NIMM & NHS Informatics planning 2010/11
The Department of Health issued the following guidance in their Informatics planning 2010/11 Annex 1, National Expectations, Developing maturity of technical infrastructure.
“NHS organisations should publish their current position on the NIMM and determine the priority elements of infrastructure for analysis using the NIMM, aiming to achieve at least Level 3 and ideally Level 4 of the NIMM across the priority elements of its technical infrastructure within the next 12 months;”
In order to be effective in using the NIMM to improve performance and efficiency (as suggested in the Department of Health Informatics Planning guidance), NHS Organisations need to understand and prioritize their infrastructure capabilities, looking at a broad spectrum of infrastructure services covering both the technical and management aspects.
Don’t limit your priority capabilities to what you are already good at
Don’t limit your priority capabilities to technical services, look at capabilities relating to the management and business aspects of running infrastructure
Do use this as an opportunity to identify (and justify) areas where you need to improve
Do use the NIMM Balanced Scorecard to get a true picture of your current maturity
What is an IT Strategy Portfolio?
Many people may be familiar with the term portfolio in the financial sense. In the finance industry, a fund manager will want to select and manage a portfolio in a way that meets the objectives of the fund and the people who have invested in that fund; this will include goals for fund growth, return and risk.
Categorizing IT strategy in this manner allows an organization to monitor how its IT strategy mix aligns with its business strategy and governance model.
Assets
In its simplest term, an IT Strategy portfolio will include technology, processes and methods just like a fund will include stocks, bond, gilts and cash as well as more exotic investments.
Objectives
Just as an investment fund will have published objectives, the IT strategy portfolio should also have clear and measurable objectives that are (or should be) aligned to the organisations business strategy and goals. The high level business goals that feed into the IT strategy might include:
- Increase operational efficiency and reduce costs
- Increase competitive advantage through innovation
- Grow the business through acquisition
- Consolidate the business through disposals and re-structuring
- Transform the business through a new go to market strategy
Quite clearly, IT can play a pivotal role in achieving these objectives and getting the IT strategy right can make the difference between success through enablement or failure through ineffective execution.
Cloud Computing on a Single Chip
Intel Research has developed an experimental chip with 48 cores. The chip is intended to allow advanced new highly parallel software architectures to be developed with ultimate uses including cloud computing environments and data centres.
Intel plans to use this reasearch to gain a better understanding of how to schedule and coordinate multiple cores of this experimental chip for its future mainstream chips.
Oh and in order to get a green IT tick, the announcement from Intel also says that this chip consumes the equivalent of 1 ordinary household lightbulb.
More info from Intel here http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2009/20091202comp_sm.htm
Mobile Commerce – Perfect for a Tall Skinny Latte
Coffee giant Starbucks has launched its first two iPhone applications. The first one, called MyStarbucks, is a no-brainer – you can use the phone’s GPS capability to find nearby stores, search ingredient and calorie information for Starbucks beverages, study coffee bean varieties, and build virtual drinks to see what exactly would be in one if you ordered it.
But it’s the second application, called Starbucks Card Mobile, which could be worth a double-take. As well as allowing for a credit balance check and refilling of Starbucks gift cards, Starbucks has expanded into a customer loyalty program by offering discounts, free refills, and two hours of free Wi-Fi to cardholders. And in two experimental test markets, the Starbucks Card Mobile application can use a barcode to replace the plastic gift card altogether.
Mobile solutions have been waiting in the wings for a number of years now. Will 2010 be the year for them to really take centre stage?
If you think about the technologies and solutions that are new and emerging in this space location aware, Android, iPhone, 4G, GPS, … there is just some much more you are going to be able to do with a mobile device.
Already there is a barcode app for he iPhone which you can use to scan almost anything with a barcode, find the best price on-line and buy it with 1-click. Buying things has never been so easy and the scary part is that this whole process detaches you from the cash UNTIL that credit card bill comes in and it become REAL..OUCH!
Replacing loyalty cards with your mobile is just the start, look out for mobile wallets, mobile payments, barcode readers and much more.
So What Parrot
Yesterday I attended a course on delivering client value, one of the topics on this was a technique which I have used for a number of years to help me drill down when trying to work out what the possible benefits (or problems) might be.
Now, what I really like about this technique is that it is very very simple and effective. Imagine that you have a Parrot on your shoulder and that Parrot can only say 2 words, these are “SO WHAT”.
Now, this bird is usually quite well-behaved and keeps quiet for most of the time, EXCEPT when you are trying to describe the benefits or value of a new idea. When you are writing these benefits down, it pops up and says “SO WHAT”. This Parrot keeps saying this until you respond with something that is tangible and measurable.
Here is a simple example which I hope illustrates the point I want to make.
Me: Installing SharePoint and Groove across my team will help us collaborate.
Parrot: SO WHAT?
Me: Well, it will make it easier for us to share information
Parrot: SO WHAT?
Me: We will spend less time re-inventing the wheel if someone else has done what we are about to do
Parrot: SO WHAT?
Me: I can finish my project quicker and benefit from other team members knowledge
Parrot: SO WHAT?
Me: Enables me to be more productive and improves the quality of my work by involving other experts from my team
Parrot: SO WHAT?
Me: My clients are more satisfied and I look good
Parrot: SO WHAT?
Me: We get more chargeable work and I get recognised
Parrot: NO COMMENT!
This example is trivial and easy, the difficulty is drilling down in a way that takes you to some tangible and measurable outcomes.
Ideally you should be able to get down to something that reduces cost, reduces risk, reduces time and/or improves quality.
So give it a go, next time you are justifying some investment OR someone is selling an idea to you… play back the SO WHAT and see if you can get down to something tangible and measurable.
The Management of Service Availability
Recommended reading “The Management of Service Availability” – paper written by my colleague Keith Inight, Technology Strategy Director in the Chief Technical Office.
This paper starts by looking at business requirements and how to assess an appropriate level of availability for a service. Getting this right is important – the costs can triple for a relatively modest improvement in availability.
The paper then draws on original Atos Origin research into the root causes of unavailability and the things that could have prevented it. It builds upon the unsurprising but often ignored fact that defective processes and human error cause far more problems than hardware failure, and proposes pragmatic solutions.
The white paper is available as a PDF by clicking on the link below.
Steps in Creating an Infrastructure Roadmap
I have attended a number of sessions recently where I get asked to explain how Maturity Modelling and the NIMM can help create a roadmap.
I much prefer pictures to words, so here is a diagram which I hope may be useful.
Creating an IT Infrastructure Roadmap
Windows 7 What a Whopper!
What delivers a marketing message for Microsoft and a day’s worth of calories? To publicize the release of Windows 7, Microsoft and Burger King have teamed up to sell a seven-burger 2,120 calorie Whopper at the fast-food chain’s outlets in Japan.
(All trademarks acknowledged as property of their respective owners etc..)
NIMM Video Featuring Dr Mark Ferrar
With IT spend at an estimated 2.5% of the total NHS budget, Atos Healthcare ( http://www.atoshealthcare.com ) hosted a seminar to discuss the benefits of the NHS Infrastructure Maturity Model™ (NIMM™). At which Dr Mark Ferrar, NHS Director of Infrastructure, Technology Office in the Department of Health Informatics Directorate, spoke about the importance of infrastructure in delivering 21st century healthcare. From the seminar, a video was developed with Mark talking about how NIMM™ has been developed specifically for the healthcare market, how it contributes to driving out inefficiencies, its importance in enabling dialogue with a business that focusses on return on investment and its role in ensuring infrastructure provides a solid bedrock on which to deliver line of business applications.
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