Look at the cost of using any SaaS offering and you’ll be presented a varying scale of Per User prices.  The scales change usually depending on how many Users you’re expecting to use the service.  Vendors do this so that they can “reward” larger Customers because, like the airline industry, in SaaS numbers mean everything.  You stand up an infrastructure and the fuller it is the...
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Just to add to the paranoia surrounding the use of Social Networks about how prospective employers will scour the net to find out about applicants and all those dubious comments made whilst under the influence or those photos that at the time seemed hilarious. Well Big Brother just got BIGGER. The BBC is running an article about the FBI looking for someone to develop a mash-up to...
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Friday 20th January saw the annual UKGovcamp take place at Microsoft's Victoria Street offices in London. UKGovcamp is an unconference.  Meaning there's no pre-set agenda.  The agenda is agreed by the attendees in the first session of the morning.  So by about 10:45 there were 40 sessions agreed for the rest of the day in the different breakout rooms allocated to the...
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Around the time Lotus Notes began to go out of fashion around a decade ago I was involved in a protracted debate that took place within a large multinational for which I worked. Why isn’t Lotus Notes working for us? Lotus Notes doesn’t work for us, argued global I.T, because it’s too anarchic – anyone can create a database, there’s too much proliferation of content, people just don’t know...
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Thanks to Steve Dale for this blog posting that he has posted on his personal blog .   Introduction This is a summary of one of the breakout session I ran at the Cisco Public Services Summit , Oslo 9-11 December 2011.  It describes the role of Communities of Practice in supporting more effective collaboration and knowledge sharing between organisations working in the...
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Eliminating the use of e-mail as an internal communication tool among staff in an organization is not impossible, but it is not easy either. While the adoption of social enterprise and collaboration tools is indubitably on the rise, traditional e-mail's ease of use and how it is already entrenched in work culture can be further enhanced with social media integration. So why am I even...
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The National Audit Office has stated that “Since Government has not routinely measured the benefits of online services, it cannot demonstrate optimal use of resources”.  Measuring the benefits of government to citizen engagement portals is crucial to ensure that tax payer funded services deliver “value”, however “value” is not always measured in pounds shillings and pence. ...
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Following on from John's blog about his experience with his watch supplier I thought it would be good to show how this might be done better. So, rather than sending out a blanket email to everyone that (possibly by default) subscribed to your email list things could be somewhat more sophisticated and targeted. In the brave new world of Social Media people tell their contacts...
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A number of years ago, I was passionate about a certain Swiss watch-maker, having aspired for some time to own one of their remarkable (aviator) timepieces (despite never feeling the urge to take the pilot’s controls).so I bit the bullet, purchased a stunning chronograph, and enjoyed it immensely. However, whilst completing the purchase I went and provided my email address (silly me). Ever...
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  The Cabinet Office’s Mike Bracken is right.  The vast swath of government web sites are defined by their labyrinthine structures, the feeling of despair and futility they engender, their drab unimaginative atmosphere.  Government should make their citizen portals simple, inviting, helpful and encouraging.  This does not mean that they should endorse the latest web...
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