Technology is certainly breaking down the barriers between work and home. It feels like our work life balance has gone to hell in a handcart. Now, it seems it is gate-crashing the bedroom with more and more of us checking email the last thing we do before the head hits the pillow. Can technology ever be romantic? Now, it’s hard to say this with a straight face but this question is being asked with the news that there is dramatic rise in the use of electronic devices in the bedroom. Let’s get one thing straight up front. I’m talking about laptops, tablets and smartphones.  

I’ve always had a kind of romantic view of technology seeing it as liberating humankind from the drudgeries of everyday life, promoting global social cohesion and world peace through international commerce. However, I’ve never really thought of it as a way of being more romantic with my beloved. For the record I never take my devices to bed but maybe I should. A little suggested competition can’t be a bad thing, can it? Maybe under-cover tweeting would be a good thing. Sharing a video on YouTube of a stupid cat doing something daft could be intimate, couldn’t it? After all, they say laughter is at the heart of intimacy. We could instant message each other, saying goodnight with the stroke of a few keys. That would be great, wouldn’t it? I don’t think so. I really don’t want my mind filled with petty office issues last thing. Other than cheese and coffee I can’t think of anything more likely to give me a restless night.

The funny thing about always-on, always-connected technology is that it can destroy relationships whilst building a new kind of personal social network. The danger is we replace a small number of deep relationships with many shallow relationships. But it’s so seductive. In Facebook we communicate the life we want friends to think we have, not the one we actually have. In that sense it is an escape but one that is hard to escape from. I can’t see how technology can be romantic in the personal sense. I may have over 500 LinkedIn associates and 200 Facebook friends but I’ve only got one partner and we like talking to each other. Even if it is just a tired goodnight and a yawn.

In 1983 the great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov described a world of Solarians. They had evolved an isolationist culture in which citizens never met save for reproductive purposes which they had to, by law, do every once in a while. All other contact was via sophisticated tele-presence systems. All work was done by robots. They hated meeting each other, dreading the experience and making the unpleasant business as short as possible. They eventually disappeared and I can’t help thinking this dystopian society based on the shallowest of relationships was doomed once its inhabitants started saying goodnight via SMS. In 2000 Robert Putnam’s seminal work Bowling Alone showed how society has become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbours and our democratic structures. He warned that our stock of social capital – the very fabric of our connections with each other, has plummeted, impoverishing our lives and communities.

Today we know technology can help re-balance society’s connections. There are many examples of communities forming, achieving and sustaining on-line. However, we don’t need it for deep personal relationships. I love technology. Just don’t ask me to take it to bed with me.

Read Steve’s predictions for agile working in 2013.

The post The Romance of Technology appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a short post that you can see here about my excitement waiting for the first set of outturns from our Net Good analysis.   It is still a week or two too early to tell you the results – they will be featured in our Annual Report and Accounts and our Better Future report due out soon,  but I can tell you that we are holding an event in London on June 18th to launch the programme.

Our CEO, Ian Livingston will be opening the event, and our CSO, Niall Dunne will be delivering the closing words. Along with our partners, The Climate Group, Carbon Trust and Small World Consulting, I  will be describing the approach, and we hope there will plenty of  discussion  and feedback on the next steps.

While this is an invitation-only event, and numbers are limited due to space, we would like to allow for some people outside of the usual lists of sustainability ‘suspects’  to join us.  We have five (free) places that we are opening up for anyone who would like to apply to attend.    We know this will bring us fresh perspectives and hope it helps develop the next generation of sustainability practitioners.

If you are interested in joining us, Please email steve.j.kelly@bt.com by Wednesday May 22nd with a short note listing your name, organization and why you would like to attend,

Either way, look out for plenty more engaging information on our Better Future web site and in our Better Future report later this month and tweet #BTBetterFuture to join the discussion.

The post Would You Like to Attend the Net Good Launch Event ? appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

It’s official that people who want to talk to government departments want choice about how they do that — even if they are more likely to choose the phone over any other channel.

That’s the findings of BT’s Autonomous Customer research, which suggests that people expect the same levels of service for government and public bodies as they do from the private sector — and they don’t want their choice of channels restricted.

