Tim from IQ, Terry and myself talked at the BCS event.

Terry’s Blog and 3D printer

Mark’s 3D printers and examples

Tim’s 3D printed examples

I have added some pictures of the event provided by DQ Magazine in this folder.

Event Slides here

3D Printing, The Internet of Things, The Maker Community and How These Phenomenon Should Change the Way We Teach Our Kids Forever

The third industrial revolution (circa Right Now) has brought about many changes to the way we live and work. From how we listen to music, take photos, watch TV, (or don’t actually, in the traditional sense anymore), to book holidays or buy vitamins. Now, leaps in wireless technology are enabling rapid growth of the ‘Internet of Things’ and developments in 3D Printing have resulted in a new group of techy DIY’ers, or a ‘Maker Community’ who spend their time finding new ways to apply this technology, and use their practical skills in a creative ways. This, is very cool.

3D printing, as a way to produce objects, could change the world. People who fully understand it’s potential believe it can and will revolutionise everything; from the way that we manufacture goods, produce food, construct buildings or practice medicine. There is also extensive speculation on what the impact of this sort of technology will have on society and the global economy. If everything can be made to order, faster and cheaper, and with less industrial waste what will that mean? What if in your own home you could replicate an object, or part of an object that has a patent owned by somebody else? Will intellectual property rights mean the same thing? What if you could 3D print a weapon, or drugs? Or a virus? Whatever the pros and cons, the benefits or the potential issues that 3D printing brings, it is fair to say that making stuff has never been so exciting, or had so many possibilities.

Meanwhile the emergence of the ‘Internet of Things’, or rather, the increasing unique addressability of anything electronic, is meaning that the way we make the stuff we already have, do stuff, is also getting more interesting. It means that I can remotely manage my fish tank; checking the water levels, draining water,  adding filtered water. I can even turn the light on and off with my iPhone and freak my wife out a little bit!

Fish tank on the internet (click to enlarge)

More practically, it also means that people can remotely see what’s in the fridge, remotely record TV they might want to watch and change their heating settings at home. And ultimately, if we really think big, it means that we could equip every object in the world with minuscule identifying devices and monitor and control everything, everywhere. While this may sound a bit like the perfect scenario for ‘Rise of the Machines’, more pragmatically it could mean less waste, less guesswork, more efficiency, more time…

The Maker Community

Of course none of this technological advancement would mean anything without people using it, and accordingly the ‘Maker Community’ is growing every day. In cities in the UK for example, Hack Spaces have been created in twenty-four hour Tweak Stations that are filled will equipment and collaborative advice. These ‘makers paradises’ encourage people to try and chip away at simple electrical problems and teach them that they don’t need to be an electrical engineer to fix their own technology. Ideally this scheme, and other maker communities like it, aim to provide the building blocks for DIY software computing so that ultimately, people begin to see that what was previously impossible is in fact simple and easy to use in daily life.

BBC Click news item (click here if your on a Ipad)

So what does this all mean for Jersey?

Firstly, while manufacturing has always been a prohibitive industry for Jersey, (because of the need for large areas of space, which we don’t have), forcing us to import the majority of our goods, investment in 3D printing has the potential to mitigate and change this situation in a completely new way.

Secondly, the provision of very reliable and robust access to Wi-Fi will be essential to accommodate the growing use of devices so that people can reliably use their own, personal ‘Internet of Things’ on a daily basis.

Finally, and most importantly, we need to be adapting the way that we educate our children now, to ensure they are well equipped, and ideally even have an advantage, in the world of technology that is emerging. They are our future ‘Jersey Maker Community’.

In the UK, Google has invested in a million dollar campaign to encourage children to get stuck in to DIY Tech to enable them to develop more complex skills and be in control of their technology. A large proportion of this was directed at supplying ‘Raspberry Pi s’; microcomputers in schools that essentially develop programming skills, and encourage innovation and making things.

Obama talk to Ladyada from Adafruit my favourite maker website

In light of these sorts of developments, we need to completely reconsider how we approach our agenda for education. In a recent interview President Obama recommended that Maths and Science should be made less intimidating so that more students continue to pursue the subjects into higher education, in order to become technical engineers. He also made it clear how this should be achieved, by making technological education relevant for young people, by offering students the opportunity to design their own games, to create and to animate, and be interactive, to engage them in a way they can relate to.

Obama was also very clear about the need to remove the stigma behind vocational education and offer programmes at a school level, which lead on to apprenticeships, so that those who don’t wish (or can’t afford) to attend university are ‘job ready’.

These points are incredibly relevant to Jersey, where we need to better equip school leavers for the demands of the tech diversified economy that we are aspiring to. In the words of Obama himself:

"Given how pervasive computers and the Internet are now, and how integral it is in our community, we need to make sure (the younger generation) know how to produce technology as well as just consume it."

At the first ever Board Meeting of Digital Jersey last week, fellow board member Professor Stephen Heppell shared with us some of his experiences with his Be Very Afraid initiative where each year a group of students (from primary to university age) are invited to BAFTA to demonstrate some of the incredibly exciting things they are doing with technology. These are students that have been given access to Raspberry Pi s, development software, SketchUp, 3D printers and other practical technology and simply encouraged to be creative!  The result is interested, engaged, innovative young ‘makers’.

This is inspiring and something we must also be doing in Jersey to secure our digital future – I understand Stephen is going to try to setup a Be Very Afraid initiative here some time this year, which would be fantastic.

I have an UP! 3D printer at the moment that builds 140x140x135mm objects out of ABS plastic. It’s great and I am currently building a robot hand using Servos and an Arduino board, managed by a Raspberry Pi using python code.

This is a Video of it moving and a also a video of a Skull being printed. I have upgraded to a CubeX 3 colour 275 x 265 x 240mm 3D printer here is it printing, and I will be giving my UP! printer to one of the local schools.

I also have a David 3D Scanner and have been getting some great results. Software I’ve been experimenting with includes SketchUp (with loads of add-ons), Blender, Solidworks, MeshLab, MeshMixer and ZBrush.

Some further images of what I’ve been working on can also be found here

including some images from the BCS event.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/20w9olv6lrf8dbh/hsgaB8eON3

I will also some school demos and more information about ‘The Maker Pack’ I’m going to be putting together for our local schools.  Meanwhile if you would like to know more just email me at Mark.Loane@c5alliance.com.

Earlier this year we also successfully acquired Cronus Ltd, a Jersey-based integrated IT Solutions Company focused on software products and cloud services. There was a strong crossover in core values between the two companies, and so the acquisition has allowed us to increase the capacity and what we can offer our client base.

With Cronus, we took a company that was losing money, cut overheads in terms of office space and integrated the skills of each organisation, boosting C5’s business solutions development team and separating into there own vertical sectors, the Jersey Cloud Managed Services and Risktracker, a risk management tool designed to help businesses implement the ‘risk based approach’.

This year, C5 Alliance also formed a new Project Delivery Team to provide support for clients that struggle to adapt when it comes to supporting business transformation and change; something that can strongly affect the success of any new IT venture.

Headed by Ashley Hillier, the Project Delivery Team enables clients to supplement their own internal resources with additional specialists to assist them with the development and delivery of solutions in respect of optimisation, mergers and acquisitions, shifts in the competitive landscape, changes of ownership or funding and regulatory changes. This team adds a new dimension to the services that we already offer to our clients.

As C5 has grown, so has its capacity to contend with larger and more complex projects that focus on management reporting, data warehousing, system aggregation, regulatory compliance for Solvency II, and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Because of our growth, we have managed to win a couple of multi million pound contracts, competing against world-renowned multinationals such as IBM and Dell.

Undertaking larger projects has also increased our ability to build on key partnerships with other companies; as we did with Ascent Software in 2012. The company was initially set up in 2003 as part of the Infomate Group of ICT companies and provides comprehensive software development services to clients all over the European Union. We see this as a very positive partnership going forward.

C5 is also close to delivering a project, which will see a global bank implement, our Internet banking software around the world. This is a great example of a Jersey-developed solution being exported internationally and something we will see more of in the future.

Throughout 2012, we have again worked closely with the Jersey government, most notably by putting the infrastructure and technology in place for ‘digital first’, which includes a major upgrade of the States of Jersey government’s websites. Sometimes the lack of speed within government to implement these important cultural changes has been challenging for us, but there now seems to be a realisation at the highest level that this must be addressed.

Jersey would do well to adopt a similar approach to the UK, which has just released a digital government strategy. It is known that the States could make financial savings by allowing Islanders to submit information digitally, such as tax returns, pension and employment claims and other transactional activities, like registering a new car or applying for a passport. As many in the commercial sector have identified and capitalized upon, online transactions can be 20 times cheaper than by phone, 30 times cheaper than face-to-face and up to 50 times cheaper than by post. This is convenient for individuals but becomes critical for businesses, which can free up time to pursue their core interests, resulting in increased growth.

Digitisation also enables the reduction of public sector expenditure, which is surely the future of government. In order to get the best results, the process needs to be a collaborative effort between civil servants and the local IT sector. I am looking forward to seeing positive progress towards this sort of approach in the New Year.

C5 also undertook some important conferences and training throughout 2012, including the States of Jersey web strategy project, which was showcased to an international audience in London in April. One notable example was the presentation by C5’s Chief Operating Officer Rob Leader and States of Jersey’s Head of IT Services Stephen Hart was aimed at public sector IT leaders and senior decision makers from central, regional and local governments. During the conference, the duo explained several aspects of an innovative States of Jersey web strategy project initiated to consolidate the multitude of different websites and content management systems used by the various States of Jersey Departments onto a single consistent and reliable platform.

Additionally in 2012, our Business Process team leader Aonghus Fraser gave a number of Microsoft SharePoint presentations at the largest events in the UK in London and Nottingham about Search-Driven User Experiences and Business Intelligence respectively, as well as attending the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas to bring back all the latest information about the next wave of technology. Aonghus will continue to represent C5 and the Channel Islands by speaking at the SharePoint Evolution conference in London in 2013 about building secure extranets to provide better and more integrated services to customers and citizens.

Our commitment to training and engagement at an international level, especially with Microsoft as a key partner, has further been highlighted this year through C5 achieving Gold Competencies in BI and SharePoint, visits to World Partner Conference in Toronto by Rob Leader, the SQL Conference in Seattle and our attendance of the Gold Partner Conference in Reading.

Meanwhile, C5 also embarked on growing its community engagement throughout 2012. As proud sponsors for Macmillan Cancer Support (Jersey) our “Jersey’s Greatest Coffee Morning 2012” was a great success. The coffee morning took place in September, and we encouraged local organisations, businesses and community groups – in fact anyone that could provide a cup of coffee – to host a charity coffee morning or dress-down day. With the help of 65 companies and individuals, the event raised over £16,000 for the charity organisation.

Finally, I was both honoured and delighted to conclude this year by being invited onto the Board of Directors of Digital Jersey Limited – the industry body responsible for developing and promoting Jersey’s digital economy. My fellow Board members have an outstanding level of experience and skills and l am very much looking forward to working with them to ensure we can do everything possible to create a successful digital future for the Island.

As James Cash Penney, the Entrepreneur and Businessman once commented:

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.”

Next year as well as the C5 Team continuing to grow, it is essential for everyone in the digital sector in the Channel Islands to work together for wider, industry growth. I personally believe we that we have a very exciting opportunity in 2013 to establish ourselves as a promising digital centre. On that note, I am very much looking forward to the Digital Jersey team announcing details of their Roadmap on 28th January.

This is something many of us in the existing ICT sector in Jersey have been hoping to see for some time and now that it’s official, I am excited about the possibilities that Digital Jersey will create for the Island.  We have been steadily developing our ICT capabilities in Jersey for some time, however the formation of this industry body represents a giant leap towards developing and attracting digital business.  In turn this should provide sustainable employment to the digital sector and make a substantial contribution to the Island’s diversification strategy.

As Digital Jersey gets up and running, I believe that the body needs to address two priorities as soon as possible.  The first is to form an Education Group that can build a cohesive and coordinated strategy around digital education. At a time when providing jobs is a key, there is some irony in the fact that whilst there is an abundance of ICT roles available, and an abundance of interested candidates, there is also a worrying lack of digital skills that would make those candidates employable.

