On 2 June 2008, the Honorable Joel Bagnal joined Detica as Executive Vice President.

“I am delighted to announce Joel as the newest addition to Detica’s executive management team,” said Matthew Travis, President of Detica, Inc. “To attract someone of Joel’s calibre to Detica is a real coup for us, as he was aggressively pursued by many firms across the country. He brings to us deep subject-matter expertise in the counterterrorism and homeland security domains, along with impressive intellectual and managerial leadership. Joel will be central to Detica’s work in these areas moving forward.”

This newly created position reflects the continued growth of Detica’s management structure to support the company’s strategic goals.

“Joel will play a key role in our company’s strategy development, merger and acquisition pursuits, and business development goals,” Travis remarked.

"Winning the war on terrorism will require the skillful application of resources and capabilities from all facets of our global society," Bagnal stated as he joined Detica. "I'm excited to join a multi-national professional services business that focuses on turning complex information into relevant and actionable intelligence.”

Previously, Bagnal served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Homeland Security Advisor. From January to April of this year, he served as the Acting Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to the President. Additionally, Joel served as a Special Assistant to the Commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command; the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Domestic Counterterrorism; and as Director of Incident Management and Threat Countermeasures within the White House Office of Homeland Security, where he helped develop the National Strategy for Homeland Security and the policy framework for national incident management. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Joel served in military deployments to Somalia and Bosnia during the 1990s.

“Joel is one of the most experienced and widely respected members of the national security community and we are thrilled to have him join the Detica team,” Travis concluded.

Detica is a leading professional services company dedicated to solving complex analytical, policy, and technology challenges confronting America’s national security. Detica is the wholly-owned US component of Detica Group plc, a London-based professional services and technology company. Detica supports US national security clients under a Special Security Agreement with the US Government.

Government websites are a chronic waste of taxpayers’ money, warns UK-based technology consultancy Detica, explaining that the UK government’s failure to listen to the public and provide online services the public needs as well as failure to carefully plan its web presence are resulting in government departments losing grip over the websites and the sites themselves becoming a big waste of taxpayers' money.

Detica’s warning came in response to a report issued by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which was critical of the websites’ quality and accessibility and revealed that the government is unfamiliar with the exact number of websites it has, with their running costs and possible cost saving strategies.

Andrew Rolf, head of creative services in Detica’s government business unit, says: “Government departments have rushed into gaining a presence on the web without considering the purpose of their sites,” adding that the situation “is not helped by the fact that 12-month funding cycles do nothing to support strategic development programmes or promote consistency between different sites.”

“It is hardly surprising that the resulting sites neither meet the needs of the public nor improve the operational efficiency of the departments in question… Some really basic customer service tricks are being missed. For example, website owners could ask the IT helpdesk what the most frequent requests are and place answers to those questions on the home page.”

Besides adding an FAQ page, Detica also advises the government departments behind the websites to pinpoint the target audience assign a clear purpose to them as well as clear ownership to make sure that someone is accountable and in charge of maintaining them.

“Lack of governance is the biggest single risk to government websites. Without this, any website project will quickly find all the same problems being made six months after launch,” says Rolf.  

 

 

Consulting company Detica has secured an £18m contract with the Metropolitan Police Service to provide the police force with communications support - operational PDAs, mobile data terminals and associated infrastructure - over the next five years.

Supporting infrastructure also falls under the terms of the agreement. The communications devices in question will allow police vehicles to exchange information with the central dispatcher.

Analysts say that Detica has made an excellent move in deciding to use its experience and expertise in the security market to reach out to a wider client base in the UK public sector.

Detica Group is a global business and technology consultancy that specializes in information intelligence. The company's work mostly lies in the area of security, risk management and regulatory compliance. The contracts for the Mobility Projects with the Metropolitan Police total £18.1 million.