A dozen Socitm personnel, including myself, today attended an Insight Marketing Planning meeting. Although the Insight Service was the main object of this session, it was agreed that Insight would represent Socitm as a whole.

Having tripped on an escalator, while at the GMIS Conference, and gashed my thumb to the bone on the sharp edge of a stair-tread, and come home with an achy cold, and developed back-pain that I assume is viral, I was feeling a little below par, which may be why I left without my note-book!

However, from my hazy memory, the meeting agenda was based upon the 10 recommendations that Vicky made to the Insight meeting on 15th May, to which she added a couple. Some key points were:

• Consolidating the multiple databases that Socitm has in its various services.
• Ensuring that services work effectively together to realise, for example, the consultancy opportunities that may arise though publication of an Insight Research report.
• New CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and CMS (Content Management System) requirements to facilitate more effective marketing. (Initial proposals will be discussed at next week's Board meeting.)
• Developing our research and publishing programme around key Socitm themes.
  Being flexible enough to rapidly respond to developments in our environment.
• The enlarged market potential arising from our ambition to extend the Society's scope to cover the whole of the public and third sectors.

My main wish for the meeting was to consider how we can continue to increase transparency of our operations and demonstrate that we are member led in the way we respond to our market. That means not only ensuring that every e-publication includes a feedback mechanism, but also ensuring that members know how to comment on services, or suggest a new line of research, or how they can assist or represent the Society.


As I was catching-up with recent news, the suggestion that, until now, has passed me, and presumably many others, by – that employees should own their own "tools" - http://www.cio.co.uk/concern/change/news/index.cfm?articleid=2932&pagtype=allchandate – is one I think has a lot of merit. It fits well with the need for all "white collar" workers to recognise their dependence on IT and invest in their own capabilities to exploit the technology and, eradicates the timeless challenges about the corporate contract and/ or available form-factors, as well as promoting greater ownership of security issues, as suggested in the article.