For most businesses, (located anywhere outside of the growing BRIC economies), 2011 has been tough. Closer to home we have seen the impact of the global financial crisis linger on, with pressure on employment, retail sales, GVA levels and property markets. In the Channel Islands we are in a much stronger position than many, with a lack of debt, strong reserves and lower taxes. But despite this, people and organisations have still felt the pinch and budgets, value for money, caution in the allocation of resources and spending have all been affected.

So what has a year dominated by this sort of economic climate meant for C5? Information Technology (IT), along with Human Resources (HR) and marketing budgets, are often the first to be cut during difficult times. Despite this, we have managed to profit in 2011, by making strategic changes to our offering and adapting to the recessionary environment.

We made the decision to expand our Business Intelligence team to five fulltime consultants, who work with clients to help them understand the value of their data and develop ways that it can work harder for their business. The projects we delivered in 2011 included; Building data warehouses to track client profitability and assets from multiple sources; Replacing Excel based systems to create self-service, licence free reporting for high net worth clients; Liquidity reporting data warehouse; Automated Anti Money Laundering reporting; Automated FSA and JFSC regulatory reporting.

We increased our Director Team to oversee and manage the growth in our staff and client workload, whilst at the same time dividing C5 into smaller teams to ensure we keep our focus on detail and specialist skills. Culturally, these changes helped us to deal with our significant expansion whilst shifting us back to the essential vision that C5 was originally founded on – smart people doing interesting work.

We have also made efforts to develop our local partnerships, with companies like Foreshore, 2e2, JT, Ascent, Lime Green Creative and others to find solutions and ways of working together that benefit us all. This now means that as we enter 2012 we are better able to strategically align client solutions with our partners. Since taking a shareholding, we have been working more closely with Island Analysis. Based in Guernsey, Island Analysis provides a unique database of information covering 85 islands around the World that identifies best practice that can be adopted elsewhere. During 2012 we will invest resources to help them implement an online survey program and better collate the wealth of information they have already gathered.

In 2011 we have been sharing best practice with our current and future clients at our Breakfast Briefings, which we run on both Jersey and Guernsey, and provide a chance for debate and development. Additionally, at an international level we have been attending and speaking at Microsoft architecture sessions and Windows and SharePoint events around the world.

Market trends have affected the type of work we have been doing and we have adapted to suit client needs; for example we have supplied experienced resources to organisations that need to cover critical staff who are required to complete projects, but cannot increase permanent headcount in this economic environment. This is a reality of the recession at the moment and by being flexible in the way that we work, we have been able to support and sustain businesses through periods of change.

C5 has also diversified in terms of location and markets this year. Our Guernsey based team has been doing amazingly well, with a new office, new people and forward thinking clients. Our team delivered some fantastic projects in Guernsey, including introducing a SharePoint-based Document Management and Business Process solution for Generali International which received extensive local publicity. In Guernsey we have big ambitions for 2012 and are working hard to recruit new people to add to our growing team.

Equally, we have significantly developed our working relationship with our partners in Malta. Whilst we are committed to actively nurturing local talent, we sometimes need additional experienced and highly skilled resources to meet our customer demands at short notice or when we are fully committed to existing projects. That is not always possible locally, so having access to extra resources from Malta has been extremely beneficial for us and our clients.

Our Jersey and Guernsey teams have also been travelling worldwide working for clients with merger and acquisitions projects that need IT consolidation support.

We have also had some projects that have proved more complicated and difficult than envisaged! For example a Data Migration project for a Jersey Company, moving them from a legacy system, has taught us a lot about the complexity of this sort of scenario especially in regard to working with issues that are invariably linked to legacy systems. Ultimately we are delivering good results but have also made innovative changes to how we will approach this sort of project in the future as well as developing new techniques to test and check data.

The new States Assembly website proved to be a challenging project but has resulted in C5 providing the States of Jersey with one of the most advanced government based search solutions in the world. Whilst this was an extremely complicated piece of work that was constantly evolving, the result has been a real success story with a huge amount of positive comments. We have used this experience to learn lessons about how we will manage the scoping and design processes for similar projects in the future. We do accept that we don’t get it right all the time, but at C5 we believe what defines us is how we learn lessons and change our behaviour.

We have worked hard to improve our community engagement this year, with numerous sponsorships and events, and a real focus on education. In 2011 C5 participated in Global Entrepreneurial Week, spoke at Highlands College, provided support for Careers Teachers in both Jersey and Guernsey, sponsored students, started a bursary for local students and connected with Universities.

One of our most enjoyable activities was in support of Jersey Careers’ Jobs Fair where we spent time on our stand talking to students and their parents about opportunities locally in IT. We continued to provide work experience for both local schools and Highlands College students, and were proud that our most recent graduate from the IT for Business Course at Highlands has become a key member of our team.

It has become clear to us that the best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives are when business needs and community needs can be meaningfully aligned. By helping to develop skills and interest in Information Communications Technology (ICT), both the community and industry will benefit.

In summary, despite the recessionary environment, 2011 has been an extremely positive year for C5. We have seen good growth and have held our own against the competition. We have also taken on 23 new staff, and although we have had some leavers, overall we are finishing the year with a larger and stronger team.

So we now ask ourselves, what is next for C5 in 2012 and also for our industry? We are certainly growing as a sector and while this is encouraging, it does also mean that the focus on education and developing more of the right calibre of people is essential. And not only for us; securing the right IT resources will be essential in securing other business sectors who are considering relocating to the Channel Islands.

