It is a turbulent time for most IT user groups as they rethink
their roles and their positioning. The 37-year-old,
Manchester-based National Computing Centre, with about 800
corporate members, is no exception. It has recently decided to
pitch for the ground between IT and the board. Its vision is to
educate the IT director to move upwards to the role of a non-IT
operational director on the board.
As part of that strategy, last month the NCC merged with Certus,
the smaller user group formed in the late 1990s by motivational
specialist David Taylor.
The new NCC-Certus user group aims to educate IT decision makers
for a board-level non-IT role through knowledge sharing,
networking, events, workshops and seminars.
NCC-Certus activities are part of the same coin as the joint
Impact/NCC Leadership Academy programme, run by Taylor to equip IT
managers and directors to operate at board level.
"This is about building a new generation of operations directors,
not a new generation of IT directors," said Michael Gough, chief
executive of the NCC.
Last October, the NCC, with the Dynamic Systems Development Method
Consortium, launched its Advanced Dynamic Programme Management
initiative to help members gain experience in programme (as opposed
to project) management. The core principle is that programmes
should not just be business-led but that the chief executive or a
board member should take responsibility for ensuring success from
an IT perspective.
Underlying the strategic direction of getting IT user members to
look towards the board, the NCC, through its 30 staff, pursues a
range of themes including open source, security, risk management,
skills, legal issues, grid computing and training.
The NCC plays a national role in the development of standards. In
particular it has been involved in the assessment of compliance
with e-gif (e-government interoperability framework).
A few years ago, the NCC split off its consultancy, escrow and
testing activities, which now trades as NCC Group. However, the NCC
retained the royalties to Filetab, its 30-year-old mainframe
protocol conversion software. The 200 licences for Filetab are
worth £1.75m a year. Filetab and an open source version provide a
link to the government gateway to breathe extended life into, for
example, ICL VME applications.
For the NCC, the revenue from Filetab secures the necessary
independence for it to be effective in today's business
climate.
In many ways, said Gough, the NCC is going back to the basic aims
it had when it was founded in 1966 of helping organisations perform
to their best abilities with the aid of IT.
National Computing Centre:
www.ncc.co.uk
British Computer Society:
www.bcs.org.uk
Intellect:
www.intellectuk.org
What is the NCC?
The National Computer Centre, which has 800 corporate members,
aims to give IT directors the tools they need to become board
directors.
Most members are from user organisations, but about 10% are from
supplier companies. Supplier members are allowed to present their
products, particularly at a technical level, but they must do this
without any sales hype.
The NCC is a not-for-profit organisation but enjoys a turnover
of £2.5m, largely through royalties on its legacy Filetab
software.
Chief executive Michael Gough sees the NCC as one of three main
industry intermediary bodies. "The NCC represents the corporate
user; Intellect represents the supplier; and the British Computer
Society represents the professional development of individuals," he
said. Each is complementary.
The NCC's view of IT suppliers
The NCC does not take an adversarial view of suppliers, said
Gough. Users need access to suppliers to make their buying
decisions. The NCC facilitates discussions with technical staff
without any hype to cut through to the truth.
At the same time, as a user organisation, he sees a role in
coercing suppliers to plug gaps in their own products, particularly
when it comes to security.
The NCC has a strong relationship with the Office of the
E-Envoy, and has been heavily involved in the formulation of the
government's recent open source policy and work on compliance
assessment.
However, Gough said, "The user voice needs to be more prominent
and focused. There are too many talking shops and a lot of
government/industry forums are dominated by suppliers."