While customers understand the need for efficiency — 86 per cent recognised this — they gave a resounding thumbs down to the notion of making online self-service the exclusive contact channel for public services. Less than a third of respondents (28 per cent) were in favor of compulsory internet self-service.

Phone is still the most popular method of contact, with 77 per cent saying they had phoned in the past six months. Fifty-four per cent had called a contact centre in the month leading up to the survey, compared with 56 per cent for the same period in 2010 — suggesting that the phone is holding its own despite the growth of alternative contact channels. 

Most people said they would like a single number to access all public services. Voice recognition and self-service are popular too, with people saying they had used these for voter registration, general bill enquiries and checking holiday rubbish collection times.

It’s clear the public understand the need to save money but they don’t want this to be at the expense of choosing how they get in touch. Self-service has a role to play – but as part of an overall multichannel offering rather than a single contact strategy.

Read Kate’s last blog on the Autonomous Customer

To read our latest whitepaper From agent to expert on the future of the contact Centre advisor visit:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/124350009/From-Agent-to-Expert

The post The People Call for Choice When Contacting the Government appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

By Mark Akass, CTO, Global Banking and Financial Markets, BT

If we look at the last 10 years, we can clearly see huge changes in the way we protect technology. The security ‘toolbox’ has grown in capability and is available to a bigger slice of the market place.  This coupled with an explosion of technology providers, and an increasing need for firms to manage and keep an eye on the costs which come about when bringing said tools into action to fight each and every security threat. Only recently we witnessed Australia’s central bank admitting that it had played victim to repeated attacks from computer hackers.  Was the fact that no data was lost or lasting damage done down to the effective use of the advanced tools available on the market today?

Undoubtedly we have seen certain highlights in the development of the security tool kit.  Take a look at pattern matching of signature based threats¹; to anomaly detection² based on behavioural analysis; to increasing levels of sophistication in being able to identify potential threats in the context in which they are being transacted; to testing suspected transactions for executable code in real-time. The attacks may have become more advanced but then so have the tools developed to fight the war against them.

 Maybe one of the largest areas of evolution in the security market today relates to tools that perform threat detection in real-time? Looking forward, the application of big data toolsets will prove increasingly important in helping firms to handle vast volumes of data generated by security monitoring. This is all well and good, but which security tools would make people’s jobs easier?  The answer is quite simple: Effective, secure, portable and searchable multi-media archive, storage and retrieval. These days, people handle so much data in so many different formats that the human brain just needs a helping hand!

Read Mark’s earlier blog on is ignorance an excuse for poor security in financial services today.

¹Signature based detection is the most common method of malware detection. To identify viruses and other malware, antivirus software compares the contents of a file to a dictionary of virus signatures.

²Anomaly detection] refers to detecting patterns in a given data set that do not conform to an established normal behaviour

The post Have Technology Security Measures Really Changed all that Much Over the Years? appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

By Kevin Taylor, President, BT Asia, Middle East and Africa & Global Logistics

The real benefits of connectivity around the world will only be truly realised when everybody in the world has access to the global network, however remote they are. Which is why I’m delighted to announce our ‘Connecting Africa’ project, which will bring broadband internet access to communities across the continent.

We’ve been working with international children’s charity, SOS Children’s Villages, to connect twenty of the charity’s sites in twelve African countries via its global satellite network.

The The first two SOS Children’s Villages in The Gambia have already been brought online. And the remaining ones — from Burundi and Benin to Sierra Leone and Swaziland — are scheduled to be connected by October 2013.

Using recycled satellite equipment, our engineers have been installing the broadband systems and training the charity’s local IT support teams to maintain them and make sure the benefits of connectivity are felt in the long term.

Connecting Africa will directly benefit at least 5,000 people in each community, with many more benefiting indirectly. By developing the technology and skills, and by running adult education programmes in the wider community, the project will help extend the benefits of internet access to the children, their families and wider communities.

The hope is that the scheme will benefit the young people in the Children’s Villages by letting them get online, boosting their education through e-learning courses and mentoring programmes developed by the charity.

And the benefits will be two-way — with the charity itself able to run its operations better as it will be better able to co-ordinate the facilities it operates in the communities — including schools, medical centres and community programmes.

