INOVEM Inclusionware™ Blog

On 12 July, the government published the NHS White Paper ‘Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS’. It outlined the long-term vision for the future of a comprehensive NHS that should continue to put patients at the heart of everything it does while improving the outcome of their healthcare and empowering clinicians to improve healthcare services.

Key proposals in the white paper include: Stategic Health Authorities (SHAs) to be abolished in 2012/13; Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to be abolished from April 2013; GPs to commission most services and form consortia in 2012; PCT responsibilities for local health improvement transferred to local authorities; local authorities to form local ‘health and well-being boards’ under new statutory arrangements; LINks to become the local HealthWatch, funded by and accountable to local authorities in order to provide public and patients with a voice; and a new Health Bill to be introduced for discussion this October.

Through this transition, it is important to ensure that the duty across the NHS to conduct community consultation and partnership collaboration is not impaired during this period of transformation. If anything, with all the changes that need to be made, the need for effective stakeholder engagement has increased. In order to fulfil government wishes that “patients will be at the heart of everything we do” it is vital that local authorities work in partnership with PCTs and their local involvement networks to consult and receive the collective opinions of patients and the public.

The white paper claims that: “To strengthen democratic legitimacy at local level, local authorities will promote the joining-up of local NHS services, social care and health improvement.”

This underlines the fact that patient and public involvement should continue to be the primary goal. At INOVEM we will provide support to whichever organisations shoulder the responsibility to join up public consultation and stakeholder collaboration going forward. In some areas, such as Herefordshire, this partnership approach is already happening through the delivery of robust online engagement processes that are not only meaningful, but guarantee a rapid return on minimal investment.

We do sympathise with health professionals, and understand that this period of uncertainty is extremely challenging for NHS managers who are all desperate to put the patient at the heart of their processes, but feel in the dark over restructuring and hampered by restricted budgets. That’s why INOVEM is more than happy to offer free advice and to discuss ‘transition packages’ that will enable online consultation and collaboration services to local authorities which can be scaled and adapted once a clearer vision of future structures is revealed.

We are very proud to announce the latest addition to our Inclusionware solutions – the INOVEM e-Petitions module.

The module was launched this week to satisfy the demands of local authorities working to meet the government’s December 2010 deadline to provide an online petitioning service.

INOVEM has developed INOVEM e-Petitions to help local authorities meet their Duty to Involve as outlined under the Local Democracy Act 2009, in particular the specific duty to provide a facility for people to submit petitions electronically. This very affordable new software will help ensure that local authorities can take appropriate steps to involve people in the decisions, policies and services that affect them.

With the needs and budget constraints of local authorities in mind, we designed INOVEM e-Petitions, focusing on usability and functionality. The module was developed following feedback from more than 20 of our local authority clients. Featuring a compelling breadth of functionality and straightforward implementation, the software provides a step-by-step way to list, view, sign and create online petitions. INOVEM e-Petitions will enable local authorities to meet and exceed incoming legislation on time and within budget.

To minimise implementation and maintenance costs, our new solution is fully-hosted, with unlimited support and free upgrades. It can operate as a standalone service or be integrated with INOVEM e-Consultation software. In addition, the service can be branded to seamlessly integrate with your existing council websites.

With this effective, low-cost e-Petitions software module, we are extending our existing ladder of Inform, Consult and Collaborate with a new rung – Empower.

Read more about e-Petition and see the demo.

It’s now more than six weeks since the most recent eruptions from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökul began grounding planes across northern Europe, and yet its impact is still being felt.

Each time a new dust cloud coincides with winds blowing in the wrong direction, airports in the UK have no choice but to suspend flights endangered by tiny particles of rock, glass and sand jamming jet engines.

