Having a Prince

Well as many of our readers will be familiar with Prince 2, I thought I might incorporate that into this blog. As you will know Prince 2 is very versatile and can be tailored to fit a variety of projects, so I had an interesting project that I thought I would compare it to. My wife and I are having a baby, so I thought it might be interesting to see how this would fit into Prince 2!

First and foremost we have the mandate, now this came in the instance of being planned however it was still a surprising and exciting time. When we found out we were pregnant, we followed this up with lots of reading and research. I learned many things at this stage, for example you have to wait 20 weeks until you know if you are having a boy or girl. Much like in a project at work, when you receive a mandate you start to look at all the different aspects, and begin to gather information.

This formed the bases of our business case, or more literally a shopping list of requirements. Through reading books, internet pages, and about 1,000,000 product reviews we soon came up with what we needed to buy, when we needed it, and what we needed to do. I soon learned that the project budget would need to be in the thousands! This information lead to a business case, and the beginning of a plan. This was of course thoroughly reviewed by the project board which consisted of grandparents to be, doctors, and the nosy neighbour. We implemented tools to track progress, by using our Facebook pages to keep everyone updated.

Our plan looked something like this:

• Weeks 8 – 12 – Keep it quiet, it was exciting but this stage was all about secrecy until the first doctor’s appointment. Deal with morning sickness, and researching. This then produced an initial shopping list.
• Stage Boundary – First doctors scan
• Weeks 12 – 20 – Tell friends and family, and refine shopping list by getting rid of all the stuff we hoped others would buy us. Make space in the house for the baby. This lead to building fitted wardrobes to clear out a bedroom for the little one.
• Stage Boundary – Second doctors scan
• Weeks 20 – 30 – Now that all is normal and healthy with the baby, start shopping with items from list. This resulted in long Saturdays at the shops and Sunday’s building flat pack furniture and decorating the bedroom. After this stage all is ready and waiting for the baby.
• Stage Boundary – Neo Natal Classes
• Weeks 30 -36 – Waiting patiently for the little one, and monitoring all movements and thoughts that it may come early. I have an important role here to keep the Mommy calm, and ensure all preparation is complete. Outputs from this stage are a hospital bag, and excitement.
• Stage Boundary – Follow up with midwife
• Weeks 36 – 40 – Wait patiently for the little one, and ensure the mother stays calm
• Closing the project – Well this is expected to be the most exciting and scariest part, and is when the little one arrives and fills us all with joy!

Now you may be thinking that this approach trivializes the important and large occasion that having a baby is. However, I feel that this shows how using a structured approach can take an overwhelming and complicated task and make it look quite reasonable and simple. We are currently 32 weeks so are building up to the last stage of the project, so my next blog might be a bit different! Let’s remember now that a project is a temporary team of people working together to implement change. So my next blog after the baby is due will focus on business as usual, or as I’m told crying babies and dirty diapers!

Luke Stegall

Project manager/Business analyst

Introducing our NEO upgrade.

Zipporah is in a state of change at the moment. We are introducing our Neo systems to our clients which is both exciting and challenging for the organisation as a whole and for us as developers. We are getting feedback on the system which we are constantly acting on to make the systems as versatile as possible. All of the team are working hard to ensure that our systems will meet the high standards expected of us from our clients as we roll out the Neo systems to replace the existing solutions.

It’s a long process (and suddenly you realise quite how many clients we have) as we work with each client to guide them through the biggest system change we have had for quite some time. Until that time our teams have to juggle two sets of systems simultaneously, keeping the older systems up and running whilst primping and pruning the Neos. The continuous multitasking means we need to switch our mind sets from one system to another when communicating with clients and internally amongst ourselves. It’s all a question of balance, balancing work on Neo system with supporting existing applications and balancing work schedules so that no solution falls between the cracks. Balance and time management have become watchwords for the organisation at present and everybody is working hard to ensure that the transitions are as smooth as possible.

You might think it’s all hard work but there’s joy in this dynamism. From a developer’s point of view it means we get to learn how to use a new technology and we developers love to feel like we’re on the cutting edge. In particular I think we all feel the joy of a job well done and the client feedback has been excellent. They find it easier to manage everything in the system and our support has dropped considerably. It’s fantastic to hear that the hard work of the organisation and our dev team is leading to such well received results.

So, it can get challenging but the customer satisfaction is our bottom line. And although these are demanding times, it is rewarding to know that our customers continue to be impressed with the work we do. Keep those positive comments coming as they help to make it all worthwhile!

Imran Khan 

Web Developer

KANA Connect 2013

A few weeks ago we were invited to attend the annual KANA Connect conference, which was held at Manchester United’s home ground, Old Trafford. Zipporah were attending as we have undertaken a wide range of integrations between our solutions and the Lagan CRM and have developed increasing out of the box integrations to make it easier for Local Authorities to combine online and CRM.

Now being a huge Manchester United fan, I was extremely happy to attend the conference for obvious reasons! However, it also gave us an excellent opportunity to meet with a large group of delegates, ranging across multiple sectors including a large number of Local Authorities. Whilst we are very well known in our marketplace, being one of the leading suppliers of online business solutions to the Public Sector, it is always great to meet new people, find out how they are currently managing interaction with their citizens and discuss some of the solutions that we have on offer that are helping similar authorities to save substantial amounts of time and money.

The conference as a whole was excellently put together, with some great Keynote speakers including James Cracknell OBE, and Bernard Fenton of Derby City Council, who’s speech in particular was extremely interesting to hear.

After a busy but rewarding day, all conference delegates were then treated to an Old Trafford stadium tour, which I’m not too proud to admit I jumped at the opportunity of taking part in! All in all, a very successful conference for Zipporah!

Jordan  Burnell 

Business Development Executive 

Can BYOD work in public sector?

The recent Gartner report identified BYOD as an emerging trend to revolutionise workplace and shape the performance of organisations . BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) is a scheme permitting employees to use personal devices including laptops, tablets and smartphones to access company information and applications

According to Gartner, up to 38% of companies expect to stop providing devices to staff by 2016, with the estimated 75% of employees in high growth markets such as Brazil and Russia and 44% in developed markets already using their devices at work. As the vast amount of data and services is now cloud-based and accessible via multiple devices, the implementation of BYOD is increasingly becoming a norm. But can it be adopted by public sector?

Theoretically, there are many benefits of BYOD, no matter what sector you look at. There are significant savings to be made by reducing or avoiding cost of hardware, which is estimated at £500 per employee across public administration. Also the greater mobility and flexibility to work when using your own devices, coupled with greater employee satisfaction and increased productivity is another reason for public sector to harness the power of BYOD.

But as it is easy to imagine there are also certain concerns surrounding the concept, with the security issue being one of these. The coexistence of enterprise and consumer applications on a one device is a major concern, with the risk of breaching company’s confidentiality and resulting in potential financial loss. Notably, Gartner estimates that by 2017 40 % of enterprise contact information will have leaked into Facebook via employees’ increased use of mobile device collaboration applications.

Whilst BYOD becomes common practice in the private sector, there are already public body organisations in the UK considering the options. MOD for example has already prohibited any sort of BYOD as a matter of policy, whilst Norfolk County Council is one of the only councils that allows employees to use their own devices. Will others?

Do you think local government can benefit from BYOD? Join us at Facebook & vote in the poll!

Anna Mazur

Marketing Executive