Arcus wins Central Beds for Built Environment and Regulatory Services!
Central Bedfordshire Council has selected Arcus Global, a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions, to implement a cutting-edge Software as a Service solution that enables the Council to manage services across multiple departments including the Built Environment (Planning Building Control & Land Charges) & Regulatory Services. The new Arcus platform will provide a modern, mobile… Read more »
Why Procurement Often Misses the Mark: The Hidden Costs of Not Asking the Right Questions
When it comes to public sector procurement, particularly in local authorities, it can sometimes feel like navigating a maze – one with dead ends that are all too easy to miss until it’s too late. We’ve all been there: a software deal looks like it’s going to save the day and your budget, only for… Read more »
The Reason That Cheap Single-Function Software Is Right for You Is Exactly the Reason It’s Wrong.
As a head of regulatory services in a local authority, you’ve probably found yourself tempted by the shiny promise of cheap single-function software. It’s affordable, does that one thing you need it to do, and seems like the perfect solution to your current problem. Kind of like that one tool you bought off late-night TV… Read more »
Navigating The Choppy Waters of Legacy I.T Contracts
The financial challenges faced by our local authorities that are so widely reported in the press are truly daunting. As stewards of public funds, it’s imperative that they be empowered financially and regulatory to tackle these challenges head-on to ensure the continued prosperity and well-being of our communities and those who live in them. Let’s… Read more »
No more excuses for cyber security failures in councils
Breaches of cyber security are a significant risk to every business and individual, but are increasingly affecting local government. Recovering from the February 2020 ransomware attack that reduced Redcar & Cleveland Council to using pen and paper for critical processes, was estimated to have cost over £10.5m – three times their 2019 central ICT budget.
Getting the data right: seamless data migration for the public sector
With the National Data Strategy setting out the Government’s desire to create a data-led public sector, as well as an appetite from local authorities to deliver data-driven services, many organisations now see that migrating from legacy systems to a new provider offers the ideal opportunity to improve data quality and use this investment to its fullest potential.
Planning for the future
As the product owner for the Built Environment suite, it is my responsibility to understand market changes and trends. As such I’ve been closely watching the comments and responses to the Government’s Planning for the Future white paper. It’s been particularly interesting to see discussions going on around the newly proposed zoning concepts rather than the adoption of technology.
The key digital freedoms for the public sector
Much has been made of the unprecedented nature of 2020 and the innovation that accompanied the response to the demands of the pandemic. On reflection, I think last year changed the way we think about innovation (or at least the emphasis of it). We moved away from new entrants disrupting stale markets and faced a ‘stress test’ of the technology infrastructure that the public sector in particular had put in place in the latter half of the 2010s.
Cloud tech is not a fad: IBM split signals a change in the tides
By now, we have all seen the news that the tech giant IBM is splitting itself into two public companies, in a bid to shift its focus towards the high margin businesses of cloud and artificial intelligence. In my view, the writing has been on the wall for a decade that a tectonic shift in the relationship between business and technology is coming. This split represents part of that shift.
Why we shouldn’t go back to normal after COVID-19 – let your cloud be the silver lining
With people imagining what life will be like following the current pandemic, you often see them quoted as expecting working life to ‘go back to normal’. For me, that won’t work.
Arcus Global Secures Spot on G-Cloud 11 Framework, for the Seventh Consecutive Year
All of Arcus Global’s products and services will be on offer across all three lots through the latest iteration of the G-Cloud framework 03, July 2019: Arcus Global Limited, a market leader in GovTech cloud solutions, is pleased to announce that it has gained a place on the new G-Cloud 11 framework, allowing it to… Read more »
Arcus Global scores maximum points on the AWS Managed Service Provider framework
We are thrilled to announce that not only are we an AWS Next Generation Managed Services Provider (MSP) but we also scored maximum points in our latest AWS MSP audit.
AWS champion our work on artificial intelligence and NHS
You know you’re doing great work when AWS champion it. At Arcus we are all about how we can help the public sector improve their services. Peter Male writes how we have used AI to improve call handling in the NHS.
How Meltdown & Spectre underline the benefits of being on the Cloud
The Meltdown & Spectre CPU vulnerabilities will force all security-conscious organisations to patch their servers. This is something that has already been completed by AWS. While the speed of reaction to threats like these is a good reason to host your infrastructure on the Cloud, this issue also highlights another Cloud benefit which is that this change will result in a 5 – 30% reduction in server performance which can be easily fixed in a Cloud environment but is really hard to handle on premise.
