For broadband speeds it seems very clear that bigger numbers are better. Yesterday’s announcement by Virgin Media offering 1.5 million of its customers an upgrade to 50mbs set great stead by the half century of speed it offers, double that of its closest rival and greater than the 20mbs it previously offered to consumers as ‘the mother of all broadband’. Just in case the number doesn’t represent enough altitude Virgin’s CEO Neil Berkett went on the record saying that Virgin could roll out 100Mbps tomorrow though 50Mbps is a more manageable step up for the time being.

It would appear pretty reasonable at this stage to ask what this speed increase allows you to do any differently. Virgin cites movies downloading in just three and a half minutes and music even quicker, as just some of the benefits of the new and improved service. Households with multiple and simultaneous internet users which generally strain slower connections would also benefit from the upgrade and looking out at the changing broadcast market HD over the internet could be an innovation supported by this fibre evolution. 

What else? The Broadband Stakeholder group who advise the government on next generation access issues have a neat triptych of benefits they have identified around speed and quality of service. They say it will allow efficiencies through saving time, expansion through doing more of existing things and transformation, by doing entirely new things.

And so, inevitably to price. This is the crucial issue here as unless Virgin can offer this premium service at a premium price then the economics of NGA look very shaky indeed and BT, amongst others will be watching very closely to see what the uptake of service is like.  Some analysts have been sceptical  with Ian Watt, at Enders, describing the first-year price of £602 or at least £46 a month - including broadband, line rental, installation and free wireless router - as "very high in the context of a consumer recession and the price of some lower-speed offers.’ However Virgin can point to a significant increase in its customer base for 20Mbps - the previous premium product, priced at £35 – which has now grown to 55 percent as evidence of appetite for their premium offering.  48% of UK households have access to the cable network so Virgin also does have the potential to scale up this offering substantially and they expect to have upgraded their entire network by the summer of 2009.

The interesting subtext in all of this is that Virgin’s move could be the catalyst which drives other players to roll our next generation networks as consumers are impressed with the nice round number 50. The telecoms market will be keen to identify which number the consumer cares about more though, the 50mbs of speed or the roughly £50 of sterling it costs.  

By Sam Ingleby, Programme Manager

I was on an interesting panel yesterday with Peter Mandelson and various heads of industry, discussing what measures need to be taken to bring the country out of recession. There were some bold points raised, some of which are covered in an article in today's Guardian. In the light of what was discussed, and with the focus of the Pre-Budget Report, I think it's important to not to forget the wider high-tech industries and the value that intellectual property brings to the economy.

When we talk about manufacturing and engineering there is a tendency to think of the person with an oily rag and rugged hands. While traditional manufacturing is an important part of the UK economy, it is vital that we do not forget the value and contribution to our economy of those engineers with perhaps softer hands. Our software engineers, musicians, games designers and all those involved in the creative industries have a big role to play in the UK’s economic recovery.

Whilst the PBR was about urgent action in the short-term, the government must soon complement that with a greater emphasis on innovation and technology, as engines of growth and creators of high value jobs. Future economic growth will be powered by the high-tech industries, where intellectual property drives wealth creation just as much as industrial production. We hope that government will build on plans for a high tech, high growth future as part of an integrated and diverse economy, as well as coping with the present.

John Higgins CBE, Director General, Intellect

With the dust settling from the election of Barack Obama, many commentators in the US technology industry have been talking of cautious optimism. It is said that Obama is a man who understands the importance of technology, illustrated by policy proposals such as calling for the creation of a Chief Technology Officer and demanding better application of technology in the public sector. Some of his more eye-catching plans include; doubling funding for basic research with the aim to boost home-grown innovation, providing a permanent R&D tax credit and enabling every citizen access to next-generation broadband. Obama has also utilised technology to great effect in his campaign developing a virtually connected support based and building a formidable online fund raising machine.

Clearly the USA’s President-elect is a man who understands the primacy of technology in modern life. It is now more important than ever that the UK builds on recent policy and government developments to match this agenda.