The project will also help boost the charity’s fundraising work by allowing photos and videos to be shared with the people who have chosen to sponsor children in the Children’s Villages.

We’ve already shown our commitment to communication as a tool for good in Africa and the wider world, with this latest initiative building on our know-how and long standing commitment to helping children and whole communities reach for a better future. As well as that our commitment will be reflected in the number of BT employees around the world who will engage in the project through volunteering and fund raising activities.

Check back here for more on our connecting Africa for a better future series. And take a look at our video case study, which shows some of the villages and people the scheme is hoping to benefit .

Click here to view the embedded video.

Read Kevin’s post on the World Economic Forum’s blog site

The post Connecting Africa for a Better Future appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

The Public Services Network (PSN) is taking off. Early customers are already connected and commitment from across the public sector, in particular from Health and from Police, in the last few months has added to the momentum. Central Government departments are already advanced in their own plans to achieve PSN compliance and to connect this year.

A further catalyst in this transition to PSN is the imminent requirement for all 588 organisations that use the old Government Secure Intranet (GSi, or GCSX in Local Government) to connect to its legacy services solely through PSN. The existing procurement framework for these services, GCF, comes to a close in August this year and the old, dedicated connections to them must be replaced by PSN by the end of March 2014. It’s also essential for customers to gain their PSN certification – the Code of Connection or ‘CoCo’ – before connecting to PSN.

So, with all this compulsion to comply and to connect this year, is PSN just about getting the ‘tick in the box’ so that you can get on with bigger challenges? I’d strongly suggest that PSN is actually far less about the tick in the box and more about thinking outside of it.

Consider for a moment the emerging scale of PSN, the proven capacity it has to save cash today and the much greater potential it holds to enable far greater efficiencies in future.

Take scale first. PSN is shaping up to be a factor of 50 to 75 times larger than GSi. Visualise that. Not just a link between Whitehall departments or set of spokes connecting to local authorities to some central applications. A single conduit shared by millions of people working to deliver public services throughout the UK. A shared environment based on common standards to keep costs down, and with access to a rich choice of inter-changeable services and content from an open and competitive marketplace of providers.

From the cashable savings viewpoint, of course users can save money now by shifting from multiple duplicated networks to a common network, linked to others via PSN. The Unicorn project, bringing together Authorities in Surrey and Berkshire in a deal with BT is doing just that, replacing up to forty networks with one, connecting at least 20 public services and saving £5.25 million in the process.

The initial business case for gaining the compliance tick in the box, consolidating and connecting is compelling. The cashable savings are there – but this is still missing the real opportunity.

It’s a point made clearly by the National Audit Office (NAO) in recognising that early savings, whilst important, can be unsustainable in the long run and that real service innovation and change are needed to generate sustained efficiencies and better public services. To quote from a recent NAO report: “This is the greatest challenge for PSN – to sustain cost saving whilst articulating the much greater economies and sustainable public service improvements that must be built on PSN.”

Thinking outside the box means exploiting PSN as a platform for innovation and public service transformation. It means, again in the words of the NAO, moving to “ICT solutions that reform public services and the way that government works”.

This brings a new set of challenges with it. Not just the task of maintaining compliance or procuring better, but the process, people and management challenge of aligning different organisations, sometimes with different goals and cultures, to collaborate and co-create public services.

It means redesigning public services from the outside in, starting with the citizen and replacing old processes, changing systems, re-aligning the way people do things and giving them the tools to work more flexibly and quickly. It means joining up, working closely and sharing resources rather than protecting or competing. And above all it means openness, agility and innovation as the key to delivering better services in the face of inexorable demand and shrinking budgets.

Solutions to these challenges too are being pioneered by projects like Unicorn and will be the source of sustainable transformation in services. To quote Surrey County Council, “We firmly believe public services should be seen as a single team co-operating to make taxpayers’ money go further wherever possible”.

Thinking outside the PSN box can be a genuine enabler that helps senior public leaders reconcile the conflicting demands of year on year savings and spiralling expectations for service improvement. So whilst the tick in the box is essential, it’s what outside it that’s compelling.