Lessons from Security Attacks
It’s been all over the news since the weekend. The ransomware attack that disrupted the NHS and businesses around the world.
Better Connected Live – A View From the Back
The most telling session at the Better Connected Live event in Birmingham at the end of last month was the Q and A that ended the morning session on day one. The 20 minute Q and A drilled into the heart of the challenge and the problems of being a digital authority in 2016.
4 Causes of Legacy Systems Syndrome and Some Ways to Mitigate Them
Does your organisation have a system, which while critical to some business function is proving nearly impossible to update and change? Does every upgrade cycle take months and require serious effort and testing? Is the application starting to creak at the seams and proving occasionally unstable?
Arcus introduces NEW! Arcus Waste Management (AWM)
Increasingly waste and environmental services form a cornerstone of the citizen digital engagement programmes in Local Authorities.
The Benefits of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing from Arcus gives the Public Sector many benefits, including a platform to run all your services from.
Changing how you access your data and interact with staff and citizens.
Changing how you access your data and interact with staff and citizens. Legacy systems are generally fit for purpose but most of them still propagate silo-based infrastructure and have a support and management overhead that works directly against a true low-cost service delivery model. Arcus Global has a genuinely NEW way of delivering real change and… Read more »
Peterborough City Council Webinar – Local Authorities Can Have it All
As local authorities look to solve pressing financial, productivity, and modernisation challenges, leading transformation lights are extending the scale scope and sophistication of Information technology to enable their Authorities to meet and beat the challenge head on. Richard Godfrey Assistant Director for ICT at Digital Peterborough, delivers a webinar, on how Peterborough is addressing key… Read more »
Gain a Research Edge: Harness the Power of Hybrid Cloud With AWS
Credits: David Blaikie @ flickr.com/photos/nikonvscanon/ © edited by Amish Gir http://sumo.ly/9ZGe Educators and researchers today navigate an extensive labyrinth of “proper channels” to grant their innovative ideas. Factors that slow down your progress include resources and funding limitations. This is where utility cloud can give you the competitive edge. Cloud computing like Amazon Web Services… Read more »
Evolving Councils Embrace a New Business model
Inspired by a New Contract Management System According to an article in the MJ, last week the new Local Government Minister anticipates tough spending choices amid greater devolved funding. Given this austere climate, councils need to think outside the box in order to save money and simplify processes. And, unlikely as it sounds, a new… Read more »
Cloud Platform: A Shifting Landscape (Part 1)
– A paradigm shift is no longer just a possibility, but a reality – The 3 Ds ‘Design, Development and Delivery’ have always been at the forefront of technology, and never more so than today. The landscape is changing once again. In the past, the public sector (along with the private) moved away from… Read more »
How software can help children, families, and carers, all at once
It is widely accepted that early education is of major importance to an individual in the long term, especially for those most disadvantaged. However, the process of educating a child is not limited to primary school, being also highly influenced by a home learning environment and quality pre-schooling. The UK Government is trying to raise awareness and taking action… Read more »
Five things Councils should consider when writing a software tender specification
When a Council writes a tender specification, they are often pretty specific in terms of the type of software they want and restrictive in the experience they require bidding companies to have. This process can often hinder new technologies or companies with new and innovative products from winning tenders, despite the fact that they can… Read more »
Five reasons why Councils should be using the cloud
Having recently joined Arcus from a District Council, I can see very clearly the benefits that cloud computing, whether software or infrastructure, can have on most public sector organisations. Here are my top five reasons why councils should be looking to the cloud for their ICT future.1 ) Cost Every organisation is feeling the effect… Read more »
News from the Cloudfront – Application to Product
Forecast: ‘generally sunny with a distinct lack of a personnel’ now that everyone is taking their holidays. The theme of this month is most definitely productize – a word that filled me with architectural suspicion previously – but now I can say with some certainty that the road from application to product can be broken… Read more »
Arcus Global extends presence on UK Government G-Cloud Framework
Arcus Global extends presence on UK Government G-Cloud Framework Cambridge based SME brings flexibility, security and scalability of Amazon Web Services to UK public sector organisations. CAMBRIDGE – May 07, 2013 –Arcus Global, the leader in delivering cloud computing to the public sector, today announces that it has extended its presence on the UK government’s… Read more »
Security and the Cloud – Part 1
This will be the first of a number of op-ed pieces on the security landscape of cloud computing. Security is often quoted as one of the main reason people back away from embracing the cloud. This I believe is often due to a combination of an over estimation of how secure their current arrangements are… Read more »
A response to the G-Cloud abstainer
This post is a response to the article published on PublicTechnology.net – please see this link..http://www.publictechnology.net/sector/central-gov/uk-tech-firm-why-we-declined-bid-g-cloud-work#comment-8197
The above response is very typical of “sour grapes” and protectionism from a company unable to openly compete in a commodity market. Contract terms, open pricing, definitions are all designed to give the same – identical in fact (to the greatest extent possible) to all providers, large and small. Even in this first version of G-Cloud they are adequate, hence there are plenty of companies (255) including tens of private Cloud providers, that have bid. They believe that the definitions are flexible enough to accommodate their services.
