Excellence in the Use of ICT in Government Award

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:20:16 +0000

Murray Wills (aka the VirtualCIO) has been selected as one of three judges for this year’s Computerworld Excellence in the Use of ICT in Government Award.

Computerworld, together with the support of Hewlett Packard New Zealand, will recognise Excellence in the Use of ICT in Government through a special award to be announced in Wellington on 27 October 2010.

Murray, who has extensive senior IT and business experience and is a NZCS IT Certified Professional (ITCP), acts as a senior consultant/advisor, and VirtualCIO to a number of private sector and government organisations. “I was a thrill to be asked, and I’m looking forward to getting together with the other judges, and assessing the applications for the award. This award is for government agencies, rather than vendors, and this is good in terms of recognising the IP and contribution that government agencies make to ICT projects” says Mr Wills.

Top 15 iPhone Apps for Project Managers

Murray Wills — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:59:56 +0000

From PRINCE2.COM – here is their list of the Top 15 iPhone applications for Project Managers:

http://blog.prince2.com/2010/07/top-15-iphone-apps-for-project-managers/

ILX PRINCE2, ITIL, PPS, MSP, Software Testing Training Takes Off!

Murray Wills — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:29:52 +0000

We are delighted with the uptake of ILX elearning training courses in the last month. Several new Government Agencies are now on board and training staff this way. As well as the learning benefits of elearning for the staff member, elearning generally works out cheaper for the organisation.

The following article from e.learning age by Eddie Kilkelly of ILX Group may give you some insight as to why more and more are choosing elearning over face to face courses.

http://www.ilxgroup.com/docs/press/elearningage-june2010.pdf

Give Murray Wills a call on (04) 931 9325 if you would like know more about ILX training.

ILX Group plc launches ITIL®, MSP®, PRINCE2® Snakes & Ladders App for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch

admin — Tue, 25 May 2010 01:33:19 +0000

ILX Group plc, the best practice training company, has launched two further Apps to help individuals and organisations enhance their project management skills. ILX ITIL® Foundation and ILX MSP® Foundation Snakes & Ladders App for the iPhone and iPod Touch have been developed to help reinforce core elements of courses by testing the users with prompted questions within a familiar gaming environment.

The launch of ILX ITIL® and ILX MSP® App are two further applications following the recent release of ILX PRINCE2® Snakes & Ladders App in March 2010.

Click here to find out more and download the apps in iTunes.

Project Management Training – The New Wave

Murray Wills — Tue, 25 May 2010 01:06:23 +0000

An excellent video of Martyn Kinch from ILX Group being interviewed by Sky News Australia. http://www.ilxgroup.com.au/video.asp. Much of what Martyn mentions is true for New Zealand as well. Interest in Project Management training and PRINCE2 in particular is growing rapidly in New Zealand. We established a relationship with ILX for 2 reasons.

As consultants, we are passionate about Governanace and the benefits that a project management methodology like PRINCE2 and the other OGC based qualifications can bring.
We believe that ILX is very well placed to be able to meet this demand with its elearning, mixed mode and face to face learning options.

eLearning is becoming a method of choice for a number of Companies and individuals. It is very cost effective, staff get more time to complete their studies than a 5 day face to face course, and retention rates of information are high. Check out the options at http://www.ilxgroup.com

ILX Group wins global contract with international drilling contractor KCA DEUTAG to provide e-learning in project management across 22 countries

admin — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:41:39 +0000

Our friends at ILX Group plc are going from strength to strength. Selection for this major training contract is an endorsement of their capability, world wide. It is this strength that sets them apart from others.

Tuesday 11th May 2010 -

ILX Group plc, the best practice training company, today announced that it has won a major global contract to help KCA DEUTAG, a major international drilling contractor, to deliver project management training across 22 countries. ILX will host a secure e-learning platform to deliver both the APM Introductory Certificate in Project Management and PRINCE2® Foundation and Practitioner courses to remote geographic locations such as the arctic conditions in Siberia and Kazakhstan and offices based in the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa. Read more …

Free Project Management Resources

admin — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:21:22 +0000

We are pleased to be able to provide the following link to free Project Management resourses on the ILX website: http://www.ilxgroup.com/downloads.asp. Click on the link if you are interested in PRINCE2, APM, MSP, ITIL, MoR, or PPS resources to download. We have a relationship with ILX in New Zealand, so if there is anything taht you would like to know about these, or any other ILX training, please let us know.

The IT Skills Shortage – It’s here!!

Murray Wills — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 03:25:31 +0000

As we predicted in February, and some years ago, the IT skills shortage is starting to threaten projects, in Australia at least. Because of the closeness of the two markets, and the transportability of IT skills across the tasman, I predict that we will come under pressure here in the next 6 months.

Those companies who have been shortsighted and let staff go that they should have retained, or who have made the life of their IT contractors or staff uncomfortable during the last few months may be in for a few sleepless nights as they figure out how to retain and attract resources going forward.

This article in infotech today tells the story.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/3621039/Shortage-in-Australian-IT-skills-threat-to-projects

For further reading on this topic, follow the links below:

The IT Skills Shortage – It’s Back!

IT Skills Shortage No Surprise

When will government ‘get’ IT?

Murray Wills — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 08:51:42 +0000

Click on the following link to read my latest article in the New Zealand CIO magazine:

http://cio.co.nz/cio.nsf/opin/9D32E090AA8FF940CC257702006B7F43

This article discusses the unhealthy situation of not considering information technology as a critical strategic enabler.

Virtual CIO / Murray Wills interviewed by CIO Magazine

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:05:16 +0000

Murray Wills was recently interviewed by CIO Magazine for a feature that they did on CIO’s for rent.

Click on the attached link to read the story which talks about the benefit of the Virtual CIO concept.

http://cio.co.nz/cio.nsf/spot/74070C5887FE0CE4CC2576E9002966FE

1 April 2010 STOP PRESS

The same article is now also on Various other international websites including the US CIO website, CIO Germany, Networkworld USA, MIS Asia, Computerworld Norway and Hong Kong and more.

http://www.cio.com/article/588278/Rent_a_CIO?taxonomyId=3174

http://mis-asia.com/cio_focus/profiles/rent-a-cio

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/032510-.html

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=975D55B3-1A64-6A71-CE781DC0AAFAFCE7

http://www.cio.de/news/cio_worldnews/2229241/index.html

It is amazing how news travels and who picks up the story round the world!