To find out more about BT and the work we do with the PSN visit:

http://www.globalservices.bt.com/uk/en/industries/psn

The post PSN, tick in the box or thinking outside the box? appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

Today, I’m happy to announce my next chapter at BT as president of BT US and Canada (US&C) as well as the global industry verticals – Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and Pharmaceutical and Chemical.  I am delighted to be a part of this talented organization and the transformation of its operations, performances and customer service. This new role is exciting for me as I look across the strengths of BT’s business in the US&C and these growing industries.  We have a strong business in the US&C for banking, financial trading markets, consumer products and pharmaceuticals.

I joined BT in 2008 as CEO for the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg) and in 2011 transitioned into president of the EMEA and Latin America region.  In addition to a regional leader, I also became president of the Global Commerce sector which supports companies in industries such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and logistics. I’m a Dutch native but have recently moved to Texas for this role and am looking forward to barbeque, American football and hot summers.

What many people don’t know is that BT has had a presence in the US&C for more than 20 years and operates its own network infrastructure.  In the US&C we serve more than 1,000 customers, including 74 percent of Fortune 500 companies. We recognize that there are many large well-known companies headquartered in North America that have business in areas around the globe and our strength is in helping these companies as they drive business in all regions of the world.

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s critical that we continually look to the horizon and expand our services to address new challenges and trends impacting enterprises and key sectors like CPG and pharmaceuticals, such as big data, cloud computing, mobile security and the consumerization of IT.

I see great things ahead for BT in US&C and incredible potential to build on our strengths in the region and across key global industry sectors. I work amongst the industry’s brightest and talented people. Together, we will continue to build upon our leadership in the region, leveraging the strength of our capabilities with a laser-like focus on anticipating customer needs and industry shifts.

Bas Burger is the president of the US & Canada region as well as Global Consumer Packaged Goods and Pharmaceutical & Chemical vertical market units with responsibilities for the business strategy and growth for each of the areas.

The post New role, New Business Opportunities and New Texas Experiences appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

By Eira Hammond, HR and Payroll Expert, BT

There are not many people outside our own organisation that realise that BT actually ‘do’ payroll around the UK, paying tens of thousands of payslips every month for a number of local authority organisations. So, when I was approached by Frazer Jones, the Global HR Recruitment organisation that places some of BT’s Senior HR Leaders, to be the guest speaker at their inaugural payroll leadership event I was delighted to have the opportunity to spread the word!

The forum provides a valuable networking opportunity and offers a chance to discuss topical Payroll issues, over a round-table arrangement. The forum was host to over 25 Senior Payroll delegates from organisations such as NBC Universal, PRET, Debenhams, Thomson Reuters, and many more.

My subject had to be relevant and I’ve had real determinationin ‘driving change in payroll’ for many years; with all the pressures put on teams in both public and private sector organisations to do more work with less staff, time and money it’s even more relevant now with lots of statutory payroll initiatives being introduced over the next couple of years.

I particularly wanted to focus on 3 main areas, Process, Systems and People to prompt discussion and engage the delegates.

We started by looking at how by utilising ‘Lean Systems Thinking’ methodology you could analyse and understand the demands and pressures being placed on the team which would lead to process reviews and changes to working practices. We looked at some real life examples of how this could be done, including how to measure success.

In discussing systems, it was shocking to hear how many people really didn’t feel they were utilising their payroll system fully. Unfortunately it’s a common occurrence to implement a new payroll system in phases – the first is all about go live, and getting people paid accurately. Often we see later phases scrapped as the budget disappears or the teams are so busy ‘making the system work for them’ they don’t have time to automate many of the processes that are often part of later phases.

Lastly, we looked at people – this is probably the area that is focussed on least in most organisations – although there are usually appraisal systems in place, there’s not always the focus on personal development and progression. Quite often payroll teams are stable with little staff turnover – this invariably means change is more difficult with individuals who have been around for years who are often sceptical and reluctant to try new ways of working.

The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP), where I am a Non-Executive Director/Trustee, have created a standards based accreditation (PQP – Payroll Quality Partnership) for organisations wishing to achieve best practice in the development of payroll people. I explained, with some examples, how the tools within this programme could be used effectively in understanding the technical, business and personal skills each member of the team has, and how a development plan could give motivation to those that want to progress.

