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.

LinkedIn Group Digital Jersey

Yes there are incredible savings to be made by harnessing the pooled resources of the true cloud. But much of the cloud offering remains very hazy.

Advances in computing are never as definitive as people like to make out, and immature services invariably arrive on a wind of hype, mistruth and trouble. The cloud has all this in spades, yet every IT vendor is still clamouring to stick the word ‘cloud’ next to their product.

The Channel Islands aren’t immune to the noise. In fact they suffer worse than most. A surprising number of local ‘cloud’ services have sprung up to exploit the buzz. But let’s not beat around the bush here the wrong choice could seriously harm your business.

One of the worst aspects of excessive hype is that the real benefits of the cloud get lost
in the noise. A sensible look at the technology shows that the cloud has plenty to offer.

Essential Characteristics of the Cloud (Source: NIST.gov)

Paper: The Cloud cutting through the hype.

I have put together a paper around this subject, it is intended to stimulate debate about the sort of cloud services that should be being offered to local companies.

Here is a internal proof of concept that one of the team at C5 is working on for Jersey.

We will put a live version online in a week or so.

A good example of how this may work is Charnwood Borough Council who offer their residents an easy way to find facilities including recycling points, health centres, schools and heritage sites amongst others:

http://www.charnwood.gov.uk/

So, for example, if you wanted to see what planning applications were in progress in your area…

1. Clink on the link above and use LE11 2TZ as your post code;

2. Select any address.

3. Click on the Planning tab. This will show you all the sites currently undergoing the planning application process in that area.

4. Try the heritage tab as well. This model shows how easy it is to provide a wide variety of different geographical information to locals as well as visitors.

We think it is an excellent way to provide public record information at the click of a button and are looking at ways to introduce the functionality to www.gov.je and others. All of this is done using Google maps and auto generated KML files. Here are a few more examples:

For recycling points in a certain area:

my.charnwood.gov.uk

For information on particular buildings like who they belong to or how much they were bought for:

resources.esri.com zoning information

And for those techies out there that would like to have a go and need further information on exporting My Map on KML, follow this link: http://sites.google.com/site/gmapstips/export-my-map-as-kml

It would be great to hear your thoughts on this powerful tool and how it could be integrated further into local sites.

Slides in PDF format

Slides in PPT format

I have removed some of C5 solution example screens, as I am not able to make them public, and I used the slide from the SharePoint Conference I went to in the US from Arpan’s presentations. You can access the original slides at Arpan blog.

Official launch of the new software is in May and I’m more than happy to go through the full system and/or updates with clients on a one on one basis.