Author: The Information Badger

The NHS doesn’t engage or communicate with patients on waiting lists at all…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Digital Transformation, Information Technology, Leadership, NHS, Online Services

Statistics show that >80% of the UK population engage in online shopping, an impressive number given Amazon et al only launched in the 1990s. The Badger uses Amazon, amongst others, because the ‘customer journey’ from choosing goods, payment, through to and including delivery, is straightforward, reliable, and provided with  informative tracking information about the journey of the goods. This ‘customer journey’ is founded on solid, integrated IT, designed to engage and communicate with the customer throughout the whole process. Good, proactive, interaction with customers is a norm in today’s online world, which means that any public facing service that doesn’t have it sticks out like a sore thumb!

Last week the Badger visited a neighbour, a statistician long retired from the UK Civil Service,  who’d recently had a fall in the street. Their wife invited the Badger round for coffee and a chat to lift her husband’s spirits. The coffee was good, the conversation lively, and her husband’s spirits were indeed lifted! Given their Civil Service career, government and the NHS inevitably came up in our conversation. At one point the Badger laughed when the statistician asserted that ‘All governments are somewhere on the incompetency spectrum’. They were forthright about the NHS too, saying ‘Unlike Amazon with its customers, the NHS doesn’t engage and communicate with patients on waiting lists at all’.

What triggered this remark is the fact that a NHS hospital consultant told them a year ago not only that they needed an operation, but also that its clinical priority meant it would happen within 2 to 3 months. After 3 months had elapsed with no communication from the hospital, the statistician called to enquire what was happening only to be told they were on the waiting list and would hear something soon. After another 3  months of no contact, they enquired again and got the same response. A year has now passed and there’s been no proactive communication from the hospital at all. Understandably, their trust in the NHS has almost completely evaporated. It wasn’t surprising, therefore, that we decided during our conversation that government should get Amazon to implement proper, ‘customer journey’-like,  21st century ‘patient journey’ engagement, IT, and waiting list communication practices for the NHS. Radical, wacky? May be, but the status quo isn’t working. Not proactively communicating with patients who’ve been on waiting lists for months sticks out like a sore thumb as being behind the times and is plain wrong!

The IT for the online shopping ‘customer journey’ is well established, so surely its principles and mechanisms can be adapted to proactively keep patients informed during their ‘patient journey’? The government’s consulting about NHS changes but can it cut through NHS vested interests? It has to, because there’s a mountain of waiting list patients who’ve already lost confidence that this complex 20th century supertanker will ever be truly fit for the 21st century…

‘What’s the point of hard work…if the rewards are taken away years later?’

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Change, Information Technology, Leadership & Management

The UK government announced that from April 2027 any remaining unused pension on an individual’s death will count towards their estate for Inheritance Tax purposes. This is a big change which caused the Badger to holistically cogitate! Although farmers, in particular, are already angrily protesting, this change affects anyone, employed or planning retirement, with Defined Contribution (DC) pension schemes, the norm for most companies and auto-enrolment these days.  

From April 2027 any unused pension will be included in a person’s estate for tax purposes. The beneficiary of the unused pension also pays Income Tax when they draw on their legacy. This is double taxation, the morality of which is questionable, and it means that if the beneficiary is a higher rate taxpayer, then their effective tax rate could be a whopping 64%. There’s no doubt that the government’s announcement will significantly change workforce attitudes towards pensions, inheritance planning, and retirement over the coming years.

This change doesn’t just affect the ‘wealthy’, it affects those in the broad IT industry that are ‘modestly comfortable’ too. If you’re employed in IT then you’re well paid compared with the UK average, you work hard for what you earn, and you’re likely to be in the ‘modestly comfortable’ category. The IT and tech sectors, important for the UK government’s economic growth aspirations, can be challenging but lucrative if you work hard and continuously develop your skills. In the Badger’s experience, IT people do indeed work hard, go beyond the call of duty, and most are prudent and make sacrifices to provide a modestly comfortable future for their loved ones. They deserve their rewards, but many will now find themselves, as reported recently in The I, in a similar situation to that of Louise Rollings, a single mum who worked for decades at an IT company. She comments:

‘The changes announced in the Budget make it feel as though people like me are being penalised for having worked hard, prioritised, budgeted and made sacrifices all our lives. As it stands, very little space has been left for people who have worked hard all their lives to build up modest estates to feel appreciated and rewarded. What’s the point in hard work if the rewards of all that ambition and determination are taken away in later years?”

