And the winners are…
Innovation is certainly alive and well in the UK. Throughout the Innovation Nation Awards – our hunt for Britain’s most innovative organisation – we were blown away by the technology some UK organisations are using to improve their business across the board. We have a history of revolutionising industries with our inventions but we set up the Innovation Nation awards in partnership with the Guardian to find out who today’s pioneers are.
We had a huge number of entries from across the country, each demonstrating a unique way of using technology to improve the way they do things. It was a tough decision to pick the shortlist. But following the public vote, this time last week the winners had been unveiled at the Innovation Nation Awards ceremony.
I want to offer my congratulations to everyone that took part and everyone on the shortlist should be extremely proud of themselves. On to the winners:
Innovation in enterprise winner: Shoothill
Shoothill and the Environment Agency (EA) released the world's first visual representation of live flood information on Facebook – FloodAlerts. Over £5 million properties and assets worth £132.2bn in England and Wales at risk from flooding. The services lets Facebook users monitor any location to get notifications and updates on flood threats.
Innovation in frontline services winner: Department of Work and Pensions
The Tell Us Once service makes innovative use of IT by sharing information quickly and securely with up to 28 government and council services, saving people having to notify them individually. People are offered a choice of face to face, telephony or online service. This is only the start, with more services in the pipeline.
Innovation in collaboration winner: Anna Freud Centre
The Anna Freud Centre has radically improves knowledge sharing across NHS and voluntary sector teams working with the most vulnerable, disadvantaged youth. It created an innovative open source treatment approach, through internet and smartphone apps.
The most innovative CIO winner: John Thornbury, Worcestershire NHS Trust
John's belief is that through effective information and communications, technology can help deliver better, safer care to patients in the NHS. This ethos has driven the trust to integrate existing systems, providing access through a clinical portal and creating a best of breed solution.