As a company, and as an industry, we will continue to support the growth of ICT in the Channel Islands and develop our role as thought leaders and contributors to the local economy. Great IT is the foundation and enabler for business and growth; if we can provide this and generate business, everyone benefits. On that note, C5’s aim for 2012 is to continue to have a positive effect on the Channel Islands’ ability to do good business.

It’s not often you can say that an annual Budget was exciting, but today’s speech by Jersey’s Treasury & Resources Minister was an exception, for me at least. It was, to my knowledge, the first time that the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) industry has had such a notable mention as part of Jersey’s core budgeting strategy.

To quote Senator Ozouf:

I have carefully analysed the case for going further than just speeding up the copper networks and have concluded that, without doubt, fibre networks are the future…Perhaps even more exciting are the potential economic spin-offs in a whole host of areas that could mean Jersey is one of the first truly Gigabit economies; lighting up Islanders lives with fibre optic, could create a cluster of world class ICT businesses that will come to Jersey because of the legal framework, tax benefits, expertise and lifestyle….This investment in infrastructure is just the beginning of Jersey’s ICT strategy. But to do this, we must move and move quickly.

I would like to see funding for an independent ICT representative body, which will provide consultation, industry representation and promotion, in a similar way that Jersey Finance does for the finance industry

The investment in fibre optic networks has been announced previously and while it is encouraging to hear this element is quickly progressing, what was more interesting to me was the mention of a wider ICT strategy. Additionally, though it was not an absolute commitment that an ICT representative body will be formed it is certainly very promising to hear it was being considered; if pursued this will be a timely step in the right direction.

Debate about the next steps for ICT in Jersey has been gathering momentum in recent weeks. Online discussion on Digital Jersey, (found here), and the recent survey by that same group have raised questions, concerns and ideas. As ever, there have been differences of opinion, but I believe the one thing we in ICT all seem to agree on – we need a better-coordinated strategy.

There has been talk for a while of an ICT body for Jersey. Now, as it appears that this has the potential to become a reality, perhaps we should now be considering what this organisation should look like, and what it should do? The model provided by Jersey Finance is a good starting point. In my opinion, it needs to be:

Independent – working very closely with government, but ultimately driven by commercial industry and market factors.

Public/Private – in the beginning, while we develop strategy, research market potential and build critical mass, 100% government funding will realistically be necessary, but it is important that the final model is based on industry contributing, both financially and in terms of time. Our industry must be tangibly committed to supporting what will benefit us.

Comprehensive – while promotion is important, it is not enough. This organisation would need to become the heart for Jersey ICT research, planning and implementation. It would need to coordinate development of strategy, relevant legislation, and regulation, decisions regarding infrastructure, skills and education.

Transparent - about spending and results. This transparency should be true of government as well, so that work can be done on the basis of a complete picture. JT and States of Jersey will need to publish their financials and business plan for the implementation of the island wide fibre optic network, so it is open to scrutiny and feedback.

I believe it is absolutely crucial that the first thing that Jersey ICT, (or whatever it is ultimately called), should do is commission a comprehensive piece of research that interviews industry experts in competitive jurisdictions and conducts an internal review of local ICT and related industry professionals. There should also be some secondary research done by the likes of London Business School, Gartner or Deloittes to give a solid, independent overview. After this is done, clear goals and targets can be identified and then implemented.

At this point, the opportunity for ICT in Jersey is, as the Treasury & Resources Minister described, “exciting”. There is potential for Jersey to become a location of choice for a whole range of related industries, including:

• Test Lab Environments
• Virtual Currencies
• Diplomatic data immunity
• Video streaming – e.g. Lovefilm
• Intellectual property rights
• Gaming/eGaming
• Infrastructure and hosting
• Any number of new emerging technologies

It is also a fantastic opportunity to develop internationally recognised skills on the island. We need people with Microsoft skills, Developer skills, Virtualisation and Storage skills, Secure Programming, Database and Business Intelligence skills and to encourage computer science degree graduates back to the island.

There is no silver bullet in terms of what ICT should become for Jersey and it is hard to predict what emerging technologies will be. But as almost everything we do moves into the digital arena, “what next?” will become an essential question and also “where?” – With the right strategy, the answer could very well be Jersey.

However, speed is now of the essence. At the Microsoft Partner Conference in Washington last year, I saw a number of other jurisdictions already representing themselves as an ICT location, from Singapore to Malta. Interestingly, these were locations that also compete on the basis of tax and financial expertise. It is clear that the combination of our tax regime, expertise, legislation and lifestyle are all part of what will make us attractive.

Two decades ago Malta had no key industries to speak of, except Maritime, Mining sandstone and Tourism. They have literally used investment in ICT to generate a thriving, modern sector from nothing. In Jersey we are lucky, we are not striving to build an ICT sector from nothing, our Finance Industry has provided an ideal foundation to build on. We already have a high quality work force, good infrastructure, a sound legal system and tax base.

When the discussion was simply about investing £40 million for fibre optic, I was interested, but concerned – if we didn’t actually invest in a clear ICT strategy to use this new infrastructure what would be the point? However today’s Budget speech gives me new hope.

If we combine a fibre network with our existing legal, tax structure and workforce, and add to this an independent ICT representative, strategic promotional body – now we are talking. Combined with some targeted government grants, ICT tax incentives and a clear focus on education and skills and we will have an environment that will literally revolutionise the way we do business forever and benefit our whole community.