Quite! If you work hard, make sacrifices, pay all your taxes, save and invest prudently, and contribute to a DC  pension scheme (like governments encourage you to do and where you carry the underlying investment risk), then the question captured in Ms Rollings’ last sentence is very apt. If IT and tech are important for the country’s  economic growth, then the government needs to encourage more and more people in these sectors to work hard. That’s not likely to happen if you know with certainty that the rewards from your effort will be taken away many years later…

Looking into the eyes of…a politician…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Delivery, Human Resources, Information Technology, IT Project Management, Leadership, Leadership & Management, Project Management, Psychology

Most people in the UK workforce never get to look deeply into the eyes of a government minister. The Badger, however, first did just that some decades ago. The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry at the time visited one of the Badger’s employer’s offices for the type of ‘understanding what we do’ session that sometimes produce snippets on television news. At the time, the Badger was leading his company’s development of a key IT system at the heart of an important major programme within this minister’s remit. The day before the visit, the Badger’s boss told him to attend in case they wanted to discuss progress with the programme. The timing was inconvenient because the IT system was just a few days into a crucial testing activity, but attending was obviously the right thing to do.

The Badger duly arrived early the next morning at the office hosting the visit. The minister and their entourage arrived mid-morning, slightly later than expected, and the company CEO took them on a tour of the building and a number of demonstrations  prepared by local project teams. As they were shown around, the minister hardly smiled. They appeared distant and disinterested, and they spent more time talking to individuals in their entourage than those they were meeting. As the tour concluded, the CEO beckoned the Badger over and introduced him to the Secretary of State as the person delivering the key IT system at the heart of their programme. The Secretary of State shook the Badger’s hand, and while doing so, they locked eyes with the Badger’s and coldly asked ‘Will the system be delivered on time?’ without blinking. ‘Yes’, the Badger answered truthfully. They instantly turned away and asked the CEO about the arrangements for lunch! Immediately after this fleeting interaction, the Badger reflected on what he’d sensed from looking into the eyes of this politician.

Eyes are often called the ‘windows to a person’s soul’. If that’s the case, then this politician had no soul! There had been no flicker of interest, just a constancy of optical contact that was cold, uncomfortable, intimidating, and empty. While the Badger knew that politicians, like many business leaders, are often trained to maintain a certain demeanour, he concluded, right or wrong, that this individual’s personal attributes were unattractive and distrustful because they really didn’t have a soul!

Over the years since, the Badger’s often looked deeply into the eyes of politicians and business leaders. He’s come to realise that some do indeed have a soul, because their eyes broadcast confidence, competence, interest, inspiration, and trust. He’s observed that those with such attributes tend to have lengthy, successful, leadership careers, but those that don’t have tended to falter. So, never avoid direct eye contact with politicians and leaders because, as Al Pacino said in the movie Scarface, ‘The eyes, Chico, never lie’…

Banning social media for the under-16s…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Education, Ethics & Regulation, Information Technology, Life, Online Safety, social media, Tech for social good, Wellbeing

Richard Holway,  a well-known, respected, and influential analyst in the UK software and IT services markets, penned an item last week for TechMarketView entitled ‘What have we done?’. The item relates to the harm that social media and smartphones are doing to children. As a grandparent with a background in software and IT services, and having a grandchild who’s just started school, it struck a chord and reinforced the Badger’s own opinion that they have indeed caused great harm for children under 16. Holding this view doesn’t make the Badger, or anyone else with the same opinion come to that, an anti-tech dinosaur, just a human being who is pro technology that has safety, security, privacy, and human well-being as its paramount priorities. When it comes to ensuring the best for children in their formative years, it seems to be mainly the unprincipled and unscrupulous who argue about having these as dominant priorities.

