Mark Chillingworth

NHS database and summary care records must be embraced

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:22:42 GMT

Check the privacy and security by all means, but let’s make our brilliant NHS better and move into modern practices

The British Medical Association (BMA) believes the plans by the Department of Health and the National Health Service to create a national database of patient summary care records is a serious privacy breach.

Although individual privacy is important and anyone developing a far...

BBC technology is being attacked on all fronts

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:01:39 GMT

Auntie can't win with commentators, but consumers seem happy

Whatever it decides to do, the BBC is accused of being wrong. On the day when CIO publishes its interview with the broadcaster's new CIO Tiffany Hall the organisation faces strike action from its outsourced supplier Siemens and just last week...

We're heading into the clouds

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:35:18 GMT

Making the business case for cloud based computing

If you were hit by a car last year and woke up in 1973 wearing a flower print nylon shirt, skin tight leather jacket and Cuban heels, then you may have missed the technology world becoming obsessed with clouds. Now before you think your return to 2010 has been corrupted and the IT world has gone insane and now lies on its back in fields and pastures looking for cat shaped fluffy white weather...

CIOs should think about smart billing

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:24:21 GMT

Show the CFO a smart metering of IT costs and they may suddenly see the true value you deliver

There is a lot of pressure on individuals at present to cut down the amount of energy they use around the home. One suggestion is that we all adopt smart meters which will monitor how much each electrical device is used and alert the bank of dad how much each iPod charger and Nintendo Wii is costing him. As a result every mother and...

What's the problem with DLP?

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:27:17 GMT

DLP never came to fruition in 2009, but will become critical for CIOs

2008 was the year that major security vendors were in acquisitive mood for Data Leakage Prevention technologies. All expectations were that 2009 should be the year that saw the first major enterprise deployments of this technology, but it has been slow in coming to say the least. So what is the problem with DLP?

To my mind there are two distinct issues, the first is really the lack...

Constantly improving offering (CIO)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:45:50 GMT

Making CIO UK a better online experience

Rik's blog can be found here, and Steve's here.

Valuation Office CIO joins up customer experience

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:28:42 GMT

Making tax less taxing

Jon Wrennall, CIO at the Government's Valuation Office Agency doesn't talk about patio or tree house taxes when you talk shop with him, but he does enjoy challenging the role of IT within government. In a frank presentation at the Central Government IT 2009 conference, which was chaired...

As the economy gathers pace, it's time to motivate and keep a good IT team

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:47:46 GMT

Help CIO with its latest research into staff motivation, team retention and succession plans

A spate of headlines in the first two working days of the year suggest the worst of the credit crisis is over and that growth is returning to the manufacturing sector, retail and

Merry Christmas from CIO UK

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:09:49 GMT

Thanks to everyone who helped make 2009 a good year in a difficult economy

The CIO UK editorial team is taking a well earned break from today and would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for a knock out 2009.

Although it hasn't been the easiest year for anyone thanks to the credit crisis, CIO UK has had a good year and it is all thanks to the CIO community. We'd like to thank all the CIOs who spend time being interviewed for the popular...

CIO 100 2010, how we do it

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:49:57 GMT

New CIO 100 goes live for 2010

Compiling the CIO100 is a painstaking task. How it is done and some of the problems of creating it are detailed below.

CIOs often ask of the CIO 100 methodology: "It you're ranking the top 100 organisations by their IT usage; then why not just count the number of users?"

It's a fair point and one that we consider...

CIOs must control the cloud to ensure security

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:07:51 GMT

Trend Micro expert puts his faith in CIOs to make cloud computing a security success

Three quarters of UK CIOs see security as being the major barrier to cloud adoption according to recent research and yet if you take a look at the Wikipedia (I know, I know) entry on cloud computing, security is listed as one of the key characteristics of cloud-based services, how can this be?

New CIO 100 demonstrates state of the economy

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:57:02 GMT

The UK's largest IT users compared and contrasted in the ultimate IT spending and strategy resource

It is no surprise that this year's CIO100 has witnessed more changes than any previous CIO100. The dramatic change to the world economy following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing credit crisis has affected all sectors and as a result their IT spending and strategies.

Conservative Technology Forum focusses on data ownership

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:58:46 GMT

What will the Tories do if they win?

At the beginning of this week I was invited to be a speaker at the Conservative Technology Forum alongside Liam Maxwell.

Government CIOs discuss the future at CGIT 2009

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:16:09 GMT

How government CIOs can lower costs but improve public service

I'm at the CGIT 2009 conference all day today and hope to bring you up to date with the issues discussed as the day goes on.

15 humorous definitions of CIO

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:56:29 GMT

Are these the real meanings for the CIOs job title or CFOs taking a pop?