News reports showing departure lounges camped out with holidaymakers seldom spend much time focusing on the plight of business travellers. We’re all prepared to take some risks to secure business critical meetings, but flying in the face of a volcano just isn’t always possible. However business simply cannot be put off indefinitely, especially when economic regrowth is so important for everybody. This is why every organisation needs a Plan B that can explode into action when desirable face-to-face meeting simply cannot take place

An innovative online collaboration and consultancy platform can be seamlessly integrated into any modern business with very little disruption, minimal investment and next to no training. Online collaboration is a very effective way for those businesses to save both time and money on travel, even when a natural phenomenon isn’t forcing their hands.

While others are struggling with the wrong kind of cloud computing, businesses that have chosen to adopt Inclusionware can maintain productivity on the web regardless of external factors. Efficient, secure, structured remote collaboration can effectively eliminate problematic travel in favour of secure online portals and communities which encourage ongoing communications and activities, even when those face-to-face meetings would have long finished.

Web 2.0 technology keeps you in contact with all your stakeholders to ensure everybody remains informed and that important consensus decisions can still be reached. Don’t let your business grind to a halt, regardless of the ash cloud, flood water, blizzard or hurricane currently trying to distract you from your goals.

Throughout the evolution of the World Wide Web, there has been a concerted parallel effort by application developers to deliver synchronous communications platforms for both consumers and for businesses.
We’ve all made use of these increasingly slick tools to exchange information. Audio and video conferencing, web chat, instant messaging and white boarding; these are all great examples of technically advanced collaboration and communication methods that allow us to connect with each other in real-time. And of course we like them because they enable us to engage with people immediately. They imitate natural human face-to-face conversations and mirror ‘getting around a table’ in a group to work out a consensus.
However, the reality today is that we don’t always have time to conduct a succession of real-time chats, conferences and white-boarding sessions with our friends, colleagues and business associates. Conflicting schedules, different time-zones, costly IT equipment and other obstacles frequently prevent synchronous participation. Indeed, it is often easier to prepare information in our own time that can be shared with others at their convenience, and vice-versa.
This is why asynchronous communication plays such an important role in a busy world. Email, discussion boards, streaming media, surveys, polls, document repositories are the techniques typically used by the most productive of online consultation and collaboration software; which can complement synchronous communications while creating a richer experience and a sense of community.
At INOVEM we develop asynchronous tools and platforms that facilitate communication and the exchange of information by empowering consultees and team members to determine when they can get involved. The groups of individuals and communities that trust our solutions frequently use them at entirely different times of the day due to busy working schedules, lifestyles and geographic location. We help anyone who needs to involve, consult or collaborate with others to do so quickly, economically and without the frequent barriers thrown up by modern life.

I recently attended the Professional Association Research Network (PARN) conference in London, joining senior staff from a large number of membership organisations to debate and discuss the impact of Web 2.0.

Titled, ‘The Future of Member Networks: Embracing Social Networking Technologies‘, the conference covered something with which we at INOVEM are very familiar – the foothold that social networking has taken in our professional and social lives. Some of PARN’s research reflected the size of this foothold, for example, one out of every 11 minutes spent online is spent within a community setting . There’s no denying that the scope of social networking is vast and growing in both users and use.

As a team of specialists in consultation and collaboration technologies that have helped more than 60 organisations over seven years, it was great to contribute and share our unique vantage point at the conference.

Social networking facilitates the sharing of knowledge and experiences. At PARN a number of discussions were about how to measure this impact. For example how should we evaluate how individuals and groups can best collaborate and engage: which specific metrics should be used to measure and gauge success?

It was reported that the ‘Inability to measure ROI’ ranks as the second most significant barrier to social media adoption, and there might not be a simple fix. Perhaps we need to start taking unorthodox steps, regarding ROI as ‘return on involvement’, and focus our energy on things that might not necessarily yield traditionally clear metrics. Sometimes its user and community feedback, and not data, that needs to drive decision-making.

As social networking technologies continue to gather interest and pace, communities, organisations and decision makers need to share experiences, analyse results and adapt so individual users and communities alike can benefit from the constantly evolving web 2.0 landscape. Events such as PARN help us have these discussions both offline and online.

