The London Borough of Hillingdon has over 800 acres of woodland, fields and rivers and is home to historic landmarks linked to the English civil war. It is London’s second largest borough, with a population of around 250,000. The borough is split into North and South Hillingdon, the former being the more residential and affluent part, whereas South Hillingdon is more industrial centred. The council employs around 3,500 staff, all of which are based around Hillingdon. Hillingdon is also home to Brunel University and several RAF bases. Hillingdon has implemented Google Apps, the transformation is hoped to save the council around £3 million in desktop maintenance. Hillingdon was the first local authority to use Google Apps across all its 3,500 members of staff, who use Google web-based applications for calendar, email and word processing documents. The council will also have access to the Google instant messaging service and video conferencing functions. The CIO and Deputy Director of Planning, Environment, Education and Community Services, Steve Palmer has previously been the president of Soctim. He has helped implement virtualisation into the council with systems such as Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance, virtualised storage and business applications such as its CRM systems. He has also overseen a move in the previous year from desktop infrastructures to a cloud computing model. The contract included up to 3,450 basic licences and around 500 archiving licences. IT leader: Steve Palmer, Deputy Director of Planning, Environment, Education and Community Services and CIO. In role since:12 years. Reporting line:Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Planning, Environment, Education and Community Services. How often does the CIO meet with the CEO:Monthly. Board level seat:Yes. IT budget:£7.5 million. IT estate and or number of log on accounts under the control of the IT leader: 3,000 users. Level of the workforce that relies on technology to carry out their tasks: 75-80% of workforce. IT staff currently employed:Approximately 75. Split between in-house/outsourced staff:50% outsourced. IT management team and reporting structure:Four direct reports in total: Infrastructure, Applications, Security, Compliance. Primary technology platforms at the organisation:Oracle. Primary technology suppliers:Google, Microsoft, Northgate, Oracle, Civica. Significant strategic technology deals struck in the last 12 months: None. Percentage of your applications/infrastructure run from the cloud:10%. Major technology or transformation project recently completed and how did it transform operations, customer experience or the organisation:Move to Google Premier Apps was a major change project. Business transformation programme – beyond technology – that the CIO owns or is a major contributor to: Highways and the Council's overall Business Improvement delivery Programme. Strategic aim of the CIO and IT operation for the next financial year: Maximising technology enabled business efficiency and self service. Strategy in the use by employees of their own technology, use of mobiles and how social networking is impacting operations, customer experiences or the organisation: Tensions between wish to BYO and the need for compliance with external codes of connection and data protection. Strategy for dealing with shadow IT and BYOD including influence and engagement with executives, to place the right controls around employee choice: Plans are in place. Influencing the impatience for change is difficult. Technologies being considered to enable transformation:Mobile in particular. Transformational inspiration sources: Peers, case studies, innovators, wine!