NWAS
Something Harrison and Sammut are particularly proud of is the NWAS ' digital design forum , which is a weekly space where people come together to support staff with solutions to their problems . " People from information governance , cyber security , our CTO , the BI team , someone from HR , our interoperability lead , different types of technical people , our developers - the forum is there for any staff member to come with either a problem or an idea ," Harrison says . " The ethos of the forum is that we always say yes , we ' ll try to find a way to test it . Sometimes we ' ll test something using the systems we ' ve already got . Or we ' ll go and talk to our providers , or we might want to develop a new system , or go and look at the market to see what ' s out there and find a way to test it .
When asked about their next steps , Harrison says that the really exciting phase is about to begin . " We ' ve got ourselves in a really good position in terms of cybersecurity , safety , basic infrastructure upgrades to the Wi Fi , we ' re just about to finish replacing all of our telephony , we ' ve unlocked access to data , and we ' ve developed this approach to innovation and testing . But there is so much more to do - we ' re almost at that point where we can really build on it and start to push the boundaries a bit more and innovate .
" We ' ve also now got the capacity to have interoperable systems , whether internally or externally . The next phase for our digital strategy is about the people in the organisation being able to interpret and use the information that we give them , and use the technology that we ' re putting in place to work differently ."
This could include robotic process automation ( RPA ) for manual , timeconsuming processes , " not to make
efficiency savings , but to release some of that time back to employees so that they can finish work on time and aren ' t working till 10 o ' clock at night churning through these processes ," Sammut says .
Further down the line they are hoping to use artificial intelligence and machine learning , to drive further value from the amount of data they have . Another idea is the use of drone technology . " This is looking at drones to respond to incidents ," Sammut says , " so this might be delivering a defibrillator or a particular drug in the scenario of a heroin overdose or allergic reaction . " The other thing would be surveying unsafe scenes , like a significant chemical spill , and this is using technology to get the right care to someone quickly without someone having to be there physically . This is relatively untouched technology outside of the military and search and rescue , but we want to pioneer solutions like this ."
Harrison is a very passionate advocate for women , and for advancing women in technology . " There are some fabulous women CIOs , but proportionately there ' s a lot less women working in technology and
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