History is littered with ‘products’ of one kind or another that were widely popular but were ultimately recognised over time as being a danger to human well-being. Plastics, DDT, cigarettes, fossil fuels, asbestos, paint with lead in it, illustrate the point. Did you know that a century ago cigarettes were advertised as being beneficial for asthma and anxiety? Also, incredibly popular patent medicines in the 19th and early 20th centuries  had no restrictions on what they contained. Many contained cocaine, morphine, and heroin. A very popular cough mixture for children did, indeed, include  heroin! Things, of course, changed once society eventually realised the scale of addiction and early deaths that occurred. It has long seemed to the Badger that aspects of our rampant tech-dominated world, especially with regard to social media, are following this same historical template, especially when it comes to use by children.

In little more than two decades, social media has evolved from being a novel way of staying connected to family and friends, into a powerful global force that shapes many dimensions of daily life. Evidence that social media has harmful effects on children is growing all the time. Science shows that social media causes the release of large amounts of dopamine into the human brain just like addictive drugs such as heroin, and even alcohol. No wonder it’s easy to get hooked!

Like Mr Holway, the Badger fully supports the ban on smartphones and social media apps for children under the age of 16. As you can see here, the legal age in the UK is 18 to buy alcohol, tobacco products, knives, and certain types of DVDs and games. The legal age is 16 to buy pets and animals, petrol, matches, and to be in fulltime employment. Why, therefore, shouldn’t smartphones and social media apps be banned for children under the age of 16? As Mr Spock from Star Wars would say, ‘Isn’t it illogical, Jim, to do otherwise?’

A ‘Budget for Growth’ for smaller, tech-centric businesses?

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Change, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Offshoring, Technology

Digital technology – the electronic systems and resources that help us communicate, work, play, travel, and live today – is everywhere. The Badger recently conducted an experiment, not one that meets the rigours of professional research, by asking those he’s met over the last week about what they thought of when hearing the phrase ‘digital technology’. A young checkout operator at a local store, for example, said social media, the internet, their smartphone and its apps, online shopping and online banking. That was pretty much a summary of all the responses from young and old alike. Why the experiment? Simply to test a perception that the general public associates ‘digital technology’ mainly with well-known mega global corporations and big brands. The experiment essentially affirmed that perception.

But here’s the thing. The UK has many medium-sized companies with <250 employees, many of which fall under the umbrella of ‘digital technology’.  Such companies, many entrepreneurial family businesses, get little profile even though they are not only part of the UK’s economic bedrock, but also have digital technology which is used globally but invisible to the general public even though it touches them every day. The Badger knows, for example, of a company whose technology enables, controls and cures printed text and images on the packaging used for foodstuffs, medicines, chemicals, and even Christmas wrapping papers! It’s a global leader, employs <250 people, and it’s systems are built in the UK, installed worldwide, and managed and maintained from this country via the internet. It’s innovative companies like this that are crucial to our rhythm of life and the country’s success.

One of the Badger’s neighbours, who’s mid-career with children at school, is part of the leadership team at a different tech-centric, smaller company. While chatting recently, the Badger asked them how the recent UK budget would impact their company. ‘We’re used to challenges’ they said with a grin, adding that recruitment had been frozen, leavers were not being replaced, maximising automation had become the top priority, and work was being moved to lower cost offshore locations. They then added, ‘Now my pension pot is subject to inheritance tax, there’s little point in striving for more success or providing longer-term financial security for my family. I expect to leave the workforce within a decade to ensure I spend whatever wealth I’ve accumulated because there’s no point doing otherwise anymore’.

