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The Metropolitan Police Service in London required easily accessible email for extra police officers during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. To avoid costly capital expenditure on its existing infrastructure, the Met wanted to quickly provision these users and then remove the service when no longer...

The very successful Anywhere Working Week (see #AWweek on Twitter) has come to an end. But it seems that government organisations are still divided about what flexible working brings to their workplace and, most importantly their productivity. Today's Anywhere Working event at the London Transport Museum...

The organisation has reduced IT budgets by more than 25 per cent with new deployments. London, UK. — Mar. 20, 2013 — Wiltshire Council has cemented its transformation from 5 local authorities in Wiltshire to a single Unitary Authority by moving a significant IT service to the Cloud with...

Well, the 2013 budget has finished and while the dust is settling on the key points from the Chancellor's speech, We've compiled some great case studies from the UK public sector to share with you which demonstrate excellent examples of cost saving... How to save money and... ...reduce carbon footprint...

There is no doubt that Windows 8 is the new kid on the block as far as operating systems are concerned. It’s still in its infancy and, as a result, people are just beginning to realise its vast potential. Dell are one of those companies who are currently producing a selection of great devices...

Visiting the Houses of Parliament is always a pleasure… actually, now I think of it, I’ve never been before… so my first ever visit was very exciting! The reason for attending? A parliamentary reception for the Anywhere Working Campaign. And, if you want to get symbolic about it,...

Off the back of the Parliamentary reception for the Anywhere Working campaign and as Office 365 for business is launching today, we thought we'd share this lovely video with you... Do you have a flexible working policy in your organisation? If not, check out this fab video out: Posted by Howard...

Every now and then a story comes along which warms your heart (and lets face it, it's cold out there at the moment) - and the 4Afrika initiative by Microsoft is one of them. It's something we simply had to share with our Government audience. Besides, it's a great example of how tech innovation can help...

Through the use of Unified Communications and Microsoft Lync, North Wales Police has been able to dramatically improve their ability to respond to critical incidents and support their local communities. It's also led to a minor revolution in their ways of communicating with other the emergency services...

Four times a year a publication drops onto my desk full of fascinating stories of how Microsoft public sector customers have solved their challenges using technology and working with Microsoft partners. TOUCH magazine is a great read for those interested in government innovation, and the content helps...

As many government organisations around the world face daunting budget restrictions, some are finding creative ways to cut their existing costs, while continuing to provide excellent service to the public. These tactics include everything from migrating applications to a cloud environment to engaging...

Like many of us this summer, I will be heading off on holiday soon. When I get back I will probably be posting many of my snaps on to a social platform to store and to share with friends - again, I'm sure many of you will be doing the same. While I always try to keep a copy of all my photos and videos...

The acceleration in the use of unified communications in the enterprise hits home when I look round the office here at Microsoft in Reading. There is not a desktop phone in sight. Most people now communicate using Microsoft Lync from their PC for the majority of their telephone, online conferencing,...

If you’re like me, the thought of being away from your smartphone, even for a day, creates a sense of anxiety. These days, I’m checking email, paying bills, managing schedules, and navigating on road trips — all from my smart phone. It’s become indispensable. As smartphones become...

In an age when flexibility, good communication and mobility is key when considering ICT provision for the government, some organisations are beginning to turn towards the regular use of tablet PCs for their daily work needs. With this in mind, the future of flexible ways of working within government...

The fight to warn areas of the UK about flooding has stepped up a gear by the introduction of a new Facebook application from the Environment Agency . Powered by the Bing Maps platform and developed by Microsoft partner Shoothill, FloodAlerts is built on official flood warning data. This allows the...

If you work in one of the many marvellous charities spread throughout the UK, you might be looking into ways of communicating effectively. Great communication to the public is something so essential for charities but how is your communication within your organisation? Is there room for improvement...

It's less than a month to go now until the huge Worldwide Government Solutions Forum in London (24th-25th April). We thought we'd share the latest agenda with you - it's packed full fantastic speakers and chances to do some great networking. Just see for yourself below... More soon - don't forget, you...

Local Authorities and Police Forces are increasingly looking at Cloud services to increase efficiency and collaboration, whilst reducing the cost and burden of delivering integrated and collaborative applications to their users. However, there are understandable questions about Cloud services over potential...

In my last post , I introduced the Microsoft Flexible Workstyle strategy, and talked about how that approach aligns to the ideas set out in the Government End User Device Strategy. It deliberately avoided talking too much about technologies, focusing more on the “how” rather than the “what”...

We’ve recently blogged on two topics currently close to UK Government’s heart: firstly, Annemarie Duffy wrote about how internal IT within Microsoft is embracing opportunities presented by cloud, and by the Consumerisation of IT (CoIT). Then Nick Umney posted the first in his “ Why...

Microsoft has today been appointed to the Government Procurement Services’ ‘G-Cloud’ Framework following the completion of the formal bid process. The business has been successfully appointed on all four Lots: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS as well as cloud consulting services. In addition, a number...

During the coming weeks, we will be devoting some space on our UK Gov Blog to information about the Worldwide Government Solutions Forum (GSF), taking place at Microsoft in London this April. Today, our colleague Per Bendix Olsen - Worldwide Public Sector EMEA Partner Lead, introduces this year's GSF...

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could use your BlackBerry to access Office 365? Well, now you can ! Yesterday RIM officially announced that BlackBerry Business Cloud Services was available for Office 365 customers. Key features: Wireless synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Online email...

We’ve been attending UK GovCamp , an ‘unconference’ that aims to bring together public sector professionals to discuss best practice use of technology. The event lasts 2 days, read our day one wrap-up post to see what happened yesterday. As with yesterday and in the true ‘unconferencing’...