Above the parapet

Senior IT people tend to live in a fairly small world, says Campbell. They have a passion and commitment for their organization, but don't mind sharing the utility stuff, which is discussed at the workshop level. Most members who attend activities are at the level below the CTO or CIO, so are senior IT managers who can pass the information back to the rest of their organization, but who won't give away any commercial secrets. "tif. isn't about that and its members wouldn't expect it."

One of the most effective tools tif. offers members is the ability for the principal to see the pattern of usage by staff of tif.'s resources. This gives them a very accurate handle on the types of issues they are handling, commitment levels and how cost effective membership is.

The Corporate IT Forum is aimed squarely at larger organizations where enterprise is a reality not a theory. Campbell says this means that members who attend tif. workshops really contribute to the agenda, sharing experiences and advice. The members deal in absolute truths -- things they have actually done in their IT departments, and have a horror of vendors and consultants, according to Campbell. "If you take the golden shilling inevitably you have to compromise," he says. "We operate Chatham House Rules, and the meetings are quite in-depth with special interest groups where appropriate."

There are about 150 UK organizations that belong to tif., and they have a collective turnover of more than a trillion euros, and spend around 35 billion euros annually on IT, employing about 100,000 IT staff. "Obviously vendors would love to speak to our members, but tif. is not the right vehicle for that, it is more about sharing real experiences with other members," says Campbell.

Campbell is convinced that tif. saves its members time, allows them to be more cost effective and to avoid implementation mistakes. "If I had to pay to go to workshops for the information other members have provided I would have done it," he says. "I have saved tens of thousands in avoiding mistakes, and by knowing about effective shortcuts. We know for sure, for example, that there is no truly successful SOA application out there at the moment, because it is something the members have discussed. When you are also looking at long-term IT investment in the business cycle, as well as practical solutions, the information provided by the forum is very valuable."

Although tif.'s main role is to share information between its members, consultants are not included in the membership, because members don't want to be sold to. "It is like the situation with vendors," explains Campbell. "We also deal with what happens in practical terms, rather than theories. There is obviously a place for consultants, and they can offer benefits, but it isn't here."

As well as offering members an information forum, tif. also operates as a lobbyist, for example, it successfully lobbied Microsoft over software licensing some time ago. Currently the organization's CEO David Roberts is talking to the government about e-crime. Its security sector, tiSS, shares important information about security threats, and how to deal with them, preventing fraud and keeping data safe. "Members are looking at finding a central way to do security, and because of our membership and independence we can say look this is a hot topic -- listen to us," says Campbell. "The same is true for other issues, like green IT, we can show government departments best practice."