 
We have begun to move in this positive direction.  In the last reshuffle Gordon Brown appointed  Stephen Carter as Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting in recognition of the importance of these industries to the UK economy. In addition to this the government’s transformational agenda has been active for some time now with the UK leading the world in the modernisation and transformation of public services. Last Monday the Cabinet Office published a report on social mobility staking the future of high value jobs almost solely on the tech sector. And in the Observer this weekend, Gordon Brown gave a strong indication that he sees the high-tech industries taking a leading role in the national economy. 

Here in the UK we are waking up to the reality that in a global knowledge economy, a healthy high-tech sector is crucial. As we enter a worldwide recession the technology industry has the opportunity to become the cornerstone of the UK economy and lead us out of troubled times. In the future, economies that offer intelligent services, high-tech innovations and cutting edge R&D will be the ones that will prosper.

In a time when short term solutions are at the front of everyone’s mind, it is important that politicians, high level observers and the technology industry begin to look for those medium term solutions that will reinvigorate the UK economy.  We have been talking about the UK knowledge economy, now is the time to make it a reality.

By Carrie Hartnell, Programme Manager

With the Olympic flag now safely in the hands of Boris Johnson on behalf of London and the return of Britain’s medal heroes, the whole of the UK will be looking towards 2012 with considerable expectation. The success of team GB has set a sporting precedent that is expected to be surpassed in 2012. Likewise the success of the Beijing Games has got some people questioning how London can deliver such a spectacle in 2012.

While London may struggle to compete with the scale and grandeur of Beijing, our Games promise to be more compact and integrated. By 2012 we will see some of the most advanced technologies in the world underpinning the delivery of a green, secure and interconnected Olympics.

The aspiration is to deliver the first ‘Olympics 3.0’ with spectators being able to enjoy multiple viewpoints, real time Games updates and live travel information delivered through mobile devices. Each audience member will be able to access information previously available only to the sports commentator in the booth.

The use of 4G mobile devices, contactless access platforms and smart cards will revolutionise the experience of spectators and athletes alike. Using these devices attendees will be able to interact with the Games in a number of ways including; finding their way through the London traffic, receiving security alerts, buying tickets, web blogging on the Games live, networking with friends across the Olympic village and accessing local wireless networks for close-ups and replays of Olympic events streamed to their mobile devices.

Opulence may have won gold at Beijing, but London promises make innovative use of technology the gold standard for 2012. I, myself, can’t wait.

By Carrie Hartnell, Transformational Business Programme Manager

Two million patients in the UK have now been diagnosed with diabetes, and with an ageing population this number is only going to increase.

Though the NHS is working hard to provide better care for these patients, they admit that “there is a long way to go,” and a report published today by the Department of Health cites a number of challenges.  To achieve a higher quality of care for patients with long-term conditions, such as diabetes, one of the answers is telehealth – essentially remote patient monitoring.

By performing simple tasks at home, eg measuring their own blood sugar levels, blood pressure or heart rate, patients can take charge of their own care (which satisfies one of the aims of Lord Darzi’s NHS Next Stage Review).  The information generated is then automatically transmitted to clinicians, which reduces the need for patients to come into health centres or for nurses to pay home visits.  For those at high risk of contracting diabetes, such as obese individuals, early warning signs can be detected.

Telehealth is empowering, helps keep patients healthy longer, and yields a higher quality of care for all.  And the higher the uptake of telehealth solutions, the more patients will benefit and the more cost-effective it will be.  So the question is, is the NHS ready for this challenge?

By John Hoggard, Transformational Government Programme Executive

The House of Commons Defence Committee has been looking into the role Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are playing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and after discussions with the Armed Forces, Ministry of Defence (MoD) and industry - has published its report yesterday on their progress and prospects.

UAVs are a key part of the military’s eyes and ears in theatre, and military chiefs are usually keen to send them on dull, dirty and dangerous missions instead of putting a man or woman in harm’s way. They’re being used for watching over coalition troops, for monitoring hotspots and to look for threats, and their use is ballooning – from a total of 25 during the early stages of the war in Afghanistan to over 5000 now.

The amount of information being captured, from pictures to sensor readings to video, has also ballooned as their numbers have grown and collection technology has improved. It’s no easy task to process, analyse and sort it all – most people have piles of photos laying unviewed on a hard drive or in a cupboard, but in Helmand one picture can contain information which saves lives. Our troops can’t afford to have that one left at the back of a digital sock drawer, so the Committee recommends the MoD balance its efforts between buying more drones and making sure it can analyse all the information they collect.