There were 25 payroll leaders from a variety of public and private sector organisations at the event, who all got involved, many staying on afterwards to share in further discussions over refreshments. This was a great opportunity to network with old and new contacts from around the UK and I for one, am looking forward to being invited to the next event!

You can see Eira’s slides here.

Find out more about how BT can help local government.

The post Driving Change in Payroll appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

Queuing – it may be a British pastime but it’s not exactly something that we relish doing. How many times have you just shrugged and walked away when it’s “not worth the effort”?

We are busy people who want to minimise the amount of time, energy and effort we put into things that we don’t value. Things like trying to navigate around a complicated and badly designed website, setting up a product or service or trying to get answers from a contact centre. Sometimes we don’t want to be “wowed” by customer service. Sometimes we just want it to be easy.

This isn’t just laziness on our part; it’s the way that we are wired. We are often willing to take a “first thing that works” solution to a problem rather than striving to find the ultimate answer. This means that we don’t actually need to delight each and every customer all the time – we just have to wow when it really counts and the rest of the time just make it easy. This often runs counter to many customer satisfaction initiatives that aim to always delight the customer.

If I am buying carrots, I don’t need “wow” I just need quick and good quality. If I am going on holiday, I will probably put a bit of effort in to researching and planning it but, once I’ve done that, I want the booking process to be easy. I may expect elements of getting a mortgage to be difficult but, if as much of the process is made as easy as possible, I can concentrate on moving into my dream house.

We will put effort into things that matter to us and that we value. Effort is effectively a cost – with the currency being time, physical exertion, emotional angst and brain power. As with any cost there is a both trade off and a desire to either minimise it or get ‘value for effort’. This will, in turn, influence our perception of satisfaction, convenience and value for money.

However, how much effort are we willing to spend? The effort required to master a difficult musical instrument like the Irish bagpipes is likely to be greater than mastering the triangle – but, although mastery of the pipes may be highly satisfying, many people who attempt to play them will fall by the wayside (me included). Your customers may do the same unless they believe that the end justifies the means.

In other words, a customer who assesses the company as ‘difficult’ is much more likely to defect than a customer who is ‘dissatisfied’. Our research with Henley Business School also found that, of those who had a difficult experience with a company, only 5 per cent felt that they had got good value for money.

This is why it’s important to make your customer experiences, whether it’s though self service, contact centre or in a branch or store, as easy as possible. That way you can then seize the opportunities to add the wow factor when it matters the most.

For more on Customer Effort, take a look at our new white paper, ‘Customer Effort: Hype or Help?’

The post To Queue or Not To Queue? Only if you get Value for Effort appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

The Henley Centre for Customer Management has done some research into customer effort. They interviewed a number of companies about their experiences, and the findings inspired us to look at the topic ourselves.

People don’t hate hold music – they hate being on hold

It’s fair to say that call centre hold music isn’t popular. We all hate listening to It’s a Small World over and over while we wait for someone to sort our problem out.

However, one holiday company figured out that asking customers to rate the hold music they heard was the wrong question to ask.  They figured that this would always be low scoring, whatever the song; it’s not the music that’s the problem. It’s being put on hold that people don’t like – they just want their problem solved.

Find out what people want, and focus on that

The companies that are really getting customer service right know what their customers want, and make it as easy as possible for them to get it.

The same holiday company asked its customers whether they would recommend them. Then they matched those findings up to how much the same customers actually spent in the future.

They found that whether people would ‘probably’ or ‘definitely’ recommend the company didn’t make much difference to how much they spent. Where it did make a difference was at the lower end of the scores – the people who said they ‘wouldn’t’ or were ‘unlikely to’ recommend them.

So it made more sense to invest time and money there. Getting people from ‘no’ to ‘maybe’ was better than trying to get them from ‘maybe’ to ‘definitely’.

A job well done matters more than the cherry on top

The holiday company learned from this and found that, ultimately, it’s about being able to identify where to put in “wow” moments that the customer will appreciate, and where it makes no difference. Analyse what your customers value, wow them when they will appreciate it and, otherwise, simply make things easy for them to do.

Delight your customers, but only where it matters to them. That might seem a bit controversial for service departments that are used to trying to exceed customers’ expectations. But ask yourself this: would you rather have the latest music while you’re sat on hold, or would you rather someone answered the phone quicker?