If you’ve never encountered the words of Charles Leadbeater before, then I urge you to look him up online and to dip into his archive of presentations and papers dealing with the art of creativity, innovation and collaboration.

One of his concepts that has always struck a chord with me personally and with INOVEM as a business, is that of the ‘Logic of With’. Simply put, Leadbeater argues that whereas industrialisation created a world in which goods and services were delivered ‘to’ and ‘for’ people, the world wide web has created a culture guided by the principle of ‘with’.

INOVEM’s interest in this concept is obvious; our Inclusionware solutions are built to exploit and encourage that fresh inclusive relationship people are developing with information and with each other. We enable people to overcome barriers of involvement in order to make their lives easier, more logical and more productive – together.

As Leadbeater repeatedly states in his 2009 paper ‘The Art of With‘, the ethic of Web 2.0 is to create, connect, combine and collaborate. Again, the driver is to do things ‘with’ people, not ‘to’ or ‘for’ them.

At INOVEM we’re continually working to develop innovative Web 2.0 software that empowers people from both public and private sectors who want to involve, consult or collaborate with others quickly, economically and without unnecessary barriers.

In this way we are striving for much the same goal as Leadbeater, who believes: “The ethic of the Web 2.0 world is create, connect, combine and collaborate. The underlying principle of doing things with people rather than to or for them will breed very different organisations, services and experiences in virtually every field.”

We call this simply: ‘Empowering people to work together better’.

Since INOVEM was founded back in 2001, we have been working closely with local authorities, strategic partnerships and other public sector agencies to evolve and fine-tune our Inclusionware solutions with their needs in mind. An important part of this evolution has included the refinement of our own version of ‘The Ladder of Participation’.

It was Sherry Arnstein who first described planning processes in the United States using the term ‘ladder of participation’, back in 1969. You can read more about Arnstein’s ladder for yourself, but the eight levels she fixed in place were: Manipulation, Therapy, Informing, Consultation, Placation, Partnership, Delegated Power and Citizen Control.

At INOVEM we have built our own ladder, which we boiled down to three sturdy rungs: Inform, Consult and Collaborate.

It borrows a number of values outlined by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). In its publication ‘Citizens as Partners: OECD Handbook on Information, Consultation and Pubic Participation in Policy-Making’ it states: “From information to consultation and active participation, the influence citizens can exert on policy-making rises.” These levels of participation are also an integral part of the statutory ‘Duty to Involve’ as outlined in the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) 2008 white paper ‘Communities in Control: Real People, Real Power’: “The ‘duty to involve’, which came into effect in April 2009… …requires named bodies to take appropriate steps to involve people in decisions, policies and services that may affect them or be of interest to them.”

As a consequence, INOVEM’s Inclusionware suite has been consciously developed to scale to meet any requirements to provide varied mechanisms to engage with stakeholders.

Inform – Our Stakeholder & Community Portals help councils to canvass opinion via citizens’ juries and panels. They provide tailored information about services, policies and decisions of interest to stakeholders, and enable them to have their say and get involved in authority functions where appropriate.

Consult – Our eConsultation Systems help authorities and government departments around the UK to run formal consultations and satisfaction surveys, so residents and key stakeholders can have their say about decisions and services. These systems also help our clients ensure that they capture, coordinate and publish all consultation and engagement activities.

Involve – With the accelerating environmental and cost factors related to travel and meetings, our easy-to-implement Team Collaboration Systems allow select stakeholders to work together, online, in the design and shaping of policies and services.

Together, it is these pillars that are trusted by our customers in central and local government, planning authorities, consulting firms, corporates and representative organisations around the UK and US, to empower people to work together better.

For the majority of public sector and business professionals, meetings have become a necessary evil.

Necessary because communicating in a group is an effective way of: sharing information; addressing issues; understanding different perspectives; interacting with associates with differing expertise; networking with like-minded spirits; and (hopefully!) achieving consensus and targets.

‘Evil’ because: time is precious in the modern world; common windows in schedules for lengthy face-to-face events are hard to arrange; travel can prove inconvenient, expensive and environmentally damaging; while frequently meetings have to be concluded just as they are really warming up and producing results.

