Big Data is a buzz word making its rounds across the public and private sectors. Gartner defines Big Data as high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making. In this article Mark Forrest describes how it is being used for staff working remotely.

Read more on THE BIG DATA CHALLENGE: LEVERAGING AN ALYTICS FOR BETTER FIELD AND FLEET MANAGEMENT…

Pat Mclagan helps people redirect their beliefs and assumptions about change so that they can become active, vital participants in the changes around them.

Change Is Everybody’s Business challenges readers to realize the power they have to make things happen-to support, stymie, or redirect change. Pat McLagan draws on her thirty years of experience consulting on change projects worldwide to outline the beliefs, character traits, and actions that will enable anyone to welcome change and take advantage of it rather than fear and resist it.

Read more on CHANGE IS EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS…

The potential benefits to be gained from an effective IT strategy are not well undertotod by many council officials and particularly by councillors.

A survey by Capita IT Services of more than 100 council officials, representing 96 local government bodies from across the UK, found that while the importance of IT is widely accepted in local government, detailed knowledge of IT and appreciation of the benefits of specific initiatives may be lacking.

Read more on THE POWER OF IT TO TRANSFORM SERVICES NOT WELL UNDERSTOOD IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT…

Ofsted has published proposals for a tough new framework to improve standards in children’s homes and drive up quality for the country’s most vulnerable children.

The inspectorate is making its registration, inspection and enforcement practice of children’s homes more robust, challenging and effective in parallel with the programme of regulatory reform proposed by the Department for Education. The new framework is integral to those reforms and is now open for consultation.

Read more on OFSTED TO TOUGHEN INSPECTION OF CHILDREN’S HOMES…

New provisions have been published to strengthen the public’s ability to hold councils to account and the voluntary code for publishing council data is to become compulsory. There will also be consultation on widening the disclosure requirements to companies contracted to councils.

Read more on MORE TOWN HALL BOOKS TO BE OPENED AND NOW IT’S COMPULSORY…

Taking a greener approach to document management offers environmental benefits as well as saving time, budget and space, says Mark Kirpalani.

It is often argued that when corporate budgets are tight, environmental considerations are pushed down the agenda as both public and private sector organisations focus on keeping their day-to-day operations up and running.

Read more on THE ENVIRONMENTAL CASE FOR DIGITISING DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT…

Dieter Fink breaks new ground in two ways with this book. Firstly, he places project risk management in the context of today’s organisations in which objectives are increasingly implemented through projects to better respond to fast-changing markets. Secondly, he applies a governance perspective to examine project risk at the project and corporate levels, an approach which is significantly under-researched and for which theoretical knowledge and professional practice are at an early stage of maturity.

Read more on PROJECT RISK GOVERANCE: MANAGING UNCERTAINTY AND CREATING ORGANISATIONAL VALUE…

Much of the existing software developed for the Universal Credit system is to be discarded and a new system will be developed ready for full live running by the end of 2017. This latest development will result in writing off a further £6.m bringing the total written off so far to £40.1m.

Read more on UNIVERSAL CREDIT: NEW TECHNOLOGY COMES TO THE RESCUE…

Despite procurement fraud being recognised as a growing risk to businesses, there are surprisingly few steps being taken to combat it argues Pedro Paulo. In his speech at the recent CIPS Annual Conference, fraud advisor Paul Guile warned that the full extent of fraud was unknown, a fact which can contribute to a lack of appreciation for the risks it posed.

Read more on THE GROWING WAR ON PROCUREMENT FRAUD…

In this article Brian Bacon argues that two big leadership lessons can be drawn from observation of Nelson Mandela’s life and time in history. The first lesson is that it takes more than a single heroic leader at the top to change the trajectory of an institution, or a nation. The second lesson is that in leadership, character is always more important than strategy.

Read more on LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM NELSON MANDELA’S LIFE…