Digital Jersey’s second major focus should be on getting some clear, independent research. A similar industry body Jersey Finance Limited, instigated an in-depth strategic review of the Jersey Finance Industry in partnership with the London Business School. Likewise, Digital Jersey should undertake the work necessary to establish what we should be selling, to where, to whom, and what resources we will need to develop to enable us to do this.

Internet users worldwide

This sort of research needs to be on-going, to help us to develop our ability to make future projections and to understand what type of businesses we want to attract to Jersey. It also needs to be suitable for our jurisdiction – we need to remember that we are a small island accommodating just 100,000 people, only needing a relatively small proportion of the worldwide e-commerce business (which is expected to equate to $16 Trillion in 2013) to do very well and provide significant jobs. We need to be looking at how to target niche digital sectors and industry.

I and many others in Jersey developed my business on the basis of selling services INSIDE the islands, and there is a steep learning curve when it comes to deciphering what the world is looking for in terms of the digital economy. There are numerous questions that need to be addressed, quickly…

What are the market opportunities and where should Digital Jersey be focusing geographically? Should they take the lead from Jersey Finance, focusing on BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and China) – countries deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development? Or would Jersey be better off bringing business into the Island by working with silicon companies based in the Netherlands or the UK?   What niche sectors should be focused on? Test lab environments, e-money, video streaming, gaming/eGaming, 3D printing, e-commerce hosting and offshore cloud computing are several examples of new and emerging technologies which can provide fantastic opportunities as Jersey increasingly moves into the digital domain.

When we have these answers, Digital Jersey can begin to coordinate a business strategy and marketing plan, they can also constructively lobby the government to provide sustainable funding for the projects identified.

However, speed is now of the essence as many jurisdictions have been marketing themselves as ICT centres for some time. Two decades ago, Malta had no key industries to speak of, but for over 10 years, the country has used investment in ICT to generate a thriving, modern sector and is arguably a leader in this space. There is a lot we can learn from their success in implementing ICT, but we need to remember that, unlike Malta, Jersey is not striving to build an ICT sector from nothing. We already have a high quality work force, good infrastructure, sound legal system and tax base, plus a world-class finance sector. It should more be a case of not merely copying other jurisdictions, but understanding the base point from which they grew whilst learning from the mistakes made during their development.  Again using Malta as an example, while they have attracted businesses like Microsoft and Oracle, in Jersey we should probably aim for smaller innovative start-up companies, perhaps just at the point when there starting to succeed and are looking for a good place to host there innovations, and when they are looking for finance, legal, IP and Tax support.

Jersey is currently facing a shortage of digital skills, and urgently needs to develop individuals that are highly digitally literate, innovative and entrepreneurial. The industry needs to seize what is a very exciting opportunity for us all to be a part of right from the start, and the work of Digital Jersey will represent a huge step forward towards this.

Last year, Jersey’s Finance industry celebrated 50 years of heritage, and as well as looking to the future, they have taken some time to look back at how the building blocks of their success were put in place. Now we need to ask the question in terms of Digital Jersey; where will it be in 50 years? This is our opportunity to be visionary, steal a march and take Jersey into the digital future.

One such project has been to provide new and improved government-based websites for States Assembly and Scrutiny, both of which have now been unveiled to the public.

The States Assembly website (www.statesassembly.gov.je) includes details of its members, history and procedures of the Assembly, provides a record of past sittings and gives information about propositions that have been debated and are due to be debated at future sittings. The Scrutiny Website (www.scrutiny.gov.je) provides all the details of Scrutiny Panel reviews, hearings, submissions, reports and results.

Initial discussions about the existing website took place with stakeholders regarding how the sites could be improved and enhanced, and eventually it was decided that a key element of the overhaul would be to significantly improve how information could be sourced from the websites, with the key objective of modifying and enhancing how information on the site could be extracted by those using the site.

