Recently at the IT Service Management 2014 conference I got into a debate via social media about the need for a Chief Digital Officer. The presentation was on cloud computing and service management and the presenter suggested that an organisation going down a cloud route ought to have a C suite person responsible for data.… Read More
The race for the truly smart home is on, when your fridge can create your shopping list on your phone. It can add to that list as your friend takes the last cold beer, advising you which supermarket to call at on the way home from work to pick up the best value replacement! Then… Read More
Earlier this yeah I volunteered to project manage a migration project that would affect everybody within the Clinical Research Network (CRN). The project brief was simple, to migrate over 500 accounts from the traditionally deployed email solution to the new NIHR Hub built on the Google collaboration platform. Fairly straight forward I thought! Unknown unknowns… Read More
Was it an insult I thought, being congratulated for not being technical? It felt like an insult! Of course it wasn’t but it got me thinking about what it means to be leading a technology team in a large organisation where the best way to get engagement is to take away all references to technology,… Read More
The butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker – or in this case, the educator, the shop owner, the mechanic and the know-it-all – were in discussion at the recent UK CIO 100 event. (As an aside no one has worked out what a collective noun for CIOs is, although suggestions have included a ‘wally’ of… Read More
Where Does Improvement Begin? In February 2014, I was at the Lean Healthcare Awards, presenting as a finalist in the Lean Champion category when I was asked how I had started on my improvement journey? I suddenly remembered a chance conversation from the start of my career that had inspired me for more than 15… Read More
The 1st of April meant so much to our organisation this year! A complete change in how we manage the delivery of clinical research in the NHS goes ‘live’. No fuss, no trumpets, it simply comes into being: a change from over 100 contracts across the NHS to just 15, a change that sees a… Read More
Do I want red wine or a beer? What system do I use to make that decision? Recent studies reveal that in so many decisions the human brain actually doesn’t make many choices based on rational though but on instinct. So if it’s a cold evening and I want to have a nice meal with… Read More
The conference as an education, I have never quite been sure whether that was really true or not at least until recently. I have learnt some ‘things’ at different conferences in the past but I hadn’t really experienced the ‘end to end’ learning experience that was the Gartner Business Intelligence and Analytics Summit in London… Read More
Richard Horton is a Service Delivery Manager at the NIHR CRN, he has responsibility for the service improvement of one of our major systems over the last 18 months, turning around a service described by some as the ‘rotten tomato’ service into one that the service board are now hugely proud of. When organisations look… Read More