The Badger flinched. It seems a) that the recent budget isn’t a ‘budget for growth’ as far as smaller, tech-centric companies are concerned, and b) that the mindset and priorities of strivers in such companies is already changing. Has the UK  government’s budget damaged this country’s smaller ‘digital technology’ companies and their employees’ desire to succeed? Time will tell, but the omens don’t look good…

Goodbye trusty diesel car, hello petrol-hybrid…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Automotive, Driverless transport, Electric cars, Information Technology, Processes and Practices, Reliability, Technology, Transport

The Badger’s trusty diesel car is no more; it’s been replaced. It’s been a good servant over the last 14 years, but with more than 150,000 miles on the clock it had been in the end part of the standard reliability bathtub curve for some time.  The time had come for head to rule heart, and so a couple of months ago the Badger decided it was time for a change. That, of course, meant deciding on what type of newer vehicle the replacement should be.

The Badger approached the process systematically, and with disciplined objectivity rather than emotion as per instincts honed by decades in the IT industry. He set out his primary requirements and did some online research to establish a shortlist of potential vehicles. His primary requirements were similar to those when he purchased his trusty diesel 14 years ago, even though the automotive, social, political, technology, and economic landscapes have changed considerably since. The primary requirements were nothing fancy and likely typical of those of most private buyers. They revolved around price, running costs (including road tax and insurance), suitability for current and future family needs, quality and reliability. Brand, type of fuel, and digital gadgetry were secondary considerations.

One vehicle stood out during test drives of those on the Badger’s shortlist by meeting all his requirements. A good deal was done, Gary Numan’s Cars was the first song on the radio when taking delivery, and the Badger’s been driving an extremely low mileage, less than two-year-old petrol-hybrid for over six weeks now.  It’s essentially a well-engineered iPad-with-wheels, brimming with sensors and driver aids. It’s a revelation compared to his trusty diesel, and driving it is a constant reminder of how digital technology dominates our lives and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

The whole process from valuing the old car, researching models that met requirements, arranging test drives, agreeing a purchase and making payment, and obtaining road tax and car insurance, involved online services which have been efficient, convenient, and secure. The hybrid technology and comprehensive digital driving aids, entertainment, navigation, and safety features make his replacement car a great and flexible package. A petrol-hybrid rather than a pure battery electric car was the right modern choice for the Badger. It represents the best of  both worlds and eliminates range anxiety and the need to plan long journeys around charging points. It’s a balanced and sensible compromise that comes with economic and environment benefits while avoiding the limitations and inconveniences of pure battery electric vehicles. While electric propulsion may be the future, pure battery electric vehicles will be usurped by fuel cells in the coming years. As for completely driverless cars, well, they are a long way off on UK roads, not because of technology limitations, but because people are people and they like to be in control when they are behind the wheel!

The NHS; a super-sized jumbo jet flying with only one engine…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Delivery, Digital Transformation, Health & Social Care, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, NHS, Public Institutions

There’s one thing currently dominating the chatter of many people the Badger encounters, and that’s the UK Budget on the 30th October.  ‘How is it right for me to pay more tax for politicians to fritter away, when the Prime Minister doesn’t buy his own clothes or glasses?’ one pensioner commented. The Badger tries to maintain political neutrality, but there’s little doubt that the new UK government has got off to a bumpy start. However, it’s now starting to flesh out its ‘Change’ agenda and also setting expectations regarding the budget. On the former, for example, the government is calling on the nation to ‘help fix our NHS’. As reported in many places, e.g. here, it wants people to share their experiences and ideas given that we are all users of this huge institution employing more than 1.34 million people. The Badger, having had some exposure to NHS IT during his career and as a patient, has thus contributed to ‘help build a health service fit for the future’ via the government’s website here.

The NHS has been a political football for decades. There’s a regular clamour to give it more money. When it gets additional money, however, it never seems to make an impact, other than to fuel clamour for even more funds – at least that’s how it seems to the Badger. The NHS’s use of modern, integrated, IT is woeful, as neatly illustrated by this New Statesman article in March. By IT, the Badger means the systems that support basic operational processes within and across the NHS’s entities, not the diagnostic and robotic tools that get airtime in the media.