The report also gazes into its crystal ball to look at the future of UAVs, which may lay outside the military as well as inside it. Industry (including many world-leading British companies) is developing innovation after innovation, from urban-based “micro” UAVs to lingering armed versions which can wait for days at a time before hitting a target. There are scores of exciting new models coming down the pipe, but they will all depend on boring old wires to move the data around, and well trained people to decide what’s a rock and what’s a disguised mine. 

MoD and the technology industry are working together to make sure the boring old wires are as cutting edge as the menacing drones they support, and that the real brains in the system are as ready as they can be. Intellect’s work helps Government use the knowledge in industry to get ahead of the game, and supports the massive efforts being made to modernise our military’s kit – as the Committee has discovered, our Armed Forces will look a lot different in the future.

By Joel Grundy, Defence and Security Programme Manager.

The turbulent time for the banking sector continued this week with the news that Bradford & Bingley has issued a massive profits warning. Worryingly, reports suggested that the bank’s directors did not have up-to-date information about the state of the company; it has been suggested that this was, in part, due to ‘hopelessly antiquated information technology’ within the bank, which led to outdated financial information presenting an inaccurate picture on which crucial decisions were made. Bradford & Bingley now finds itself in an IT position not dissimilar to that of Northern Rock; the bank’s sub-standard technology systems were a noted factor in the downfall of the institution.

The relationship between financial institutions and technology has, like a share price, always been up and down. Technology can provide valuable services to financial institutions, which are needed now more than ever. These services are very much in demand; recent research from a recruitment firm found that demand for IT professionals from city firms remains strong, despite the impact of the credit crunch and concerns over market volatility.

The skills of IT professionals will be needed as the government continues to look at ways to reform the banking sector, restore consumer confidence in the system and in doing so, try to avoid another Northern Rock. The Banking Reform Bill, announced as part of the government’s pre-legislative programme, is part of the means to achieve this. One of the aims of the Bill is to improve the Financial Services Compensation Scheme’s ability to pay out to customers more quickly in the event that a bank becomes insolvent. This legislation, and issues like information sharing and data security, will be causing headaches amongst the CIOs in the city as they seek to ensure their information systems are up to the task. As the fall out from Northern Rock and now Bradford & Bingley has demonstrated, 21st century technology should be at the heart of financial institutions, enabling them to overcome the challenges of the future.

By Ben Andersen-Tuffnell, Programme Manager

An announcement by John Hutton MP, Business Minister, last week gives an extra 4.5 million parents in Britain the right to request flexible working.  The announcements follows the publication of the Walsh Report, an independent review into the right to request flexible working. The change will now enable all parents whose children are under 16 to request, but  does not guarantee, flexible working. The extension was mentioned as part of the Draft Queen’s Speech  published last week but there is still debate about whether the implementation will be staggered or fully implemented immediately.

There is certainly an attitudinal shift occurring around flexible working and the benefits it brings to the employee and employer. For many technology companies, flexible working and the opportunities it brings is a positive move.  The ability to offer employees a working environment anywhere, anytime adds to their attraction as an employer as well as being able to service their customers requirements around the clock. However, it is important for all companies that the request of all employees is balanced against the deadlines and requirements of customers.

Flexible working is a useful and relevant business process that can add real productivity value to businesses and access to talent and skills that were not available before.  However, we must ensure that it is not just seen as only a ‘female or family friendly’ policy but one open to all in employment.  If the policy is handled appropriately it can ensure a happy and dedicated workforce and a productive and competitive business.  The Walsh report provides new and important issues and moves the debate forward but any continuing progress, in relating to any form of flexible working, can only be successful if a fair balance between the needs of the employer and the employee can be maintained.

By Carrie Hartnell, Transformational Business Programme Manager

The Intellect Annual Dinner held last week was one of those occasions when it felt great to be part of the UK's technology industry. Sitting amongst 500 fellow technologists, talking about the many interesting aspects of our work, I felt truly proud. This feeling only got stronger when our President's Report was launched.

