Dodds accepts top global award for NI Civil Service

Finance Minister Nigel Dodds today accepted a Hewlett-Packard Software Award for Excellence on behalf of the Civil Service.

The award was in recognition of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) work in delivering outstanding business outcomes.

NICS is the first public sector body in Europe to introduce an electronic record management system (ERMS) across all government departments. The system, known as Records NI, implemented by NICS in partnership with Steria and Hewlett-Packard, enables easier access and sharing of information, ultimately providing a more efficient service to the citizen.

Accepting the award the Minister said: “The Northern Ireland Civil Service has embarked on an ambitious programme of reform which is about the delivery of better public services.

“As expectations of public services continue to rise alongside the need to deliver efficiencies in this tighter financial climate, it is vital that we modernise to meet customer requirements.

“RecordsNI was the first reform project to be successfully completed, on time and most importantly, within budget.

“Not only does RecordsNI enable staff to have easier access to the sharing of information, it also enables the Northern Ireland Civil Service to fully meet legislative requirements under data protection therefore increasing the citizen’s confidence in how information is managed.

“It is also helping to meet government sustainability targets by reducing the need for paper.”

Mary Lou Nolan, Director of Sales for Hewlett-Packard Ireland said: “The submission from the Northern Ireland Civil Service received unanimous recognition from three independent judges against stiff competition from a range of internationally recognised names. All agreed that the NICS implementation stood out to provide a leading example of public sector innovation.

As the award winner, the Civil Service demonstrated that they have delivered outstanding business outcomes and have optimised value from investments in people, networks and IT infrastructure”.

Notes to Editors:

1. The RecordsNI project, which uses HP TRIM Software, was recently showcased as best practice at a global ICT summit on software in Vienna, Austria.
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