Z/Yen has just completed a major piece of work with UNISON, the largest trades union in the UK, reviewing UNISON’s use of third party resources for IT services. Between April 2001 and June 2002 we made a business case, consulted widely within UNISON on requirements and helped UNISON to find a single, suitable supplier to provide a structured IT service. From a large field of potential suppliers, Pink Roccade were eventually chosen, commencing services in June 2002. Ian Harris, Jacquie Chapman, Giles Wright and Geoffrey Rutland were the main participators on the Z/Yen side. John Cole, Director of Systems Management at UNISON, who led the UNISON team on this project, says, “we had been grappling with the issues around our IT services for years. Z/Yen helped us to define the issues, find a suitable way forward and see it through in just over a year, which is quite an achievement.”

Z/Yen will have a continuing role quality assuring the transition and helping to put appropriate contract management and IT governance in place for the future at UNISON. Now and Z/Yen singles out Jacquie Chapman for special prominence in this feature, partly because she is seeing through most of the continuing work and partly because she has never previously been mentioned in Now and Z/Yen despite her leading role in several Z/Yen projects. Ian Harris is celebrating his return from the trenches by editing this edition of Now and Z/Yen.