A Business Case For Local Clouds…?
There’s a fascinating article on Public Technology NET talking about how companies are finding it difficult to move their stuff onto the cloud thanks to what is being called trade barriers (http://www.publictechnology.net/sector/central-gov/data-location-issue-still-bugging-cloud-plans). This is interesting as I don’t see the cloud being hosted anywhere in particular… I’m guessing this is probably naive but it’s a… Read more »
So the G- cat is out of the bag!
Earlier this month, central government released the first iteration of the G-Cloud Framework. It is being wildly discussed on the partner networks, with lots of cloud providers planning to bid. Indeed, according to a Linked in post by Mark Craddock, it attracted something like 80 suppliers on the first day. This is hardly a surprise.… Read more »
The proliferation of layers in the Cloud and what to do about it
There’s an old adage in Computer Science, which goes: “There’s no problem, which cannot be solved by adding another layer of indirection.” One usually goes on to add: “Except, of course, for the problem of too many layers of indirection.” Truth is, layers are great. They have been intimately involved in almost all the great… Read more »
Oracle Cloud Buys Fish
The technosaurs continue their battles to become the kings of the cloud, by innovation and aquisition. Oracle just put $1.5bn on the barrel head for RightNow and it doesn’t look like being the last software as a service (SaaS) company that they will snap up. The purpose of this spree is fairly clear: if you are… Read more »
Arcus as a Service
It’s hard to spend much time reading about cloud computing without running across the IaaS, PaaS and SaaS acronyms. Respectively standing for Infrastructure, Platform and Software as a Service they are frequently used to characterise the different models for cloud service delivery. While IaaS involves supplying low-level computation resources such as processing or data storage, SaaS corresponds to delivering… Read more »
It’s ALIVE!!
Virtualisation had been with us for a while now and it can generally be regarded as ‘a good thing’. It gives us more efficient utilisation of ‘real’ hardware and lets us do more with less – thereby realising cost efficiencies, which ultimately in this climate are very handy! These facts are all well-known and you’ll… Read more »
Tooth sucking isn’t helping
The IT Crowd premiered when I had no TV nor any interest in one, I still have no TV but I do get DVD box-sets every now and again to watch at home. After getting the The It Crowd I was really quite excited but the audience at home simply weren’t as in to it… Read more »
A bit like an iceberg…
When buying a car, apart from all the comfort and flexibility that it brings, we expect further expenses, beyond the initial list price of the vehicle. With expenses such as road tax, insurance, MOT tests, servicing and parking, the costs can soon build up, especially for car enthusiasts. This example is something many people can… Read more »
Getting Closer to the Dream
I have been a bit silly last week, and forgot to bring my laptop to work. Simply forgot that its on my desk in the study, just picked up an empty laptop bag and got in the car. I then drove for over 1 hour to client site, and upon arrival, realised that I dont… Read more »
“individuality is likely to carry a high price tag”
(Many thanks to txay for permission to use this fantastic image) Wow! What a quote from Martin Read, taken from this article in publicTECHNOLOGY.NET. It reminded me of something I read on gigaom some while ago when they were looking at barriers to the take up of cloud based solutions. To put the quote into… Read more »
Cloud vs. Outsourcing in Public Sector
In many ways, Cloud Computing is closely related to a commercial concept of outsourcing: a 3rd party is providing key elements of IT service in an organisation. To an extent, some of the scepticism that exists around the Cloud Computing Industry is routed in this similarity. Many of the local authorities we are working with… Read more »