UK Parliament’s ICT Strategy
Rob Sanders
Customer Services Manager
The Vision
“Connect Members, the public and the
administration to the information and
services they need from anywhere
at any time [from any device].
Reduce the cost of ICT and provide new
opportunities and pathways for greater
efficiency and effectiveness for Parliament.”
The Drivers
Why are we doing this?
•External drivers
•Responding to demand
The outcomes
An enhanced customer experience - leading to increased
effectiveness for Members and the administration through better
use of ICT.
Improved access to services - it is easier for Members, the public
and the administration to connect to ICT services, helping them to
be more informed.
Reduced ICT costs and increased opportunity for Parliament to be
more efficient as generic commercial solutions are used in generic
areas, and bespoke solutions used only for Parliament’s unique
activities.
 A transformed PICT – a reorganised, smaller, ICT department,
helping Members and the administration get the most out of ICT.
The components
Customer Advice & Support (CAS)
Advice, support, proactive engagement - improved knowledge of
customers’ business activities, systems and technology
Bespoke Applications
Non Bespoke Applications
Procedural and knowledge applications (PDP,
CPIMF & web) development &support
Generic COTS systems (for generic functions
such as HR, Finance & Facilities) > Cloud
Data Strategy / Data Integration
PICT Core Capability
A smaller, reskilled, more knowledgeable and customer-focused PICT:
strategy, planning, core IT skills, procurement, supplier/contract management, service management,
system & data integration, security & communication
Cloud computing
Members & their staff/ Admin staff
•Communication Services:
•Email
Messaging
•File storage Calendar
•Office productivity tools
Infrastructure as a Service
Platform as a Service
Software as a Service (nonbespoke applications)
Network Programme
BYOD
• We already use Mobile Device Manager
(MDM) for iPads for Members
• We support access to parliamentary email on
personal devices
• But how far can we go with BYOD
• What does it really mean?
UK Parliament’s Data Strategy
Margaret Hardie
Principal Architect (Data and
Applications)
Why UK Parliament needs data strategy
• To support realisation of the strategic goals of the 2 Houses
of the UK Parliament:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
To offer better service to members,
To offer better information to Parliamentary staff and the general public,
To create better public engagement,
To facilitate eEnablement and digitisation of Parliamentary information assets,
To realise cost savings through efficiency, effectiveness and resource sharing
• To support realisation of the goals of the Parliamentary
Information Management Strategy
• To support the Parliamentary ICT Strategy of ‘connect the
Members and the public through any device anywhere’
• To help enhance the reputation of Parliament by enabling
and supporting transparency
Data – Information – Knowledge – Wisdom
Data Strategy Vision in UK Parliament
• The work of UK Parliament relies heavily on information and knowledge for all its
operations
• Therefore effective information management is vital to the success of all UK
parliamentary activity
• Information is created when right data are meaningfully organised
• Therefore effective data management underpins and enables the effective information
management
• UK Parliament recognises the key role data plays in enabling its information
management and in creation of knowledge it relies on
• Therefore UK Parliament regards and manages its data as a strategic asset
Data Strategy Vision in UK Parliament (2)
• UK Parliament designs and plans its data architecture to promote agility,
re-use and value creation for the benefit of its entire community
• UK Parliament works to free its data from the line of business silos and is
committed to making it available for use and re-use to its whole
community and the general public
• UK Parliament is building a powerful data delivery framework which will
provide the members, administration and public with quick, effective
and secure access to its data
Data Strategy Vision in UK Parliament (3)
• UK Parliament is committed to promoting a culture of data transparency,
information sharing and re-use internally and externally
• UK Parliament designs and manage its data at the enterprise level to maximise
benefit to all members of its community and the general public
• UK Parliament is in the process of developing a set of Data Principles which will
inform its policies and standards of data architecture and management
• The Data Principles address the areas of Architectural, Governance and
Compliance aspects of its data
• UK Parliament is building organisational and technical support structures to assist
members of its community in fulfilment of their responsibilities with regard to
data
UK Parliament has defined 4 main goals of
its Data Strategy:
Creation of
trusted, open
and linked
Parliamentary data
sets ready for
consumption,
sharing and re-use
internally and
externally
Establishment of
an organisational
data delivery
framework
for rapid
provisioning
of the data sets
internally and
externally
Establishment of
an organisational
capability including :
Promotion of
for management
progressive
organisational
culture based on
transparency and
information
sharing
of the data sets and
all parliamentary
data needs
internally and
externally
governance,
processes, tools and
people skills
UK Parliament Data Principles
Architectural:
• Data is a strategic organisational asset and should be
managed accordingly.