People often tell the Badger of their frustrating NHS experiences, most of which involve aspects where IT plays a part. For example, an NHS phlebotomist bemoaned needing 13 different logon/passwords to deal with blood tests. A relation was appalled on receiving a letter confirming a hospital appointment with Audiology when it should have been with Cardiology! A neighbour was dismayed when a consultant at a post-operative outpatient appointment told them they couldn’t find a CT scan ‘on the system’ even though the scan happened 6 weeks previously at the same hospital. A pensioner, referred from a local hospital for urgent follow-up at a regional hospital, enquired after hearing nothing for 2 months only to be told that ‘there’s no record on our system’ of the referral. The list of similar experiences is long.

Building a ‘health service fit for the future’ is like modernising every aspect of an aging, super-sized, jumbo jet while it’s flying with only one temperamental engine. Few government transformation programmes deliver real change to time and budget, but this one must break the mould, or the jumbo will soon spectacularly crash. That’s why the Badger has not only contributed on the website here, but also urges you to do the same regardless of your political views.

‘A crisis’ – the name for a group of dysfunctional experts.

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Consulting, Delivery, Information Technology, IT Project Management, Leadership & Management, Risk, Software, Systems Integration

Many years ago, the Badger took a late morning phone call from his boss asking him to pop into his office for a chat. A reason for the chat wasn’t mentioned, and so it was with a little trepidation that the Badger took the lift to the floor where his boss’s office was located. On approaching, the Badger saw his boss through the open door with elbows on the desk, head in hands, looking morose. Sensing the Badger’s arrival, his boss sat back, smiled, asked for the door to be closed and waved the Badger to a seat.

‘What’s the collective noun for a bunch of experts responsible for designing a huge software intensive system on a fixed-price contract?’ the Badger was asked in a relaxed manner. His boss didn’t wait for an answer. ‘A crisis’, they said with irritation and a flourish of colourful language that would cause apoplexy today. They explained that this answer derived from problems on a multi-tens of million pounds, fixed-price IT development project with a dysfunctional Design Authority (DA) team. This team, apparently, was full of acknowledged experts who seemed incapable of agreeing or deciding anything that was crucial to the progress of the overall project team’s software developers. At the start of the project line management had apparently insisted on staffing the DA team with experts who’d been between assignments and non-revenue earning for some time. The Badger’s boss admitted that, in hindsight, it hadn’t been wise to allow this to trump an individual’s technical and personal suitability for the project.

The Badger was then asked to sort this out and get the project back on track! He joined the project with an open mind and quickly assessed the situation. There were some leadership and management dynamics to adjust, but the DA team was indeed the key problem. Its members were all respected experts with specialist knowledge, but each was focused on expanding and protecting their expertise rather than the big picture and the project’s fixed price delivery. Teamwork, within the Design Authority itself and with the rest of the project, was poor. Experts can add enormous value to any team if used correctly, and so the Badger carefully considered how to rectify the situation. He repopulated the Design Authority with good people drawn from other parts of the project. The experts were released to their home units to be used a couple of days a month for consultancy if required by the new DA team. The experts and their line managers grumbled, but the project went forward to success.

The point of this tale? Simply to highlight that experts who keep their egos in check, never lose sight of the big picture, and have both specialist knowledge and the personal characteristics for teamwork, are valuable assets on tough delivery projects. Those that don’t have all of these attributes are more suited to short term specialist consultancy…

Today’s cutting edge is tomorrow’s obsolescence…

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI & Robotics, Automation, Driverless transport, Information Technology, Internet of Things, Life, Online Services, Smart & New Technology, Technology

As the Badger sat in traffic, a news item on the car radio grabbed his attention. It was a report that there are now no new car models in the UK that come with a CD player. The built-in CD player is joining the cassette tape player in the great scrapyard in the sky! The Badger’s reaction on listening to the report? A little sadness, but not surprised given the speedy evolution of in-car digital infotainment over the last 15 years. The march of connected, integrated, digital technology and the advent of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto have rendered CDs in vehicles obsolete. The Badger glanced at the half-dozen music CDs, a mix of factory-pressed and self-burned, resting in the cubbyhole behind the handbrake and was hit by a wave of nostalgia.

