Tag Archives: Phil Pavitt

Corporate IT Forum mobile enterprise conference will discuss: ‘Is it time to sunset the desktop?’

By David Bicknell

HM Revenue & Customs’ Director General for Change and CIO, Phil Pavitt, will be the keynote speaker at The Corporate IT Forum’s June conference, ‘Enterprise Everywhere.’

Sub-titled, ‘Is it time to sunset the desktop?’, the conference has been organised following requests from corporate IT professionals from enterprise organisations for an exploration into the future of the mobile enterprise.

The development of new technologies, an influx of smart devices, the advent of increasing cross-border legislation, new employment policies, and a business requirement for a flexible approach are demanding that organisations keep on top of all their options.

The event will discuss why now is the time to embrace the mobile age, providing employees and partners with access to key systems at any time, on any (and many) devices, to deliver significant business benefits. That opens up new opportunities and allows organisations to support a truly flexible workforce. But what are the realities behind making this possible?  

Other speakers will include John Harris, Chairman of the Corporate IT Forum and Chief Architect & VP of Global IT Strategy at GlaxoSmithKline;  Sheridan Hindle, Head of IT, Midcounties Co-operative Society; Neil Jarvis, Global Head of IT Security and IT Risk, DHL Supply Chain; and Steve Parker, Technical Architect at John Lewis Partnership.

The one-day conference is on Wednesday, 20th June in London. You can find out more details here.

It follow another recent  conference organised by the Forum around consumerisation.

HMRC picks an SME – and saves itself £50m

By David Bicknell

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) cut the cost of an Internet Explorer upgrade by up to £50m by awarding a contract to an SME, instead of a major systems integrator.

According to an article by Bill Goodwin on Computer Weekly, HMRC chose a small US company to upgrade from Internet Explorer 6 to IE9, after it found that large IT suppliers were unable to offer a cost-effective solution.

The Redmond-based company, Browsium, managed to complete the work for £1.28m, against quotes of £35m to £50m from much bigger companies.

Goodwin reports that HMRC CIO Phil Pavitt believes the contract will act as a proof of concept for other government departments facing similar IE6 upgrade problems.