• Data should be developed within the agreed
architectural parameters to align it with the goals of
Parliament.
• Data should be managed at the enterprise level to
maximise benefit to the Parliament as a whole.
• Data should be easily accessible to all who need it,
subject to appropriate security.
UK Parliament Data Principles
Architectural (cont):
• Data should be shared internally and externally as
appropriate.
• Data should be re-used to achieve consistency and single
version of the truth.
• Data should not be duplicated operationally. Where relevant existing data should be referenced.
• Data should be well described, have common definitions and
standards.
• Data security should be considered in the context of business
risk and benefit.
UK Parliament Data Principles
Governance:
• Parliamentary data belongs to the whole organisation, not just to
the line of business unit where it is maintained.
• Data should be actively governed and have nominated owners
responsible for it.
• Data quality should be actively managed according to clearly
defined measures related to business objectives.
Compliance:
• All Parliamentary data management activities must comply with all
relevant laws and regulations.
• Everyone in Parliament has the responsibility to protect
parliamentary data and to ensure its security in their daily work.
Some activities and projects on the UK
Parliament’s Data Strategy Roadmap
• Definition of Parliamentary Data Architecture:
– Data Principles, Policies and Standards
– Mapping of the Parliamentary data landscape
– Realisation of the Parliamentary Data Architecture
blueprint, comprising: integration platform, governance
and quality management, provision of data products
through agile application development (apps, mash-ups )
• Creation of Data.parliament – an internal and external data
sharing platform
• Creation of the People Directory – the first re-usable
‘corporate’ data set – as the first step to establishment of the
Parliamentary Master Data Management
Some activities and projects on the UK
Parliament’s Data Strategy Roadmap
• Meta data management for a re-engineered
Parliamentary Audio Visual delivery framework parliament.tv
• Data integration - engineering of the data delivery
platform (message oriented middleware based
integration tool – BizTalk)
• Data governance and data quality management
• Data sovereignty and security
• Data classification and assurance in Cloud readiness
work streams
Current Awareness Tool:
case study in social bookmarking
Tim Youngs
Business Relationship Manager for
Information and Online Services
Enabling Knowledge Sharing
The problem:
Give Members of Parliament easy access to a
range of material, but without compounding a
sense of information overload
What was already in place
• Formal subject indexing/tagging of official
parliamentary material
• Users can carry out focused searches of
parliamentary material and research briefings
• New Parliamentary Search tool, based on
Open Source technology, has been well
received
• But, there was a gap...
What was missing
• Members miss out on useful contextual
information about what is being debated
• Lot of knowledge spread about Parliament
• But locked up in people’s heads, on their
internet favourites, in hard copy folders
• Members have to know who to speak to
• Lot of manual processes for creating,
managing and accessing that material
The solution
• New Current Awareness tool developed, went
live in October 2012
• Provides the staff in the Library and Research
Service with a tool for tagging items of
significance
• In effect, a corporate “social bookmarking”
tool
• Works with web-based and desktop RSS
Readers (e.g. Google Reader, Feed Demon)
What it covers
• Research staff identify useful material when
– browsing the web
– reading RSS feeds from sources
– reading hard copy publications
– compiling briefing papers for Members
• Anything can be included:
– Press or Journal articles
– Web pages
– References to hard copy only material
What is involved
• Click ‘add to Current Awareness’ - tool takes key
metadata (title, date, description, source) and
auto completes fields where possible
• User checks it, adds subject tags and saves it to
the database
• Users across Parliament can create their own
bespoke RSS feeds, to follow a particular
specialist or track a specific subject
• Material also available through our Parliamentary
Search tool
From an RSS Reader
From a Web Browser
Adding an item
Creating bespoke RSS feeds
Available through Search
How to ensure success
Key factors for success:
• Needs buy in of a wide range of users
• Has to be as quick as adding it to your Internet
Favourites
• Has to serve users’ self-interest first, make their
lives easier
• Adopting a soft launch, let word spread
• Over time, the hope is it will provide a rich
corporate knowledge base for Parliament
What next?
• Prove the concept and let usage grow
• Bring in Committee staff and others outside
the Library
• If successful, use it to drive improvements to
other services:
– Topic Pages on the Intranet and Website
– Bespoke alerting services that Members can
control
– Personalised aggregation pages