Help or Hype, Professor Moira Clark and Andrew Bryan, Henley Centre for Customer Management, April 2013

The post Delight Your Customers, But Only Where it Matters to Them appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

You can shut yourself in a windowless conference room on the first sunny day after a long wet winter and become more optimistic about the future! 

On the 25^th April some fifty or so leaders from UK business and government gathered in BT Tower’s auditorium to discuss how the country could pull itself out of the current economic doldrums.  This event formed the London leg of BT’s global conversation for CxO’s: “Connecting for a Better Future”. 

At the start they were asked how they felt about the UK economy.  The answer was a mixed bag with well over half the audience thinking it was somewhere between “bleak” and “ready for improvement”.  But by the end of the session the mood was noticeably up beat with two thirds considering the UK economy “had potential” or was even “warming up”!

This same audience believes the economic problems would be resolved by better collaboration between government and the private sector.  However,  the discussion itself focussed to a degree on the role of government the investor and how to make central government more efficient.

Panellist Brian Millar, director of strategy at brand consultancy Sense Worldwide, kicked the conversation off with the somewhat controversial statement that what we need was a war! 

He recognised that war had accelerated the innovations such as planes, computers and the internet that have come to define modern society.  He also pointed out that at times of war governments can borrow as much money as they like!  Venture capitalist Julie Meyer agreed to the extent that we should be treating the current economic situation as if we were at war.

Julie, however,  advocated “small government”.  She put forward the idea that corporations had both the economic and social motivation to invest in their local communities.  Why, she asked, was it not possible for them to sponsor their local schools directly and so bypass the complex and valueless exercise of handing that money to government as tax?

“Every single government department buys things differently,” observed John Telling of Mitie identifying another opportunity for making government more efficient.  The idea of achieving monumental efficiency through simple change was picked up by the other panellists.

Gavin Starkins, CEO of the Open Data Institute told us about the NHS making prescription data available for an analysis costing £20K which proved it could save £200m on its drug bill. He also had proof that by making procurement data readily available in machine readable form, organisations can reduce costs by up to 90%. Councillor Iain Malcolm, leader of South Tyneside Council made a more direct offer.  “Local Authorities have had to learn how to do a third more with a third less.  They should let us run Whitehall!”

Iain’s remark ably reflected  the mood of the audience who had voted, not unlike their cousins from Sydney, Australia at the series event there, that the Power of the Individual was the megatrend that most impacts their business or organisations now and will do so in the future.

The conversation in the UK was not just about making government more efficient.   The other side of the coin is about creating wealth and that, all agreed, was the role of the private sector with technology set to play a critical role – if, as individuals, we stand up, are prepared to take the risks and do things to move things forward. 

As the sun set over London on a stunningly clear evening, the view from the top of the Tower may perhaps have inspired some of the UK’s leaders to be up for that.

The post Creating the Feel Good Factor About the UK Economy appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

With the Public Services Network (PSN) an increasingly hot topic as public and private sector organisations work hard to help make the first wave of connections a success, we thought it was a good time to host a Q&A session for anyone looking to find out more.

That’s why we’re holding a live web chat on PSN today, alongside Government Computing magazine, giving you a great opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the PSN and how it all works.

The discussion will be held from 12:00 – 14:00 (BST), and will discuss:

• How the PSN will be used by organisations
• The importance of security and resilience in the PSN
• How organisations can realise the potential that PSN offers.

Our very own Mark Langdale, BT Global Services Director of PSN and Neil Mellor, Marketing Director of industry association PSNGB and BT Global Services Business Development Director of PSN are among the panelists.

Mark said: “Back in the early 1960s the first UK motorways that were built had no central reservation, no hard shoulder, and underdeveloped exits and interchanges – which equalled no hubs.

“Getting people to use the motorways safely and securely took time, encouragement, and eventually the creation of new lanes, rules and services – toll roads – to create the transport superhighway that everyone now trusts and uses.

“Fast forward to today, and today’s public services network highway – let’s call it PSN1.

“How and why will it work? What are the issues around security and resilience that equate to those early motorway days? How should local organisations – councils, health, police and emergency services – be encouraged to use it? These are some of the questions we’ll be exploring.”