Formal face-to-face meetings still play an important role in all our working lives. It’s important to ‘touch base’ with other people in real-life once in a while, to shake a few hands and share a few smiles. The human touch should never be underestimated and it is often during the downtime in these meetings (over a coffee or something stronger) when the most useful, reflective discussions take place. Sadly we all have more limited time than ever before to get away from our desks, and all too often individuals with great ideas and a lot to say in conference rooms fall silent when they return to their desks. It is increasingly common for all that good work to be lost in the growing gaps between meetings.

An effective self-service team collaboration system is a great way for working groups, project teams and geographically dispersed organisations to continue sharing information between those face-to-face meet ups. It can provide a consistent framework for engagement between internal and external stakeholders with any level of interest. Ideas can be communicated and updated in a managed way as they occur, and then organised with any level of formality that suits the group. Quick thoughts or complete whitepapers can be shared, managed and stored rapidly, consistently and intuitively, along with addenda and feedback.

INOVEM Inclusionware is quick, easy and friendly to setup. It provides seamless secure collaboration capabilities for any group that values the ability to continue thinking and sharing between meetings. It’s also web-based and technology agnostic, so it serves as a collaborative hub for all group members regardless of their IT platforms, and won’t put any extra burden on IT resources in anybody’s offices.

Why not transform the way your team works today – not just at meetings, but between them?

It was great to release the news of Gloucester City, Cheltenham Borough and Tewkesbury Borough Councils choosing INOVEM Consult to engage with local residents. The councils have been embarking on a Joint Core Strategy that requires consultation regarding planning and development across the area to accommodate future growth. Following a review of available consultation tools, the councils selected INOVEM Consult as the most effective solution to meet their requirements.

A Kable article quoted Tracey Crews, spatial planning manager of Cheltenham and Tewkesbury councils, who said: “Having a joint strategy and the joint procurement of INOVEM has saved costs. It means we can train a greater number of staff at once to use the technology, and it allows us to work together much more closely.”

INOVEM Consult is a powerful and highly configurable framework for managing, deploying and analysing consultations across a range of media. It will enable the council to present issues in a clear and understandable way that encourages participation from both stakeholders and the public. The Government & Public Sector Journal reported that “INOVEM’s Consult provides the three councils with an easy to use consultation framework that can be employed at speed. More importantly, the user-friendly web-based system means the councils could start using it immediately, without prolonged training times.”

The software will encourage involvement across the community and enable the councils and citizens to engage with one another in a way that will lead to lasting improvements in communication and public engagement in future consultations.

For more information, please see the press release or contact me directly.

Every effective modern business must establish pertinent core values which it is able to demonstrate daily the ways in which it interacts with its customers, partners and of course internally between colleagues.

At INOVEM we hold one value higher than any other – Inclusion. That is why our products and services are marketed under the brand Inclusionware, and why our mission statement is ‘Empowering people to work together better‘.

But there’s little point in any business declaring its values unless it is also willing to live and breathe those values by backing them with actions. That is why all INOVEM Inclusionware products and services also meet the highest internet accessibility standards.

The W3C is the body responsible for WAI, the Web Accessibility Initiative. WAI is widely regarded as the international standard for web accessibility. Developers of online services can help to ensure that people with disabilities or difficulties in using computer interfaces of any kind, are more able to be included if they implement and support WAI guidelines. WAI working groups are constantly working to ensure guidelines and supporting resources for creating web content are up to date. The most well known, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG), produces documents that are most commonly referred to simply as ‘the WAI guidelines’, and these are the most important standards in web accessibility today.

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, once said: “The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” Berners-Lee is also the director of the W3C.

At INOVEM we believe it is essential to do everything we can to guarantee that the accessibility of our products and services meets the highest WAI-AAA standards. We’re delighted to support WAI, and feel it is a critical step in avoiding unnecessary disability discrimination and to ensure the maximum inclusion of stakeholder involvement.