Did you know that we provide a bigger percentage of UK GDP than the transport and agricultural industries combined? Or that one in twenty of the working population is an IT professional? Or more importantly that the technology sector generates over £35 billion of Gross Value Add (GVA) to the UK economy? I also found out that while the sector is performing relatively well at present - we are expecting to grow 1-2% above GDP - there are some things we need to pay much greater attention to if we want to be part of a great industry in a few years time.

Identified as one of the six booster areas in the President’s report, the issue of skills and the workforce is not just a concern for our industry; it also affects the citizen as increasingly we see a world where a degree of IT literacy is necessary. Currently employment in the IT industry is growing five times faster than the UK average, which is a good indicator of the favourable growth rates we are seeing. However technology-related education is declining rapidly, leaving the industry with a shrinking talent pool to hire from. It is vital for the industry that more is done to encourage students into STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. Equally the industry must work collaboratively with schools, universities and curriculum developers to train and retain the brightest. Indeed we are seeing recognition of the importance of this issue as John Denham, the secretary of state for innovation, universities and skills, is today announcing £200m in capital spending over the next three years to prevent an acute shortage of skills in strategic sectors of the economy.

Improving the UK’s communications infrastructure is another booster high on the agenda. Over the centuries the UK economy has benefited from extensive transport infrastructure, helping drive economic growth. Today a world class communications infrastructure is the cornerstone for any leading 21st century knowledge economy. Ensuring the UK has access to next generation broadband will be key in keeping the economy competitive in a global environment.  A concerted and innovative approach will be required to achieve the right balance of investment incentives and competition that will enable a market led transition to next generation broadband.

These were just a couple of boosters that struck me, the others were:

· Higher professional standards in the sector and its workforce
· Improved trust and confidence in the sectors ability to deliver value securely
· Better exploitation of innovation
· A continually improving relationship with other sectors

The boosters had succeeded in hitting home the point that we cannot rest on our laurels. This is a great industry to be in, but unless we all play our part to nurture it, we run the risk of loosing our edge. It was a great night to be a part of the technology industry, but the boosters certainly left us all with food for thought.

By Carrie Hartnell, Transformational Business Programme Manager

As with most of these events the title of this month’s EU ‘eHealth without frontiers’ conference in Slovenia seemed to focus more on ‘ill health without frontiers’.  The UK is clearly not alone, with representatives from across member states describing the same challenges time and time again: a rapidly ageing population and the growth of chronic diseases like COPD (or smoker’s lung), combined with rising citizen expectations and an ever mobile population. 

The sharing of electronic health records (EHRs) and interoperability (technical and semantic) are becoming increasingly critical to delivering both value for money and more personalised healthcare services. These solutions are essentially about one thing – cooperation.  Ultimately, the only way to deal with the healthcare challenges of the future will be through patient-doctor partnerships that provide tailor-made healthcare delivery, doctors working with other doctors (within and across borders), and computers communicating with other computers (within and across borders).

There was much talk of the European Commission’s Smart Open Services (SOS) programme, a three-year plan involving 12 member states and 31 suppliers cooperating around a shared goal – to enable the interoperable sharing of electronic patient summaries and e-prescribing across borders (and with, I should add, patient consent).  What’s important about the SOS project is that it has the potential to revolutionise healthcare by establishing the basis for a future pan-European eHealth infrastructure, supporting integrated care and improving patient safety.   

Telehealth was also a major focus of the debate. Case studies presented from Slovenia, Greece and Finland demonstrated technology’s role in compensating for shortages in health professionals and increasing patient choice through personalisation.  Dr Andrew McCormick (Permanent Secretary, Department of Health and Social Services and Public Safety, Northern Ireland) gave an overview of Northern Ireland’s plans to implement telehealth solutions on a national scale.  I am sure all eyes will be on this programme, which has earmarked £46m to be spent on telemedicine services for chronic disease management (CDM) and aims to have 5000 people on remote patient monitoring by 2011.

Ultimately technology will provide the tools that enable society to look away from traditional disease-centric models of health management and more towards self-empowered health management. But, technology cannot achieve this vision alone – cooperation will be essential in ensuring that the UK and other member states are able to meet the challenges presented by 21st healthcare.  And less tangibly, just imagine the social benefits that can be achieved through cooperation on this scale.

By Melissa Frewin and John Hoggard – Transformational Government