This week we’ve seen a raft of banking reform as mixed as the contents of the Christmas stocking many of us will be peering into in bemusement, in a few short days. That the government took three months to rubber stamp the somewhat limited recommendations of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) is disappointing, but the final report of the Joint Committee on the Draft Financial Services Bill, and a paper from the Bank of England (BoE) on macro prudential policy tools all point towards recognition of a key issue that Intellect has been campaigning on for some time.

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In 1962 Kennedy gave a speech where he reaffirmed America’s ambition to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In his speech ‘We choose to go to the moon’, Kennedy squeezed 50,000 years of human history into 50 years to highlight the pace of human advancement. As the world stands on the edge of another defining moment in our history, this time economic, let’s pick up where Kennedy left off and use the same analogy to understand where we are today.

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Innovation, Health and Wealth - government's way forward

“We can be proud of our past – but we cannot be complacent about our future. The industry is changing; not just year by year, but month by month. We must ensure that the UK stays ahead…  – we’ve got to change radically – the way we innovate, the way we collaborate, the way we open up the NHS.”

These are the words of Prime Minister David Cameron, who yesterday announced a series of initiatives to respond to the changing nature of healthcare and the health and life science industries. The Department of Health launched the ‘Innovation, Health and Wealth: accelerating adoption and diffusion in the NHS’.

Complementing these reports DH also published the headline findings from the Whole Systems Demonstrator trial, the largest randomised control trial of telehealth and telecare in the UK, and indeed the world.

On the back of these headline findings David Cameron launched a campaign to roll out telehealth across the nation. He told the Independent:

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Technorati Tags: 3 Million Lives, Digital by Default, health IT, Innovation Health and Wealth, intellect, Intellect Healthcare Programme, NHS, NHS Innovation Review, procurement, Telehealth

Intellect launched a suite of important initiatives at yesterday’s Cabinet Office Supplier conference: “The Crown and Suppliers: A New Way of Working”. The initiatives are designed to provide government with better access to the tech market and help with government’s drive to improve ICT and commercial skills in government. This is in recognition of the fact that government is going to great lengths to seize the potential of technology to reform public services, and the technology industry and Intellect, as the industry’s trade association, are keen to proactively help drive that agenda forward.

The conference itself was very well attended with around 800 people registered, many from the private sector (cross-industry) with some key public sector delegates in the audience as well.  With an excellent line-up of speakers, Francis Maude, Joe Harley, Liam Maxwell, John Collington Ian Watmore, Phil Pavitt, Bill Crothers and many more, the event sought to provide delegates with a better understanding of government’s procurement, commercial and ICT agendas and an insight into government’s future potential contracting pipeline.

The highlight of the conference for us was three of the key names in government ICT flagging up the Intellect initiatives I have mentioned above in their speeches: the Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, The Government CIO Joe Harley, and the Director of ICT Futures, Liam Maxwell. (more…)

Technorati Tags: Government ICT, Government ICT Strategy, industry government working together, Intellect market access and skills

Following Intellect’s successful 4G Mobile Broadband conference, I would like to thank our speakers and panellists for their enlightening and provoking presentations and insights during the panel discussions.

Our day was kicked off by John Higgins who introduced John Woodget of Intel, followed by H Nwana of Ofcom and Frank Mather of the European Commission.

John Woodget spoke about the service provider sector - particularly the need for the industry to regain leadership. Intel believes this can be facilitated by a number of measures including; swift release of spectrum, development of longer term strategies, regaining international influence and the promotion of UK industry. (more…)

Technorati Tags: 4G, Adam Pollard, Analysis Mason, Android, Andy Nuttal, Apple, Blue Nowhere, DCMS, Dr Matt Yardley, Ed Vaizey, EU, European Commission, Everything Everywhere, Google, H Nwana, ICT KTN, Intel, intellect, iPhone, John Woodget, Kip Meek, LTE, mobile broadband, mobile network operators, Ofcom, Peter Curnow-Ford, Philip Hargrave, Skype, Stephen Lerner, Three, Vodafone, Wimax

With one day until Intellect’s 4G Mobile Broadband Conference in London, O2 have begun 4G trials in London.

These trials represent a significant ramping up of 4G development and signify O2′s serious intent to provide the first 4G service in the UK. Trials are usually performed in areas with low populations and medium radio traffic, allowing data to be captured easily without fear of interfernce. Trials within London represent a serious undertaking both technically and financially by O2. Their customers can expect data reception to devices at around 50 MBits per second or less for the duration of the trial – the current average being 1.5 MBits per second. (more…)

Technorati Tags: 2012 Spectrum release, 4G networks, 4G trials, 50 Mbps, commercial 4G services, Everything Everywhere 4G, Germany 4G network, Long term evolution, LTE, mobile broadband, O2 brings superfast 4G to London, Ofcom, research and development, Sweden 4G network, Telefonica O2, Vodafone 4G

IBM has appointed its first-ever woman CEO. Virginia Rometty, a senior vice president, will succeed Samuel J. Palmisano at the start of next year. This is good news. Rometty will be joining the rather small group of female CEOs in the technology industry including Ursula Burns of Xerox and Meg Whitman of Hewlett – Packard. That prominent women executives in our industry can be counted on the fingers of one hand is not good news. (more…)

Technorati Tags: Diversity, Equality, Quotas, Virginia Rometty

Following the publication of the strategic implementation plan (SIP) for the government ICT strategy, the Cabinet Office yesterday published sub-strategies for 4 of its 19 delivery areas – cloud, green ICT, end-user devices and ICT capability.  For ease of reference for Intellect members, we have highlighted some of the key points from each of the four strategies.

In addition, here are some of our observations on each of the four sub-strategies.

Government Cloud – The vision of the G-cloud strategy shows that the UK government is in step with the industry.  Commitments to a ‘public cloud first policy’, the move to ‘on-demand delivery’ and buying more solutions from the market ‘as is’ are on the money.  (more…)

Technorati Tags: Cabinet Office, capability, cloud, end user devices, Government ICT, green ICT

Following the consultations and subsequent technical DTT coexistence study published by Ofcom. Intellect thought it timely to invite Ofcom to discuss this critical project, with members in an open and frank forum. We were grateful to receive, Chris Adams – Project Director for DTT Coexistence and Steve Green – Project manager for TLC’s. (more…)

Technorati Tags: coexistence, coexistence study, consultation, Digital dividend review, DTT, eu commisssion decision 2010/267/eu, Future of digital terrestrial broadcasting, Ofcom, technical licensing conditions

Intellect members may be aware of the Radio Spectrum Policy Programme or “RSPP”, currently being batted between the EU parliament and Council like a policy tennis ball. The RSPP is an attempt by the EU to reflect on political priorities and how these priorities translate into strategic policy objectives for radio spectrum use. The RSPP’s impact on European telecommunications regulation will be similar to the Communications Act in Great Britain. Europe will be gripped by what is effectively legislation, which has implications from licensing to spectral efficiency, spectrum release to regulation and associated policy. (more…)

Technorati Tags: DCMS, EU, EU Council Presidency, European Commission, European council, European Parliament, Ofcom, Public Sector, Regulation, Regulatory policy, RSPP, Spectrum, spectrum inventory