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15 March 2010 – The Government Connect Secure Extranet (http://www.vega.co.uk/in_focus/gcsx_connectivity.aspx) programme, as successfully delivered by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and supported by a team from Finmeccanica company VEGA Consulting Services Ltd (VEGA), has been shortlisted for the 2010 GC Award for Government Transformation.

The GC Awards (previously ‘GC Awards for Innovation’) recognise those government programmes judged to have made the most innovative use of technology to improve public services. The creation of more customer-centric services is one of the central themes of the Transformational Government agenda. Those programmes shortlisted for the category of Transformation have demonstrated clear benefits for both the customer(s) and the organisation by significantly transforming the interaction between the two parties.

The DWP team has successfully delivered a network that allows all 375 local authorities across England and Wales to securely connect to each other and central government (http://www.vega.co.uk/in_focus/gcsx_connectivity.aspx). VEGA provided support to the Programme Support Office, the Requirements and System Architecture Team, a Service Desk and Support Manager, and the majority of the central and regionally-based Connectivity Team, including CLAS Security Consultants who assessed GCSX CoCo submissions (http://www.vega.co.uk/services/programme_management/code_of_connection_compliance.aspx) and were involved in more than 1,600 security assessments.

The network is now helping to meet ambitions of the UK Government’s 'Transformational Government: Enabled by Technology' IT strategy, by establishing a private, secure, managed networ (http://www.vega.co.uk/in_focus/secure_government_networks.aspx)k for English and Welsh Local Authorities to share sensitive information online, quickly, easily, accurately and in real time.

This year, the GC Awards received a record number of entries and the competition was extremely high. The judging panel for the 2010 awards is made up of high profile senior practitioners, academics and policy makers from across public services including:

   Ailsa Beaton – Director of Information and Chief Information Officer on the Metropolitan Police Service's Management Board
   David Dinsdale – Programme Director, Businesslink.gov.uk
   Dr Glynn Hayes – A founder member of the Primary Health Care Specialist Group, British Computer Society (BCS), where he was chair from 1985-1990
   Steve Palmer – Vice President, Socitm Limited and CIO, London borough of Hillingdon
   Elizabeth Sparrow – President, BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT
   Andrew Stott – Director, Digital Engagement for the UK government, based at the Cabinet Office
   Carol Tullo – Director of The National Archives.

The winners of the awards are set to be announced at a gala ceremony on Wednesday 21 April in central London.