Acronyms, our industry is awash with them, one of which being of course your humble job title. Officially we recognise it as being Chief Information Officer. Analysts suggest it should be changed to Chief Integration Officer, but, because today's Friday, we've scoured the world for alternative meanings that you may not want to add to your

BPM is the CIO route to CEO

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:31:27 GMT

Challenge your organisation and then get the big job

The current Debate channel theme on CIO UK is business process management (BPM). A topic I was reticent to commit to, but our editorial partners MWD, are big believers in the subject. It's the an acronym that cools my interest, but a recent telephone conference involving MWD,

It really is rocket science, CERN tech impresses

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:10:16 GMT

Technology at CERN is almost out of this world, as is the complexity of the matter being researched

Although a technology title, CIO concentrates on the business story for technology and the business people behind it, commonly known as CIOs. Although in no way experts of technology I use a lot of it to put CIO.co.uk together and have been involved in this whole transformation of the media from print to online almost from graduation day to today, so I generally get to grips with the technology stories CIOs tell me.

Tory attacks on banks is a danger to the nation

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:22:49 GMT

History will repeat itself. If we lose banks the way we lost mining and manufacturing it will be because the debate was shallow

Taking a stick to the banks is an easy win at present, especially if you are a politician who was exposed by the Daily Telegraph for profiting from the excessive expenses system MPs have been using.

Jenson Button and Ross Brawn's lessons for CIOs

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:13:23 GMT

F1 champions remind us of the best values in business, technology and leadership

I headlined the article Tomorrow the world and on Monday morning it became true, he was world champion. Back in June 1994 as a stringer for Autosport magazine I was writing profiles and sports reports of young Britain's hopeful of becoming Formula One world champions. One who caught my eye with his driving talent and good nature was a certain Jenson Button. Back then he was steely focussed on become what he is today, Formula One world champion. Leaving the motorsport world (one that is basically a business and technology sector, just as I cover today) I watched Button from the sidelines and as his career suffered under the management of Briatore at Benetton, rose again at Honda only for it to dip again I wondered if I had got it wrong.

CIOs, does your department look like an IT division or business?

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:33:53 GMT

Send us your pictures of IT departments in the past and the present to see how it’s all changed

Does your department look like an IT department? It is an interesting topic. Yesterday, having completed a CIO podcast discussion with John Whiting and Owen Powell, the CIO of the

iPhone style could put cloud in your users home

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:15:59 GMT

Convergence of TV and web on a home tablet device may mean CIOs will need to put applications in the cloud

Throughout this week Martin Veitch has been pontificating about the future of newspapers and the possibilities of an Apple tablet device being pertinent to their future. Talking of Apple and where our entertainment and information comes from, I've been spending too much time with a new...

If tech firms were Formula One teams

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:41:13 GMT

Where on the grid are your vendors?

So, cast your fears for Jenson Button's championship lead aside and ponder where on the grid your chosen vendor would be. And just to be geeky, we've written in order of this year's construction championships before we head into the Japanese Grand Prix.

iPhone generation demands greater tech choice from CIOs

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:40:55 GMT
Your policies and structures around the corporate network are worthless in the always on social media world we live in
The role of the CIO as the instigator, selector and manager of technology in the organisation is being challenged from very newest and youngest members of staff within the organisation according to new research from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Workers joining your organisation this year straight from university are dubbed...

Step forward public sector CIOs, your time has come

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:55:03 GMT
Whether its Labour reform or deep Tory cuts, public sector CIOs can drive through change in order to achieve cost cuts
Last week speeches by current chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling and likely next PM David Cameron point to the much reduced budgets that the public sector will have available to it. Whilst Cameron, as expected of a Conservative government, will axe services and drastically cut the funds available to civil servants, Darling also said in a speech that resources will be shifted and "It means more efficiency, continuing to reform, cutting costs, public and private sectors working together," he told the BBC.The business of government must continue though, so whichever party wins the election, they will, by necessity have to continue with the agenda of reform that has been coursing through the civil service since a youthful looking Tony Blair took office in 1997. Here is the opportunity for the public sector CIO. Web enabled services and increased automation will improve the general public's experience of the civil service and reduce costs.There is already evidence of this at departments like the DVLA and even HMRC, although it is well documented that new CIO Phil Pavitt will have plenty else to reform there. It's common place in the media to knock the IT programme that the NHS is undergoing and there is little doubt that there are problems with it that need closer inspection, but I'll stick my neck out and claim it will be considered in the fullness of time a significant benefit to the nation. For a CIO looking for a real challenge, the next couple of years in the public sector could well be the ultimate challenge in achieve large-scale change on a limited budget. If, as expected, Cameron wins, the CIOs and senior civil servants that can carry out reform at the same time as achieving the swingeing cuts Tories demand will have, in effect, achieved the impossible.

Fisichella saves Ferrari from poor people management grid

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:26:45 GMT
CIOs and F1 team managers should always have a succession plan for top team members
This weekend Giancarlo Fisichella lines up on the starting grid (we expect him to qualify) in a Ferrari. The Italian's journey to one of the most coveted seats in Formula One is an example of management that lacked forward planning when looking at its staff.

With regular driver