Nostalgia is a natural and common human experience that can help in navigating the  present by drawing comfort and strength from the past. The Badger has a kinship  with his car CDs because they’ve often been played during notable journeys full of either happiness or great sadness. There’s something personally satisfying and engaging about physically selecting a CD, taking it from its case, putting it into the car’s player, adjusting the volume, and then doing the reverse when the last track’s played. Tapping a digital screen or giving voice commands to play your music in a vehicle is a different, less engaging experience. The Badger’s CDs will continue to be played in his car until it too is beckoned by the great scrapyard in the sky.

The demise of in-car CD players is just another illustration that obsolescence is an unavoidable aspect of the rapidly advancing digital age. In the 1980s, the CD put the in-car cassette tape on the path to oblivion with the fitment of cassette players as standard in new vehicles ending completely in the first decade of this century. Now digital systems sourcing music and other entertainment from the ether have essentially done the same thing for the CD player. This implies, of course, that what’s replacing the CD in vehicles today will itself become obsolete in due course, especially as obsolescence is happening faster and faster in the consumer electronics, software, media and entertainment, manufacturing, and automotive industries.

Things once acclaimed as cutting edge are always eventually relegated to the side lines by something else, so what will in-car entertainment look like in a few decades time? Well, if mass adoption of truly self-driving cars becomes a reality, then occupants will absorb entertainment without the distraction of actually driving. In-car entertainment will be dominated by immersive technologies, AI, well-being/mood sensors, and so on, making the driving experience into something akin to that of lazing about in a mobile digital living room. The thought makes the Badger shudder because it represents  another step towards the potential obsolescence of the human race!

The price for being a Digital Citizen…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Digital Transformation, Information Technology, Life, Online Safety, Online Services, Privacy and Surveillance, Risk, Security, social media, Tech for social good

The vast majority of people are now ‘digital citizens’. There are many definitions of what being a digital citizen means, but the Badger thinks the term simply describes anyone who regularly uses the internet, online services, and IT to engage with social society, business, work, politics, and government. Becoming a digital citizen, in the Badger’s view, starts when any individual acquires an email address and then shares information online, uses e-commerce to buy merchandise, uses any other online service, or simply browses the internet. Everyone reading this is a digital citizen.

The Badger’s been a digital citizen for more years than he cares to admit to, but over the last decade he’s become circumspect and increasingly alarmed by the deterioration in responsible use of online technology and the internet by individuals and organisations. Yesterday the Badger helped an elderly neighbour carry their shopping bags the last few metres to their doorstep and was invited in for a quick cup of tea as a thank you. During the ensuing conversation, the Badger’s neighbour, a sharp 85-year-old ex-civil servant, mentioned they were a digital agnostic who strongly believed that the digital world has produced a surveillance society. They have a point, especially when you consider the following.

Supermarkets know what we purchase and when from our online transactions and use of debit and loyalty cards. They use this data for their business and to market products to us via, for example, voucher and loyalty point schemes. They don’t sell the data to others, but its theft by bad actors via security breaches can never be ruled out. The same is true for other retail companies. And then there’s the online giants like Amazon, Google, and Meta et al who capture so much data about our interests, behaviours, and habits that they often know more about a person than the person knows about themselves. All of this coupled with the fact that energy, transport, banking, central and local government functions are now also ‘online first’,  just reinforces the fact that the data describing our personal lives is in the digital ether and can be used for purposes which are invisible to most people.

Putting this together holistically with the fact that the UK has one of the highest densities of CCTV cameras amongst Western countries, with approximately 1 camera for every 13 people, it’s difficult to deny that the digital world has produced a surveillance society in barely 25 years. The price for being a digital citizen is thus personal acceptance of more and more surveillance. But here’s an interesting thought to end this musing with. Digital citizens are not just victims of surveillance, they are perpetrators too! Anyone who has checked out others using social media or internet searches has essentially engaged in surveillance. The digital world has thus made us all spies…