, we will encourage the best quality editorial. That in turn will generate the right kind of traffic to our own website.”

BBC Watchdog's Wi-Fi insecurities can 'easily be countered' says IronKey

An in-depth report on BBC TV's Watchdog consumer affairs programme on Thursday evening (http://preview.tinyurl.com/ykps7tm) revealed how insecure thousands of UK's Wi-Fi hotspots really are.

Colin Woodland, EMEA director of field operations with IronKey, highlights that many easy to use solutions exist to counter the problem.

“Entertaining though the Watchdog programme was, I think they got it wrong when they said that securing a laptop Wi-Fi session was technically tricky. Laptop security technology is no longer the domain of the techies as the technology is now easy to install and use for most laptop users.

"The WatchDog report referred to technically complex systems such as virtual private networks (VPNs) being a solution to the problem of Wi-Fi session eavesdropping and interception, but many solutions are a lot simpler than that," he said.

Laptop Wi-Fi users simply need to use technologies such as a secured and trusted web browser, hardware based session encryption, virtual keyboards and two factor authentication or similar authentication technologies to ensure you - and only you - can log into a Web-based email session, with no chance of being intercepted" he added.

According to the secure flash drive specialist's director, whilst VPNs are technically complex to set up, the use of private secure session’s technology and strong authentication technologies are easy to use and will help to make it impossible for the man-in-the-middle type of attack shown on Watchdog.

Using a trusted and self contained web browser which is stored on a flash drive and securely encrypted until needed means that it cannot be tampered with to install malware or spyware.

Virtual keyboards - where a simple software plug-in to the Web browser allows users to tap in their IDs, passwords and other critical information by `clicking out' letters and numbers on the computer's screen, rather than the keyboard - are always an excellent security option on any machine where there is a chance of malware being installed said Mr Woodland.

The use of a plug-in USB Hardware based encryption (https://www.ironkey.com/demo-personal) or similar technology, meanwhile - using a true random number generator and very secure hardware based encryption to outfox would-be data thieves - can also be used to secure an online session, he went on to say.

"These simple to use security building blocks can help to ensure that laptop and netbook data sessions - no matter what the underlying data technology is being used - are secure from prying eyes," he concluded.

For more on the BBC TV Watchdog Wi-Fi security revelations: http://preview.tinyurl.com/ykps7tm

For more on IronKey: www.ironkey.com

Appointment at Cimex

Cimex is delighted to announce the appointment of leading digital industry figure, Brian Hoadley as Board Director.

Having worked for over 15 years in the digital arena at a senior level, Brian is an acknowledged expert in thought leadership, innovation and customer experience. In the 90’s he worked in the Educational Technology division of the prestigious BBN Technologies – developers of the underlying technology of the Internet (ARPANET) and the people who put the “@” symbol in your email.

As one of the founders of phunQube Brian was a key part of the project team that designed, built and launched the 4oD application for Channel 4 as well as working for a number of blue chip companies helping them to understand the power of customer experience to enhance their brands.

His last role as Head of Product Design and Innovation at Directgov gave him the opportunity to bring together his knowledge to help forge government digital strategy.

Steve Puxley, MD of Cimex says: “Brian’s experience of both the needs of the public sector and the demands of commercial business make him a unique asset to our business. Our clients will benefit enormously from his insight and strategic thinking.”

Brian Hoadley responds: “Cimex has long been at the vanguard of the constantly evolving digital industry, which is why I am so delighted to be a part of this agency and I am looking forward to helping us retain our place as one of the top-tier agencies in the business. I see the current economic climate as both an opportunity and a challenge for us to provide more targeted products and services and to grow our capabilities and client-base through collaborative innovation.”