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Season’s Greetings

From all of the OCSI team

We hope you have a very merry Christmas and an even better new year. We have our Christmas jumpers at the ready and are happily munching our way through advent calendars (no, we’re not too old for advent calendars!).

We want to take this festive opportunity to share with you a few of our 2014 highlights and a sneak peak into next year.

The Indices of Deprivation are an important data source for public and community organisations, helping government and other organisations target resources to areas and groups with the highest levels of need. We have spent much of this year updating the Indices, which will be launched by the Department for Communities and Local Government in summer 2015. There’s still time to respond to the consultation and email indices@ocsi.co.uk to receive updates. (and sadly the image above is from the IMD2010 – not a sneak preview …)

Our Community Insight tool developed in partnership with HACT is supporting 70 housing organisations, managing over 1 million homes, target their resources more effectively. Over 2014 we’ve added lots of new features and data, helped by an enthusiastic, engaged and growing user group.

We also launched Value Insight, a sister tool to Community Insight, helping housing associations measure their social impact. With shrinking budgets, it’s more important now than ever to understand the impact of community investment activities and the effects on the local economy.

A highlight of this year for OCSI was being finalists in the first Open Data Awards. Open Data Institute, founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt, is world renowned for its expertise and connections within the Open Data world. We were over the moon to find out that not only were we shortlisted for the Open Data Business Award, but also that Community Insight was a finalist in the Open Data Innovation category! Beaming smiles all round in the OCSI office.

We are proud supporters of the Living Wage and have employed three people through our Living Wage Internship programme in 2014 (with two going into permanent roles for OCSI). This brings our total to 11 people employed through this scheme. During Living Wage Week, Dan wrote this great article on what the internship programme meant to him. We also featured in the Living Wage Week video, talking about the benefits of being a living wage employer.

New for 2015 – Introducing Local InsightOur Community Insight tool developed with HACT has helped 70 different housing associations target their resources more effectively.

This year we have been working hard developing Local Insight – a community mapping tool designed for Local Authorities and services. We have piloted the tool with Local Authorities and Children’s Centres; and it is great to see the enthusiasm there.

In the new year we will continue to work on the Local Insight tool and work alongside Local Authorities to support them in targeting their resources more effectively.

If this sounds interesting and you want to know more, get in touch at localinsight@ocsi.co.uk

Team newsThe OCSI team has been growing this year, we have welcomed a number of new team members to the OCSI gang. Hon Mond, Gregor, Dan, Adam and Kim have joined us – you can find out more about them on the team page of our website.

These were not the only new members to the OCSI family this year. We had a very exciting September with not one, but two team members expecting the arrival of babies in the same week. Both Graham and Stefan welcomed the arrival of their little ones on 4th September and 5th September.

In other news, this year the team has worked with 110 clients, developed 4 new open data tools, drunk 1500 cups of coffee & played nearly 1000 games of table football.

2014, it’s been great. Looking forward to more in 2015.

Season’s Greetings from OCSI

Season’s Greetings

From all of the OCSI team

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