Six award nominations for System Associates
November 21, 2006
Within two months, System Associates, a provider of internet technology solutions, has been nominated in six categories, across four separate award schemes, for projects it has worked on and for company success.
For projects the company has worked on, five nominations in IT related award schemes have been made for the technology behind the Local Directgov Programme, a project that went live in January 2006 and that involved 388 local authorities across England. Local Directgov is an extension to www.direct.gov.uk, the definitive public sector information portal, which attracts more than two million visitors a month. The project has been nominated in two categories of the e-Government Awards, two categories within the Information Management Awards and was a runner-up in the Computing Awards for Excellence.
The project was implemented through a joint partnership between the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), London Connects and the London Borough of Brent and provides a seamless link between central government and local government services. System Associates provided and integrated the technology that allowed information from each authority to be linked and although it involved a large number of local authorities, Local Directgov was launched after just six months of development.
Last year, System Associates won Small Business of the Year in the Community and Business Excellence Awards, organised by the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead. This year, it is nominated again for the category of Environmental Sustainability, for its efforts in reducing waste and emissions and for becoming a 'carbon neutral' company. The company has achieved the ISO14001 standard which includes initiatives to reduce waste and energy consumed. It has also linked with a carbon offsetting company, which calculates the cost of energy consumed by the company. System Associates then contributes towards this cost and monies go towards projects dedicated to environmental sustainability.
David Macken, managing director of System Associates comments "We are committed to becoming as environmentally-friendly as we possibly can. We recycle paper, metal and plastic, have a policy of ethical disposal of equipment and we use environmentally friendly office and cleaning products. We recognise that, as a company, we still leave a footprint on the environment for the energy we use and the waste we produce, so by becoming 'carbon neutral' we aim to balance this out, as much as possible. Over the long term, we will continue to look at ways in which we can reduce our emissions."
David Macken comments: "It has been a very busy year for System Associates. We are in a fast-moving technology sector and have considerable expertise across all areas of internet technology. As a result, we have been able to quickly provide value-for-money solutions to new and existing clients and we are in a strong position to help deliver the Government's agenda of more shared systems, across both local and central government."