Beating the big brands in innovation

Melin Homes has won the ‘Workplace Transformation Project of the Year’ award at the UK IT Industry Awards at this week’s awards ceremony in London. Shortlisted against companies such as BT, Heathrow Airport, HMRC, Lloyds Bank, Virgin Media, the Pontypool based housing association won for its innovative agile working project, which has been implemented over the last 2 years.

The project has seen Melin creating a true ‘agile work force’ using leading edge technology, a lot of hard work and a huge sprinkling of the Melin ‘can do attitude’. The project has been based around enabling Melin staff to work smarter and be able to undertake their jobs from anywhere. Frontline staff now work off tablets, utilising integrative software to negate the need to visit the office every day, their Board have gone completely paperless and staff can work from home, or any other agile site, allowing them the freedom to work flexibly. Alongside the technological changes needed to bring forward this project, staff have embraced the massive cultural change in becoming a truly agile workforce.

Sharon Crockett, Assistant Director of Business Consultancy, who presented to the judging panel and attended the awards ceremony said; “We knew we had a strong entry but we are both delighted and a bit surprised to win this prestigious award, particularly with the much bigger names against us in the category. It’s testament to our technology team for all the hard work they have put in, but also across our staff who have really got on board with making us truly agile. It’s been an incredible journey but of course it’s not over yet”

Paul Fletcher, Group Chief Executive Officer of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT said: “Congratulations to all the winners and those who were highly commended in the UK IT Industry 2016 Awards. BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT is here to make IT good for society and the Awards are a major part of this. They recognise the highest levels of professionalism and innovation in the IT sector. The standard of applications we received this year were very high, but the winners stood out as exceptional and inspiring, and should be very proud of their success.”

BCS & Computing UK IT Industry Awards are a platform for the entire profession to celebrate best practice, innovation and excellence. This year’s Awards featured 25 categories which covered: project, organisation, technology and individual excellence. The categories were open to organisations and individuals involved in IT across the public, not for profit and commercial sectors.

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