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The finalists have been announced in this year’s e-Government National Awards. The highly sought-after awards recognise excellence across eleven categories, highlighting the UK’s top public sector innovators in the use of technology, enabling businesses and citizens to better communicate with councils, central government, NHS and other public sector organisations. UK Government CIO John Suffolk will reveal the winners on 20th January 2010 at a Ministerial dinner at the City of London's Guildhall.
Polymorph's project, the development of a collaborative solution to the EU Navy to help combat piracy in Somalia, has been shortlisted in the "e-Government excellence: Shared Services" awards category (proven shared services which have delivered effective services and efficiency gains).
There is no higher commendation for the UK's best public sector ICT leaders. Now in their sixth year, the annual e-Government National Awards are supported by the Government Chief Information Officer (Cabinet Office), the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) and the Society of It Management (SOCITM).
John Suffolk, the Government's Chief Information Officer, says: "Every year these Awards continue to get better and better and tougher to select the winners out of many hundreds of top quality entries. The sheer innovation, passion for citizen service and pride with which the teams have executed their projects makes me hugely proud, and humble, to be in IT within the Public Sector."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined last year's Awards via video link and at the January 2009 dinner said: "When times are tough, as they are now, it is more important than ever for government to work as smoothly and efficiently as possible, so it's good to see technology providing real efficiency gains at the same time as increasing the effectiveness of services. ".
"We're keeping our fingers crossed, but at the same time absolutely delighted to be shortlisted" says Stephen Harris, Managing Director, Polymorph.
Please see below for more information about the project.
Polymorph, an IT software and services specialist, developed a bespoke collaborative communication tool for the Royal Navy-led EU NAVFOR. For the first time, international military vessels, including ships from EU and NATO, can exchange vital information securely, in real-time and without political agreements, to react rapidly to acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia. Polymorph designed a single secure framework with real-time chat and document sharing capabilities for the EU NAVFOR anti-piracy initiative, meeting urgent operational requirements. The solution, used in Operation ATALANTA, overcomes issues of non-compatible security and communication systems and bandwidth constraints.
The success derived by Polymorph’s solution has meant that it is the first time in history that the contributing nations from the international community have coordinated in a successful military operation, paving the way for increased military co-operation in the future.
Operation ATALANTA has some two dozen ships from EU nations – including Britain, France, Germany and Italy – patrolling an area of about two million square miles off the Horn of Africa. The requirement from EU NAVFOR was for a system to be developed that would enable military vessels from all nations involved in counter piracy to communicate more securely in international waters and coordinate rapid reactions to acts of piracy.
The success of the system has led to it now being used by over 40 nations and military authorities, ranging from the EU, US and NATO to China, India, Russia, South Korea and Malaysia.
At a combined military meeting in Bahrain earlier this year, the new communication system was identified as being the key tool required for any unit coming in to the theatre of operations.
In June, ministers of the Council of the European Union found that Operation ATALANTA had demonstrated its ability to act effectively against piracy and agreed to extend the anti-piracy operation until the end of 2010. With the implementation of the new communication tool it found that the command and control of patrol services were better prepared for potential attacks and response times had improved.
Although the collaborative solution was primarily designed to assist the EU NAVFOR to combat piracy threats, it has also enabled increased food aid to be delivered safely to Somalia, as well as safeguard activity of vessels operating and transporting goods in international waters.
Bloomberg journalist, Gregory Viscusi, witnessed the output of Polymorph’s development during his period onboard one of the naval vessels. He identified the tool as the key resource that affected the fast reactions which ultimately saved lives at sea. He reports: 'When nine Somali pirates attacked a German-operated cargo freighter in the Gulf of Aden [...], they were in for a high-tech surprise.'
An international force of three vessels and two helicopters responded, using sophisticated communications methods that included GPS navigation and a specially developed Internet chat channel [...] on which commercial and military ships entered their positions.
“The successful operation by U.S. and European Union anti-pirate forces showed how progress is being made in freeing the Indian Ocean of pirates.”
When interviewed by Naval Technology, EU NAVFOR spokesperson, Lt Ryan Wallace, stated: “We handle sensitive information and needed a secure, fully-integrated solution that helps us not only establish better communication between international military vessels, but also gain control over increasingly complex and disturbing instances. The breadth of functionality and collaboration of Polymorph's tool has provided the necessary cooperative framework that allows all involved to use intelligence at a level never enjoyed before.”
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