The discussion will be chaired by David Bicknell, editor of Government Computing.

The Q&A will be an online forum/web chat, with the discussion taking place in a comment feed. Find out more and join in the conversation.

We hope to see you there!

Both Mark and Neil regularly blog about PSN on Let’s talk, read Mark’s predictions for PSN in 2013 and Neil’s views on the recent NAO report on the impact of government’s ICT savings initiatives

To find out more about BT and the work we do with the PSN visit: http://www.globalservices.bt.com/uk/en/industries/psn

The post PSN Webchat appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

In 1995, journalist Frances Cairncross coined the phrase “the death of distance” in an article for The Economist (and wrote a book about it). It seems that with the ongoing interconnectedness of the world economy and the digitalisation of society we can start talking about “the death of inertia” in collaboration and globalisation.

The real-time nature of social technologies and the speed of social in general has made us enter an era of instant globalisation. One of the first  areas where instant globalisation showed its potential was medicine. In medicine, speed is crucial and sharing information about patients globally and fast can literally save lives. It’s such an important area that our BT Global Health division is focused on making this instant collaboration and globalisation happen.

Global collaboration and integration

Globalisation is driven by collaboration and at the same time globalisation drives collaboration. The better, faster and smoother collaboration processes and tools are, the more empowered industries and organisations become in a global economy.

However, instant globalisation is only possible if the human and collaborative processes enabling it, work well. It’s not only a matter of technology. in this regard, the rules of global collaboration look a lot like the people-centric rules of collaboration in general. Still, collaboration tools and connected knowledge, workers and customers, are essential to succeed. And the number of tools, social and other, is growing fast.

In an age of integration, whereby your business goals and customers come first, an integrated view on collaboration in a global perspective is important. That’s why we launched BT One. The ‘one’ says it all.

Instant globalisation and collaboration: stumbling blocks

Businesses such as Philips and Tommy Hilfiger have proven that instant globalisation and collaboration is not a myth. The benefits of a collaborative approach in a global context are known and every day businesses turn them into value as healthcare and the two mentioned companies prove. Research by BT and other organisations is clear regarding the benefits as well. However, there are also several barriers.

To make instant globalisation and collaboration happen every organisation needs to know the potential benefits in a broader context. But we also need to understand the main stumbling blocks and organisational/cultural/infrastructural/technological barriers standing in the way of instant globalisation and keeping us in a state of inertia. These stumbling blocks range from old and often innacurate perceptions regarding collaboration to challenges regarding culture, trust, work organisation, interoperability, data, etc.

What are your stumbling blocks and challenges? Let me know in the comment section or on LinkedIn where you can join the conversation on (global) collaboration.

The post Globalisation and collaboration: evolutions, barriers and successes appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

Today we hand over to our experts in the security field, with both of the blogs we’re publishing today having been published recently on our Let’s Talk Security blog.

Carl Blackett, ICT Security Architect, Norfolk County Council

There has been a steady increase in the requirement for flexible working patterns within the workplace. Historically some organisations have been unable to allow this flexibility and instead have resorted to offering job-sharing or part-time working as the only options available.

With the introduction of new affordable technology the concept of job-share is rapidly diminishing, after all, why employ two people for a role when you can simply allow one person to work from locations other than your corporate office.

Hence the increase in ‘home working’. Gone are the days where this phrase referred to so-called ‘cottage industries’.Now working from home does not mean making jam or knitting sweaters it refers to anything from PC support to running a major corporation.

I am sure most people will be able to state how this transition has been possible, but will those people be able to identify the risks this new flexibility has introduced?And more importantly, is your organisation taking these risks into account for you?

So, how did the transition take place? 

Technology has developed rapidly in the last 20-30 years and now a powerful laptop or tablet is a common commodity rather than a rare luxury. Try walking through any train destined for London on any weekday morning and count the number of laptops and tablets on display in each carriage.

The security associated with accessing corporate networks has increased to the point where organisations are actively encouraging users to work remotely and are comfortable that any risk is addressed.

But are they doing enough? Are YOU doing enough?

Again, taking the train example, try walking through a carriage and ‘shoulder surf’ to see how much information you can gain from someone working on the move.

