12 months in 12 voices

In November, we celebrated the first anniversary of our Partnership with the States of Guernsey. To mark the occasion, we sat down with 12 colleagues across Agilisys Guernsey to explore what the last 12 months have meant for them.

James Queripel, Network Engineer

My role is primarily to maintain the States of Guernsey network although I also get involved in many of the ongoing transformation projects.

It’s been very busy this year especially with lockdown as we worked to install solutions at the Hospital to accommodate the States COVID-19 response. I’ve also been involved in a number of different projects for our Health and Social Care services including the move of the fracture clinic at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital and Castel Hospital renovations.

I’m normally out and about visiting sites and working directly with end users. Next year I’m looking forward to a return to some sort of normality and also maybe having a holiday away from Guernsey.

Roselyn Mutongerwa, Supply Chain Analyst

A personal highlight for me has been learning key skills by working alongside people who are passionate about what they do.

The Agilisys Guernsey Supply Chain Management Team is a small but very diverse team, made up of people with different professional backgrounds and experiences. It’s this diversity that I think enables us to think creatively and innovatively about any challenges that we face.

Putting this into practice over the past year has been a challenging but rewarding experience as we engaged with suppliers to find solutions that would result in the best outcome for the States.

Jim Casey, CXM Partner

It’s been a strange year to say the least.

CXM, like other teams within Agilisys Guernsey, has pivoted at speed to support the States of Guernsey’s response to COVID-19.

In just a few days, we built a new COVID-19 website to relieve demand on the existing States’ website.

We have also delivered a Track & Trace database solution to support the Public Health Team. Initially intended as a solution to send out customised SMS messages, we’ve since created a platform to support the administration of contact details, the processing of samples and the provision of test results.

The States have received international recognition for their Public Health response to the pandemic. Playing a part in enabling that response has to be one of CXM’s greatest achievements this year.

Carolyn Maxwell, Senior Project Manager

This last year has been all about change – transferring to Agilisys, moving into new offices and then the pandemic...

We’ve all had to re-prioritise our work to be able to respond COVID-19 but we’ve also managed to deliver some key business as usual projects including a LAN for Health and Social Care, Law Enforcement accreditation and Linkworks, a Themis upgrade for the Financial Crimes unit, an IGOR_MDR Systems Development project for Revenues, as well as support for the rollout of new end user devices for our recently elected politicians.

I’d like to give a huge Shout Out for our engineers because without them we wouldn’t be able deliver our Projects.

Colin Harvey, IT Transformation Director

When a COVID-19 travel ban prevented Dell technicians and our own UK specialists from being on-site, colleagues from our locally based IT Services Team volunteered to build the two new on-island data centres. 

Working together with our local partners JT and Logicalis, and supported remotely by Dell, the build was completed in July, meeting the project deadline. The data centres are not only core to our IT Transformation programme, but they are critical for the States of Guernsey’s COVID recovery plan.

We’ve built a platform that will allow the States to completely re-imagine how they want to deliver public services. This has been an outstanding achievement for the whole team and a testament to the SMART Guernsey Partnership.

Sara Charoenprasit, Communications Executive

My highlight of the past year has probably been the opportunity to think differently and work in new ways. This is enabled by the high-trust culture within the business – which has never been so important as now.

I experienced this first-hand when given the opportunity to work remotely when embarking on a four-month visit to Thailand. During this time, I learnt lifelong skills about communication, working within geographically diverse teams, and the role of culture change to empower people to work remotely. All things which have proved invaluable throughout these last months.

Wynter Tyson, Service Performance & Training Officer

Training people in something new and unfamiliar can be a lengthy process under normal circumstances. So, rolling out remote Microsoft Teams training to over 100 civil servants and politicians in just 2 weeks during the spring lockdown, was a huge achievement. 

There is no denying that the jump to remote training was challenging, but it also taught me valuable lessons about my own delivery and the learning process for those involved. Not least that we are all learning and adapting through this situation, and it is important to be patient with yourself and with others.

Unsa Chaudri, Principal Consultant Business Change

TTBSS (also known as Transforming Transaction and Business Support Services) aims to digitally-enable Guernsey’s public services, unlocking cost savings and transforming the user experience.

Over the past 12 months, we’ve helped the States to launch a number of new digital services, including a GP trial of digital medical certificates which has seen processing time reduce from c. 10 days to less than 24 hours.

Digital services will transform the way people interact with the States, giving them the ability to access services at anytime from anywhere and significantly improving the user experience.

Sam Knowles, Hosting Technical Support & Delivery

For me, the highlight of 2020 has to be building the 2 new on-island data centres. It was great to get involved in the actual build - basically doing the whole thing from the very beginning, putting everything it in and setting it all up. The pandemic made it impossible for specialist engineers from Dell and Agilisys in the UK to travel to Guernsey, so they worked with us remotely. Local providers JT and Logicalis also provided support.

I really appreciated the opportunity to work on this project and to learn new skills.

Dan Le Poidevin, Senior Technical Delivery & Support

If anyone had told me a year ago that 2020 would see us deliver business as usual IT Services as well as solutions to support the States’ response to a global pandemic…I’d never have believed it was possible. But we did it and I feel really proud to be part of the team that made that happen.

I think remote working has been both positive (no commute) and challenging (interacting with colleagues online is not the same as face to face). In 2021, I’m looking forward to when our whole team can be together again in the office as well as getting away for a holiday - fingers crossed!

Katie Hudson, SMART Guernsey Economic Development Programme Manager

The Economic Development programme aims to build a firm foundation of digital skills, making sure that SMART Guernsey can create a legacy of opportunity for Islanders.

Through a partnership between local innovation hub Digital Greenhouse and Blenheim Chalcot, we have launched a number of interconnected initiatives. These include the Guernsey Innovation Network, digital leadership bootcamps, Squared Online digital marketing courses, digital apprenticeships, and Scale-Up Support – which matches Guernsey businesses looking to scale with mentors within the Blenheim Chalcot network.

So far, over 100 individuals and businesses are engaged across these initiatives and I’m really excited to be part of a programme offering such a range of learning opportunities to the local community. 

Darren Ringland, Technical Delivery & Support - EUD

The biggest project for me this year has been the rollout of over 700 laptops in just a few weeks to States’ politicians and civil servants, enabling them to work remotely during the spring lockdown.

I’m used to building end user devices, but never anything on this scale. It was very intense and meant very long workdays, but the support from our colleagues was amazing. The Projects team created a process to support the rollout, while the Supply Chain team sourced the hardware – no small feat when the pandemic caused a huge spike in demand globally.

2021 will see the transformation of EUC (End User Computing) across the States and I’m really looking forward to being part of making that change happen.