News

British Computer Society e-GIF Awards
11th December 2006

The e-GIF Accreditation Authority is delighted to announce the winners of this year's e-GIF Awards. The winners were announced as part of the prestigious BCS IT Professional Awards at a gala dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on December 7th.

The e-GIF Awards recognise outstanding achievement and effort in building projects with strong compliance to government interoperability standards. This year's winners are as follows:

Congratulations to all involved. Case studies for the winning entries have been added to the site.

Case Studies added to site
5th December 2006

Several case studies have been added to the e-GIF Accreditation Authority web site including the 2006 BCS Professional Awards e-GIF finalists, OSIAF case studies and projects that have been compliant with e-GIF.

BCS Awards - e-GIF Medallists Finalised
13th November 2006

The e-GIF Accreditation Authority is proud to announce the finalists for this year's e-GIF Awards. The awards form part of the prestigious BCS IT Professional Awards and the winners will be announced during a gala ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on December 7th.

The e-GIF Awards recognise outstanding achievement and effort in building projects with strong compliance to government interoperability standards. This year's medallists are as follows:

e-GIF Public Sector Award Medallists
Bridgnorth District Council
London Borough of Waltham Forest
Registers of Scotland / BT Partnership

e-GIF Private Sector Award Medallists
Xansa
LogicaCMG
Atrium Software

Details of the winning medallists will appear on these pages shortly after December 7th.

Last year's winners Department for Educations and Skills (left) and Lorien.

Buying Compliance
16th August 2006

NCC's work supporting local authorities and their suppliers to achieve e-GIF compliance has delivered a useful guide for getting requirements right during procurement for all working in - or supplying to - the public sector. This guide has helpful hints on embedding good practice and sample text that may be used in contracts.

You can download the Buying Compliance Scrapbook (pdf 253kb).

e-GIF Live!
14th October 2005

One of the pleasures (really!) of life in standards land is getting out and about and help others to realise the benefits of standardisation. We're shamelessly evangelical on the topic at NCC. We've covered e-GIF in public and private locations across the length and breadth of England, Scotland, and Wales and we're now enjoying what we might label 'second generation' briefings. These comprise the 'no surprises' topics such as:

• What is e-GIF?
  
• The business benefits of e-GIF and compliance
  
• Overview of e-GIF Compliance
  
• Overview of e-GIF Accreditation

These then break out into live, on-line assessment of a system so that the session ends with a report of how close to compliance a design or system is (or where compliance has been achieved). These sessions have proven valuable to promoting the understanding of the team effort required and has brought together e-Government officers, software engineers, and infrastructure support staff, responsible for installing hardware, implementing server policies and the like.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch with us here at The National Computing Centre (info@ncc.co.uk) if you feel that you'd benefit from this approach.

British Computer Society e-GIF Awards
October 2005

The National Computing Centre (NCC) is delighted to announce the inaugural winners of the annual e-GIF Accreditation Authority Public Sector and Private Sector awards.

As part of the British Computer Society's Annual IT Professional Awards, the e-GIF awards recognise outstanding efforts in the development of systems complying with Government-led standards for interoperability within the Public Sector.

During the gala evening hosted by BCS at the Park Lane Hilton, London on the 29th September 2005, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) received the e-GIF Accreditation Authority Public Sector Award whilst Lorien Public Sector received the equivalent award for Private Sector Companies.

DfES overcame stern competition from Glasgow City Council, Essex County Council / BT Partnership and The Adapters Club who all received medals in recognition of their achievements. The other Private Sector medallists were LogicaCMG, Parity and DPS Software.

Left: Saddick Johaadien of DfES accepts the e-GIF Public Sector Award
Right: NCC's CEO Michael Gough presents Lorien's Gary McQuade (left) with the e-GIF Private Sector Award.

Managing Compliance in the Public Sector
16 March 2005

This Conference will provide you with clear, practical advice and guidance to adopt, adhere to and maintain compliance with legislation, standards and best practice. Taking a holistic view of compliance pressures the conference will highlight how this approach will not only keep you legal, but help enhance other processes.

What are the benefits of attending?

• Develop your understanding of the compliance landscape and overlapping benefits between legislation, standards and best practice
• Hear how a proactive approach to compliance can deliver improved performance - rather than just another headache
• Learn about the latest developments from industry specialists and leading public sector organisations through streamed sessions
• Understand how different organisations approach compliance
• Hear how technological developments can help

The program covers:

• The legal issues affecting IT
• Interoperability Standards
• Management Standards
• Developing Opportunities
  

Conference delegates can also choose to attend an additional half day e-GIF briefing on the 15th March at a discount price.

Please visit www.ncc.co.uk/compliance for more details.

First organisations gain e-GIF Accreditation

24 January 2005

We are delighted to announce that the e-GIF Accreditation Authority has released the first tranche of e-GIF Accredited Organisations. This is a significant development and we are particularly pleased to note that both the private and public sectors are engaged, reflecting genuine and joint commitment to the e-GIF and the benefits it brings.

The e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) sets out the technical policies and standards that ensure interoperability of systems used to deliver e-services. Complying with the e-GIF is mandated widely across the UK public sector because it helps build more sustainable and flexible IT systems, making for efficiency and effectiveness gains in the immediate and longer terms as systems are upgraded or replaced.

The new e-GIF Accreditation Authority has been established by the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit to provide assurance that suppliers (both internal public sector departments and external suppliers) have the capability to deliver e-GIF compliant solutions and that the people involved have the appropriate skills. While the Accreditation Authority is a public sector initiative, it is well supported by industry and significant commercial sponsors have come forward to help in its establishment and be among the first to be accredited.

Procuring from an e-GIF Accredited Organisation offers the following key benefits:

• reduced risk of e-GIF non-compliance
• confidence in their e-GIF capability and professionalism
• eases the identification and elimination of unsuitable tenders
• provides evidence of due diligence.
  

Becoming an e-GIF Accredited Organisation will:

• increase an organisation's profile in the eyes of all stakeholders in e-GIF projects
• reduce the risk of e-GIF non-compliance for internal customers
• demonstrate organisational e-GIF capability, matching similarly accredited partners / customers
• give focus to managing staff skills development and deployment in the context of the e-GIF.

We would urge you to: share this information with the relevant people within your organization; consider including accreditation as part of supplier evaluation criteria; ensure e-GIF compliance is included in relevant PQQs and ITTs; consider becoming an accredited unit/organisation yourselves, and; encourage relevant staff to become Certified e-GIF Practitioners.

If you have any questions about the e-GIF and its role in public sector IT, please contact the e-Government Unit. Alternatively, contact the e-GIF Accreditation Authority directly or via the National Computing Centre Ltd for general guidance and or details about the new schemes.

The e-GIF Accreditation Authority is operated by the National Computing Centre Ltd. (NCC) under contract to the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit.