As usual, I’m generally the last person to blog on the theme of technology trends and predictions each year and sure enough our predictions for 2013 actually arrive in 2013. But before we do leave 2012 as a memory altogether, I believe it’s only good and proper that I review the predictions we made this [...]

In this third and final part of the series on the Digital Citizen, I introduce the challenges government faces in servicing the Digital Citizen (read Part I and Part II). By now you know that the Digital Citizen is ready and waiting, and that whilst you might believe they bring opportunities for government, you also know they [...]

This is the second in a series of blogs on the Digital Citizen. The first, ‘The Emergence of the Digital Citizen – Part One’ outlines my thoughts on how the use of new technologies ,like social media and smart phones, have gone mainstream everywhere except government. That said, this blog highlights a few great examples [...]

Few will argue that the ‘digital citizen’ is a reality today, but many will still cite statistics that show – beyond a shadow of a doubt – that phone-based communication still represents most of government interactions. Whilst true, my problem with this is that I believe many infer this is the way it will always be… [...]

I made this assertion recently during my plenary presentation at the Transformation through Technology conference in London. Thankfully, I didn’t get lynched… The rationale behind my assertion is this…  whilst technology can certainly inspire a vision for transformation, it alone is not enough and without other factors, the likelihood of achieving the expected outcomes is significantly reduced. [...]

Recently I was at a conference  where former New Labour spin-doctor Alistair Campbell was speaking. He stated that the “citizen and the consumer had merged” and that people want “private sector standards and public sector values”.  I pondered on this and decided it meant that people want the efficiency of the private sector and the [...]

I’ve been feeling a little like Mark Twain of late. Lagan’s competitors have been spreading ridiculous rumours since KANA bought the company just over a year ago. So it’s about time I set the record straight! The past 12 months or so have certainly seen some changes within the organization – no acquisition can occur without that [...]

Well, quite a lot actually. Way back in the late summer of 1993, I remember sitting with Tom Montgomery, one of the other Lagan co-founders, brainstorming naming ideas for our new software company venture. I wanted something that would identify the company as being from Northern Ireland but NOT be controversial. He agreed but immediately suggested “Red Hand [...]

As part of its austerity measures, the UK Government is putting serious effort into reducing the cost of service delivery and has introduced several austerity programs. One of these, ‘Digital by Default’ focuses on reducing the cost of handling government to citizen engagements by encouraging citizens to use cheaper digital channels instead. Sometimes referred to [...]

You can reliably count on Apple to penetrate to the heart of technology’s impact on our life. So, no surprise that they named their introductory mobile app MobileMe (now replaced by iCloud). In the ever-sloshing sea of hype around new technology, separating the ripples from the tsunamis is not as easy as it should be.  [...]