About

The Centre for Technology Policy Research (CTPR) is an independent co-operative organisation that helps ensure that information and communications technologies (ICT) are better understood and exploited across public, private and voluntary sector boundaries.

Our approach involves:

• using open source market intelligence to provide insightful reports and analysis
• improving the opportunities for engagement for SMEs in UK public sector technology
• informing public understanding of the intersection of information technology and public policy
• providing rigorously independent and objective insight, analysis and guidance into the best applications of information technology in public, private and voluntary sectors
• detailed technical reviews, from information systems and architectural planning, to security, privacy and identity

Our aim is to help ensure mutually beneficial outcomes and to avoid the toxic outcomes often associated with ill-designed projects and programmes.

We help to make this happen by bringing together the right people and organisations to help improve the evidence base, dialogue and links between private, public and voluntary sectors and academia.

who

CTPR was founded in late 2009 by Jerry Fishenden and Graham Harrop. Our founders combine extensive strategic and objective hands-on technical experience drawn from many years of leadership, strategy and operations in both the private and public sectors. Their background has included helping lead and run commercial businesses with a turnover in excess of £500m per annum in environments supporting hundreds of millions of users.

Jerry Fishenden has a long and successful track record in some of the UK’s most senior IT positions across both private and public sectors. His career spans various senior roles including: specialist advisor to the House of Commons for their inquiry and report into Government IT; Microsoft’s chief technology officer for the UK; Head of Business Systems for the chief financial services regulator in the City of London; an Officer of the House of Commons, where he pioneered the Parliamentary data and video network at the Houses of Parliament, as well as putting Parliament on the World Wide Web; and a Director of IT in the National Health Service. He has also been a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics and a Member of the Scottish Government’s expert panel on identity management and privacy.

He is currently engaged in a variety of roles with key individuals, organisations and start-ups, including as an independent trusted advisor and interim CIO as well as Chairing the UK Government’s Identity Assurance Programme Privacy and Consumer Stakeholder Communications Group. He is a regular guest and keynote speaker in both the UK and abroad, drawing on his background across both private and public sectors. He writes a monthly column in CIO magazine.

Graham Harrop has held a variety of sales, sales leadership and consulting delivery management positions in his 25-year career in IT, including Honeywell Bull, Oracle, Informix and Microsoft. Graham has led and managed some of the largest Public Sector software deals in the UK and has also managed and grown PFI, consultancy and support services businesses. As a former Director of Government for Microsoft UK, he managed the growth of the largest account set in Microsoft. Graham believes that UK Public Sector is missing many opportunities for cost saving and innovation and is focused on helping smaller and more innovative UK companies to penetrate the Public Sector market.

We operate a modern, digital age organisation built around a collaborative and co-operative business model, working with associates who are specialists in their field, including some of the UK’s leading and most respected and successful technologists, researchers and innovators. We are always interested to hear from knowledgable experts capable of contributing high quality research, insight and hands-on practical skills spanning both small and large technical environments.

CTPR client needs are fulfilled via contracts through our associates’ organisations and companies, with CTPR acting as an umbrella co-operative clearing house for matching client needs to the right professional skills – and also helping deliver on our vision of helping develop and support UK SMEs.

Our founders and associates remain active practitioners engaged in the design and delivery of successful IT. This enables them to provide informed hands-on insight and practical guidance backed up by objective evidence-based research.

what we do

• work with our associates to maintain this website and associated feeds as a repository of open source intelligence and market analysis
• via our associates and their associated organisations, provide privately commissioned reports for clients focused on issues from technical reviews and audits to growing the business, undertaken by experts and leaders in their field, drawing upon a wide base of insiders across the private and public sectors and academia
• engage with politicians, policymakers, think tanks and the media, amongst other bodies, to help inform and stimulate debate and wider public understanding about the role of information technology and technology policy
• maintain close and effective contacts with leading information technology companies, ranging from small and medium sized enterprises through to the largest multinational corporations
• provide public and private Keynotes and presentations on information technology – analysis, insight, current and future market trends and their potential impact on public policy
• work with think tanks and other third-party organisations from across the policy spectrum to provide an informed discussion about the impact of ICT on the future of public policy.

To contact us please send email to research at ctpr.org.

This website is designed and maintained by VoeTek.

For several years, the Centre for Technology Policy Research operated as a limited company (CTPR Ltd). Since the Centre is a non-trading entity however – placing work with associates and their respective organisations – it was decided in early 2013 that the administrative overhead of operating as a limited company was not necessary. This bureaucratic change has no impact on CTPR’s operations.