Mike Futcher

Mike joined Sopra Newell & Budge, previously Newell & Budge Ltd, 10 years ago to focus on business development in the Scottish public sector. During that time he has been involved in a wide variety of projects for public sector organisations including SEERAD, the Scottish Prison Service, NHS Scotland and the Northern Ireland Prison Service. As a result, he has gained extensive experience of the business, technical and financial issues associated with delivering change through modernising government programmes such as Customer First.

Prior to joining Sopra Newell & Budge, Mike had over 20 years experience in ICT provision for the public sector. He started out as an Analyst/Programmer in Scottish Office Computer Services before performing a wide variety of account management and business development roles for package suppliers, hardware manufactures and ICT service organisations.

Sopra Newell & Budge works at the heart of e-government initiatives, assisting local and central government organisations to deploy new web technologies in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Synopsis

The Web & The Empowered Citizen

This session is a case study of one of the largest web-based infrastructure projects to date linking Local and Central Government (as part of The Scottish Executive's Customer First Program). Jim Kinney, Operational Director, The Improvement Service, Scottish Executive, will explain how, through this project, the Internet will change the way in which the Citizen interacts with Government bodies. The session will explore the opportunities created by web-enabled public service provision for an empowered Citizen, and the wider impact these new prospects will have on society. Delegates will see live how the web will be leveraged to provide the Citizens of the UK with a single convenient interface with multiple Government bodies. Mike Futcher, Relationship Manager, Sopra Newell & Budge will then explain some of the key challenges (technical, organisational and 'political') in realising this National Infrastructure Project. Through a discussion of the functionality offered by a web-based interface combined with secure data sharing and automatic transaction histories, delegates will hear how the web is helping government bodies to reduce costs, improve service and meet ambitious efficiency targets. Finally, the session will investigate how the web and information systems must work alongside traditional communication methods, such as the telephone or face-to-face contact, to form a fully integrated 'contact centre', providing effective ongoing relationship management, to the Citizen customer.