Maybe you can see a few personal emails, perhaps you could glimpse an internal memo about a new corporate takeover, and possibly you could see a username and watch as they type in their password…

We are all aware of technical controls to protect information, but are we always aware who is looking over our shoulder?

I, personally, like to tap people on the shoulder and say “That’s not how you spell confidential”.This usually gets a reaction and not always a positive one.

So, privacy screens and cover up your keyboard when you type passwords, simple and effective controls. Banks always tells you to cover the keypad when using cash machines or chip and pin devices, why isn’t your organisation telling you to do the same for the password to their network? Or are they?

What about at home?  Have you even considered the risks?  Has your organisation helped with advice and guidance?

Home is a haven for most people, it’s where you have all your personal belongings, its safe, and it’s secure.Or is it?

What about your home broadband that you use to access work? Has this been secured or is someone else using this and ‘collecting’ all the data you send to and from your corporate network? How would you know? How would you check?

A slightly more worrying risk is if people know you work from home regularly they probably expect there to be company equipment in your house and, more importantly these days, company data. Does this make your property more attractive to a burglar beyond the normal opportunist thief?

Perhaps it is time to ask your organisation what the policy is for remote working, focussing on a few relevant points;

• Does your organisation have a remote working policy?
• Does the company provide insurance for lost or stolen equipment?
• Do you need increased home insurance?
• Does the company provide additional security devices for use at home?
• Will this insurance cover damage to your property if this occurs during a break in?

Depending on the answers to these questions, some people may decide the risks associated with working from home are greater than the benefit they get from the flexibility.

Sometimes flexible does not always mean better, but without all the facts and without asking the right answers is the flexibility better for you or better for your organisation?

The post Flexibility works both ways appeared first on BT Let's Talk.

Mark Akass, CTO, Global Banking and Financial Markets, BT

Today we hand over to our experts in the security field, with both of the blogs we’re publishing today having been published recently on our Let’s Talk Security blog.

The security landscape is evolving and changing every day and it is therefore critical that financial services have the right people, tools and suppliers on their team to deal with them. Companies will only get the full benefit of the security measures or tools if they are properly utilised and employees are sufficiently trained in how to use them.

Financial services firms increasingly want to offer customers a multi-channel experience where they can access services and information via mobiles, iPads, PCs and good old landlines.

But of course, each of these channels comes with a plethora of threatening risks and security threats. Broadly speaking, accessing information via the internet is pretty safe, but using mobiles, smartphones and other telephony channels are much more attractive and wide open for the opportunist attacker. Given the recent research by business advisory firm Deloitte where they highlighted nearly 4.6 million UK consumers have had their personal details stolen and their bank accounts used to buy goods or services, companies would be wise to get tough and apply firmer controls across all forms of communication. More than ever there is a need to have a sensible security strategy that takes a ‘birds eye’ approach, not the detached single approach we often see today. 

So called ‘social engineering attacks’ against the telephony channel – where the attacker tricks the innocent victim into giving up confident information – are easy to carry out, require no technical background, and are often very effective. Not all banks for example use the same level of fraud tools or consumer authentication measures when using mobiles and smart phones as they do when using the internet to communicate with their customers. This can expose the mobile/telephony channel and opens it up for account takeover. Either that or information can be obtained on this channel to aid takeover via a different channel. 

 But what are banks and financial players missing when it comes to data/IT security in the current climate? Recently we saw the computer networks of two major South Korean banks been hit by cyber attackers.Probably most alarming of all (although maybe not to the experts) is that some of the biggest and most damaging threats come from within an organisation’s own four walls. ‘Insider threats’as they are sometimes called, require proper on-going filtering and tracking of employees with access to key business data, especially customer sensitive information. This aspect of data and infrastructure security now comes with personal liabilities, and has to be taken very seriously.

In many organisations some employees still make do with fairly simple passwords and birthday dates for online customer authentication, which are all too easy for hackers to uncover. To prevent attack and safe-guard company information, organisations need to reassure their customers by rolling out multi factor authentication measures to further protect their infrastructure.

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The post Is ignorance an excuse for poor security in financial services today? appeared first on BT Let's Talk.