Following the success of the Security Group, TWICT decided to establish a series of sub groups that would support joint working by providing forums for middle managers from similar work areas to come together to:
· act as peer support groups
· share and develop knowledge, experience, skills and grow professionalism
· maximise opportunities for jointly procuring ICT goods and services
· develop new, and exploit existing, ICT trends and developments to progress the modernising government agenda
Private online facilities to supporting communication within the groups at http://www.govx.org.uk/ enable interested parties within the TWICT community to participate in the group activities whilst not needing to attend meetings.
Most groups have decided to meet on a quarterly basis, and have determined their own terms of reference, as below.
The following Sub Groups have been established:
Security Group to focus on the key issues facing local government and partners in relation to BS7799 and information governance, in particular, how best to implement and manage information security in support of the authorities common priorities and responsibilities. The group in undertaking this principle will: · Forge meaningful relationships with government and private organisations · Heighten awareness of information security agenda in the North East of England · Fully exploit the economies of scale · Explore the possibilities of funded initiatives · Influence policy and best practice · Move each member authority close to it’s horizon position Provides a regular email summary of ICT news derived from relevant ICT news feeds |
Trainers the logical home for joint ICT learning and training initiatives within Tyne and Wear Councils. The group aims to: · Share best practice. · Offer a support mechanism within the peer group. · Act as a feed for trends and developments in new learning/training initiatives. · Gain economic benefit using joint procurement proposals. · Investigate the possibility of sharing individual Council learning/training resources within the network group to form a learning/training marketplace. · Share and improve knowledge within the group. Provides a regular email summary of ICT news derived from relevant ICT news feeds |
Systems Services the logical home for joint initiatives regarding the provision of robust and scaleable systems services, including but not limited to; · servers · storage and backup solutions · email systems Provides a regular email summary of ICT news derived from relevant ICT news feeds |
Networks, Telephony & Wireless the logical home for joint initiatives regarding the provision of wired and wireless ICT networks and telephony including, but not limited to; · Infrastructure planning, design, procurement, implementation and support · PSTN and IP telephony · Regional infrastructure · Internet services Provides a regular email summary of ICT news derived from relevant ICT news feeds |
ICT Customer Services & Desktop Support the logical home for joint initiatives regarding the provision of ICT Service Desk and Desktop support, including but not limited to; · Customer satisfaction · Service desk, monitoring and fix tools · Professionalism, staff development, motivation and perception Provides a regular email summary of ICT news derived from relevant ICT news feeds |
In addition the following forums have been established on GovX.
Exchange Provides a regular email summary of ICT news derived from general ICT news feeds |
TWICT Public Provides a public feed of news from TWICT. This will be built into the revised website homepage and made available using RSS to anyone wishing to integrate it into their news reader. |