Eight years after the original launch of the States Assembly website, we have now overhauled it completely and improved its functionality in line with the successful www.gov.je. The new website has been fully re-designed to enable users both faster and easier access to the information they are looking for, and as of today, users of the new and improved States Assembly website will now be able to:

• Search for propositions by year range and/or by the person who lodged it
• Search for all questions asked or answered by a particular member or Minister
• Sort members by parish, by seniority or alphabetically
• Find more information about propositions and voting, with an automatic link to the States Minutes and Hansard of the debate.

Updates implemented on The States Assembly website also extend to the Scrutiny website (www.scrutiny.gov.je), which has a similarly improved layout and better search access to all work by the Scrutiny Panels and the Public Accounts Committee including reviews, submissions and Scrutiny Reports.

The improvements are hoped to significantly enhance public understanding of the work Scrutiny does and to encourage more members of the public to suggest topics for review and submit evidence through the website. And, as with the www.statesassembly.gov.je, website overhaul, emphasis has been placed on making the information more accessible, transparent and manageable.

From a technical perspective, enhancing the two websites to provide users with the sort of search facilities and indexing that we were hoping to offer represented quite a challenge. The new sites were required to contain an on-going archive of information (historic records dated back to 1981), and therefore the safe transferral of both old and new information was of paramount importance. It’s common knowledge that the more information a site holds, the more difficult, (and slower), it is to retrieve, therefore what was required was a super-fast, intelligent and dynamic navigation-based search system that would go beyond the confines of the ordinary.

In searching for the latest advanced information and communications technology that would provide the solutions we were looking for, we were excited by the latest Microsoft FAST technology. When combined with Microsoft SharePoint, the integration of both software platforms seemed to tick all the right boxes.

Using the combined power of FAST and the simplicity of SharePoint, we were able to build into the websites a custom, search-driven application that would provide specific results based on user context that would provide visitors to the site with quick and accurate access the information they need.

In fact, the software went well beyond that, delivering a state-of-the-art search-driven user experience, with an engine able to accurately guess even the vaguest of synonyms entered by the user before filtering the results at high speed. The new websites have also been developed so that updates and improvements can be made by staff in-house, rather than having to rely on external consultants. This flexibility represents a cost-cutting measure that will also allow quicker response times to changing user demands.

To date, feedback received for the new and improved States of Jersey sites has been excellent, and particularly rewarding.

Michael de la Haye, Greffier of the States, responsible for overseeing the upgrades to both websites, commented,

“Whether you are a States Member, a journalist, a member of the public or a Department employee, it should now be easier to locate and identify the information you are looking for, in addition to other related materials that may assist in your research.

De la Haye is delighted at how the new filtering systems operate, in particular their simplicity. He also acknowledged the sites’ usefulness for highly detailed searching, how users have broadened their scope in using them and the increase in traffic. Other pluses, according to De la Haye, included the improved content management, and how easy it was for staff to add new content/navigation properties to the sites.

Meanwhile, commenting on the updated Scrutiny website, Senator Sarah Ferguson said,

Scrutiny has been evolving over the last six years and the original website has shown itself to be out-dated. The new website is intended to be more public facing with a focus on reviews being undertaken by Panels, so that members of the public can access these at the top level. Furthermore, users will now be able to see information on the status of reviews which will enable them to better follow the work of the Panels and the Public Accounts Committee.

One of the new members of the States, Deputy John Young, said,

I have been a regular user of the old States Assembly website for many years and I often felt that it was difficult to find what I was looking for. The upgraded search facility of the new States Assembly site is a great improvement, and will make selecting and finding information much easier for both for Members and the public. In my view, this is a very big step forward in e-government.

From C5’s perspective, the revamping of the States Assembly websites has been a hugely challenging and exciting project, to quote Irving Stone, both “agony and ecstasy”. Indeed, there were times when we felt as if we were working on the IT equivalent of the Sistine chapel; making something of a very high standard, which we weren’t sure we would ever finish!

Ultimately, C5 has provided one of the most advanced government-based search solutions in the world, and helped to ensure that Jersey has now one of the most transparent and accountable governments anywhere. The project’s conception has been highly complex, whilst the nature of its constant evolution provided plenty of challenges.

