VIDEO REPORT: Local Government IT Excellence Awards 2010
Innovation, ingenuity and intuition

Hertfordshire County Council with Connect Digitally's Online Free School Meals project and the London Borough of Redbridge's Ilford Blueprint Online project have won this year's Local Government IT Excellence Awards.

The Metropolitan Police received a special prize for innovation for its Focus Court Presentation System, while Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council was highly commended for its e-buy procurement system.

Competition for this year's awards was strong with entries unerringly in line with technology's leading edge. But it is not that which makes these awards so unique, it is the commitment and passion which public sector ICT professionals bring to these projects that proves so special.

2010 was no exception. The finalists - Connect Digitally, the London Borough of Redbridge, the Metropolitan Police and Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council - between them pushed the boundaries of innovation in the use of technology. Interestingly though, this year they also highlight the importance of taking people with you on this journey of change.

UKauthorITy.com spoke to the awards organiser, Intellect, and the winners at Socitm 2010 last month - watch the video report below.

The awards, organised by Intellect, Socitm and SOLACE, are now in their 15th year. The competition highlights public sector IT projects that improve the efficiency and delivery of services within local communities. This year's awards are supported by Best Practice Group, the UK experts in making service provider partnerships work.

More about the winners:

Connect Digitally, Online Free School Meals led by Hertfordshire County Council

Connect Digitally, Online Free School Meals is transforming a service with a complex delivery chain that sat in the ‘too difficult to solve’ box for years. Led by Hertfordshire County Council and funded by the Department for Education, the project is working with 174 local authorities in England and Wales and 4 central government departments to change a difficult, paper based process to an electronic one with potential to improve outcomes for over a million children annually while driving down service costs. Innovative technical delivery, shaping the service around the citizen, and persuading providers and users of the benefits of this change are critical to success.

Ilford Blueprint Online - London Borough of Redbridge

Ilford Blueprint Online is an innovative web-based marketing tool developed by the London Borough of Redbridge and Virtual Viewing Ltd to help turn planning policy into reality. It provides 3D visualisation of development potential in Ilford, one of London’s 11 metropolitan town centres. The project team has successfully combined web-based commerce and gaming technology with planning policy and regeneration, creating an online resource for promoting development opportunity sites identified in Ilford’s adopted Area Action Plan.

Metropolitan Police - Focus Court Presentation System

The Focus Court Presentation System is a bespoke software-based digital evidence viewer and organiser, designed by the Metropolitan Police Service’s own engineers for use in the courtroom by non-specialist operators including police officers. It is a highly effective and simple-to-use tool, allowing the officer one-click access to all of the digital exhibits pertaining to a case, helping to speed up and streamline the presentation of evidence in court.

Highly commended:

The E-Buy procurement system developed by Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and EGS is on course to save £3.5million over five years by transforming the way the councils procures goods and services from suppliers. E-Buy - delivered on time and under budget - has replaced disparate and inefficient systems with a highly-automated, web-based solution for purchasing-to-payment (P2P), including electronic invoicing, saving hours of admin time for employees. Suppliers of all sizes and the wider local economy are benefiting too.

Previous years' winners

Follow the links to see details of IT Excellence Award winners from previous years:

IT Excellence Awards 2009

IT Excellence Awards 2008

IT Excellence Awards 2007

IT Excellence Awards 2006

IT Excellence Awards 2005

IT Excellence Awards 2004

IT Excellence Awards 2003

IT Excellence Awards 2002

Slides, video, tweets, photos and reports from Socitm 2010 now available on the conference micro site: www.socitm2010.net