Weeknote 23.4 — COVID, successful first investment case and some interesting conversations with tech partners.
Best made plans and all that — I ended up with COVID on Sunday, so that turned everything on its head for the start of the week. It is still reminding us it is here and kicking, but so thankful for vaccines! I was off on Monday, but Tuesday onwards I was gradually feeling a bit better each day — the worst symptom for trying to work through it was super loud ringing in my ears made for fun trying to participate in conference calls. Anyway, onwards!
Tuesday
I had a bit of focus time early in the morning to prepare for the day. Enjoyed catching up with a number of my direct reports on a 1:1 basis — really important protected time each week. We also had a kick-off with a tech partner on an audit we need to complete before the end of Q4. I also received a green light on my first business case being approved to do some great stuff in the ITSM & Enterprise IT Asset Management (ITAM) space — now we can turn our focus to delivery.
Wednesday
I met with Ana (Head of EBME) in the morning to introduce myself, learn more about EBME and Moorfields and how our teams can support each other, especially in the area of medical devices. It was great to hear feedback on how our teams are collaborating and working well together and we spied a few opportunities for process improvement as we move forward. Orgs can often sit on a lot of technical debt and cyber risk with medical devices.
We have a number of audits ongoing at the minute which are team are working tirelessly through. We held a clarification session with our audit partner to keep the momentum up. These are a really important part of good governance and a well-led organisation, and providing the board assurance.
I had a really interesting introductory session with Alcidion, who provide our Silverlink PAS software — to build a strong partnership and to start to understand the product vision and strategy. A really positive theme from me that came through from the discussion was open standards.
Harmony (IT Business Manager) and I had a catch-up towards the end of the day all things procurement, contract management and discussing some of the processes across the department.
Thursday
I started with a couple of hours of IT CAB prep — as mentioned on previous weeknotes, we’re on a journey to a modern ITSM — so I will be looking to ensure that we’re exploiting the full value out of our investment — to ensure we keep our teams focusing on delivering value and solving problems, not admin.
I joined my first North Central London (NCL) ICS CIO Working Group — a jam-packed session, and a community I’m really looking forward to learning more from and contributing to moving forward. A key theme observed is the scale of opportunity that is in front of us for digital technology to have a positive impact on patients, service users and staff — not without its challenges though.
Had a really interesting conversation starter with Helen, from our Cisco Account Team. Our conversation ranged from our current service provision, to exciting art-of-the-possible bits around Oriel and even to Helen seeing my weeknotes and some of the wifi challenges I had last week.
I also met with Justin (our Deputy Chief Financial Officer) — which was rescheduled from the week before when Microsoft had their global service disruption. Justin has been really welcoming, and I thought it a great opportunity to provide some feedback on how supportive the Finance team have been since I joined in terms of helping me get up-to-speed.
Friday
I’d carved out some focus time to do a deeper dive into certain areas — contract management, Data Security Protection Toolkit (DSPT) 22/23 preparedness, requisitions and other finance bits, etc. One of the things I have tried to set myself it some carved out focus time each week and am trialling using Microsoft Viva to auto-schedule this into my diary.
Due to COVID, I have had to work offsite to reduce the risk to members of the public and colleagues and I’ve had my work buddy with me (Benji). This is the look he gives me towards the end of the day like… DAD… are you finished? One day when I was on a late meeting he stole an oven glove for attention and just… destroyed it. But then one look at that cute face and we forgive all.
Benji looking at me saying… DAD, ARE YOU FINISHED YET?
What am I looking forward to next week?
- Getting back out and about onsite — meeting people!
- Catching up with my teams
- Joining the Ops Senior Management Team (SMT) briefing
- A meeting with Oracle to better understand the shift to their licensing model
- OpenEyes User Reference Group
- A meeting with Juliana (EPRR Lead) all things business continuity and how we can support each other (and ultimately the business!)
- And more…