We believe that the end result has been a tangible success and have received a huge amount of positivity from both users of the site and those for whom we have undertaken the project. This aspect has been particularly positive and rewarding and will enable C5 to use the experience to apply what we have learnt to the management and design processes of similar projects in the future.

Despite the recessionary environment, successful projects such as this give C5 hope and expectation for the future, amidst the belief that the company can continue to grow and evolve into 2012 with a stronger and more experienced IT team that can continue to have a positive effect for businesses in the Channel Islands.

Case Study

Britain is facing a shortage of workers with programming skills, fuelled by poor-quality training courses in universities and colleges, which has left firms in fields ranging from advertising to Formula 1 struggling to recruit. Leading companies…say they require staff at a senior level to be computer literate, combining digital skills with the ability to lead a team. But they face delays in hiring the right staff, or have to give new employees extensive training because many computer science courses are nothing more than "sausage factories".

For me one of the most interesting things about this topic is that to a large extent, right now, both Jersey and Guernsey are facing a very similar situation. In a fast-moving and quickly growing environment, employing people with the right digital skills is absolutely essential in securing our future.

At a time when providing jobs is a key priority for the UK Government, there is some irony in the fact that there is reportedly an abundance of ICT roles available, and an abundance of interested candidates, but a worrying lack of the digital skills that would make them employable. Despite the recent growth in unemployment in the Channel Islands, ICT roles are still advertised for regularly; at C5 Alliance we recruited 23 new people in 2011 and we were lucky with the calibre of talent we managed to secure – but it wasn’t easy. Unless a longer-term strategy is adopted to fill the growing digital skills gap things are only going to get harder.

Some good work is being done to resolve the problem; Highlands have now taking 20+ students onto their IT Degree Course, working with C5 and others in the industry to form and develop their curriculum. However there is a more fundamental issue, beyond just providing access to the right courses. Generally in schools, teaching has moved towards a focus on how to use IT, often skipping the necessary core theory and learning that would enable someone to know how to create IT.

In the recent Guardian Article, Alex Hope, Managing Director of the visual effects firm in the UK commented on this matter, saying;

An understanding of maths and science is fundamental to many of the disciplines in our industry.

Closer to home Karen Paterson of global payroll company Acrede recently spoke about the need to support ICT education and the development of Jersey’s digital skills, saying:

I think of computer science in the same way as maths and English. These days it is as important as your basic understanding of English.

If we are not giving students the knowledge they need to be able to create and develop new tools and solutions, as a populace we risk losing not only skills, but also our ability to compete in business. We should not only be asking, “do we have IT courses available?” but – “How are they taught? Is the creative side of the process covered and facilitated? Are basic building blocks like math and science being used and applied?” At the very least this would make IT a more interesting and popular subject.

When the emphasis moves from ‘how to use’, to, ‘how to create’, for example, the visual representation of a complex business process and improve it using workflow tools, a system to make vast quantities of data visual, or design a smartphone app to solve a problem . I believe we might have more enthusiastic engagement from students.

Over the last few years there has been a dramatic fall in the number of pupils taking a GCSE in ICT, and to quote the education secretary Michael Gove, this may be because the existing curriculum in ICT has left children "bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word and Excel by bored teachers”. He has recently announced some radical changes in the teaching of computer science in school, saying.

Imagine the dramatic change which could be possible in just a few years, once we remove the roadblock of the existing ICT curriculum. Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word and Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations using an MIT tool called Scratch. By 16, they could have an understanding of formal logic previously covered only in university courses and be writing their own apps for smartphones.

This is an inspirational vision and one that we in the Channel Islands should also be doing more to embrace. Over the last twenty-five years we have been through an IT revolution, but what was once considered the exciting leading edge is now being taken for granted. IT has started to become just a tool, instead of also being treated as an intellectual subject.

If this downward knowledge trend continues, while the pace of IT innovation in other parts of the world increases, we risk becoming a Digital Idiocracy, to reference the 2006 Mike Judge film, a comedy which shows a dystopian world where people have lost the ability to build or create anything new, and the tools that provide them with food and warmth slowly decay without the understanding to repair them. Obviously this is a humorously presented, dramatic end scenario, but there is relevance to the real life situation I am discussing.

To make the changes necessary to improve matters, government support is absolutely vital, but so is a sense of industry responsibility. If we want the Channel Islands to become a centre of competitive excellence for ICT, that goes hand-in-hand with making ourselves a centre of excellence for the right sort of education. This will benefit business, but it will also benefit the community, and the most positive and sustainable Corporate Responsibility Strategies are those where everyone’s interests are aligned.

There is currently serious discussion taking place regarding the formation of a new independent ICT industry body In Jersey, which could (and I believe should) become a conduit for the development of a strategy to improve ICT skills on the island. To support the new organisation if and when it is formed, I believe the creation of a voluntary Jersey ICT Education and Resources Group made up of key members of our industry would be a significant step to making this happen.

As an industry it is now essential that we establish some clear objectives, a plan to meet them and find resources to do our bit to address this significant issue. In the long-term, our own business success will ultimately depend on the action we take now to improve the development of digital skills.

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.

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.

Over the last 6 months, we have started to slide down the hype curve, into what Garter calls the “trough of disillusionment”, with too many small local vendors, developing poor quality, ‘cloud’ computing systems, which are relatively expensive and limited in terms of functionality. At the end of June however, we saw what I believe will be the first signs of the upward “slope of enlightenment”, when Microsoft officially launched the long-awaited Office 365, bringing together the Cloud versions of the most well-known Microsoft Products, including Exchange, Lync and SharePoint, along with the latest version of Microsoft Office.

Compared to the recent efforts of local providers to supply ‘cloud’ services, this new offering from Microsoft is cheaper, (both to set up and on an on-going basis), more flexible, has more features, and offers products that have been custom-built for the cloud environment. With several other IT powerhouses, such as Google, Oracle and Amazon also pumping billions into developing cloud services, the day of reckoning has now well and truly arrived.

Specifically, Office 365 now provides access to enterprise level technology for as little as £6.50 per user, per month. Compare this to ‘cloud hosted desktops’, remote services using off-the-shelf Microsoft Office that providers in the Channel Islands have been offering for £100 per month, and it is clear that some vendors are not going to survive this new era of cloud development.

With Office 365 there is no capital investment required to buy infrastructure, like servers, or the need to factor in the cost of support, such as additional staff or power. And the ability to add or remove users instantly, also means you only pay for what you are actually using, making Office 365 suitable for large and small businesses alike.

While there has been some debate about how cloud computing will work legally in terms of client data jurisdiction, (for example for local Trust companies), we are now finding at C5 Alliance that for many clients, many elements of Office 365 are still incredibly useful and cost effective, and hybrid solutions that still isolate client data locally can easily be put in place. I believe that as products like Office 365 develop, hybrid solutions will become more common, and the meaningful question businesses will ask themselves is not, “should we use the cloud?”, (the answer will be “yes”), but more importantly, “do we keep our client data in-house on our own server, or outsource to a locally based storage provider?”

Effectively, as I discussed in my last paper, the developments being brought forward by the big players, like Microsoft, are going to make computing the New Utility. Until now, our IT provision has been the equivalent of having individual electricity generators in each building, and everyone owning private water tanks. In the future, we will pay for our computing in the same way we pay our utility bills, and cloud services will legitimately be able to claim their spot on the Monopoly board.

I attended meetings between EDD and a small group of local ICT company’s in March, the remit being: "To identify the opportunities, barriers and enablers to support the growth of Jersey’s ICT sector and to understand if government intervention is required." I believe they are working on a draft document at the moment.

Outlined below are some useful links to research I have done in this area.  They provide a good introduction to some of the work other offshore jurisdictions are doing about their ICT strategies.

Starting with Malta:  the Island has focused on its ICT Strategy for over 10 years and is arguably a leader in this space.  Here is the current version and the web version of their strategy.  It is worth noting the work they are also doing on building SmartCity Malta . They’re working on their version of gigabit Jersey here . Also key is their substantial investment in training and careers.

The question is, which, if any of these initiatives should the States of Jersey consider developing? Do we need a minister like Dr. Austin Gatt who has been very focused in driving this forward for Malta?

I look forward to continuing to be a part of this on-going debate.

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