UN Reform at Work: UNICC’s New Centres of Excellence

21 February, 2019

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UNICC wants to share a new year’s resolution to be better, work smarter, and deliver more efficiently for its Partner organizations. The Chinese Year of the Pig is one of good fortune. UNICC has completed a transformation plan that is now underway to ensure good fortune for the organization and its Clients and Partner Organizations, optimizing UNICC to be fit for purpose for the challenges ahead.

The programme has many work streams to bring UNICC into line with Client needs as well as the overall UN Reform, which the Secretary-General has described as helping the UN to focus more on people and less on process, more on delivery and less on bureaucracy. In the context of changes across all UN funds, programmes and special agencies, digital transformation lies at the heart of change. What does this mean? That trusted, shared services and digital business solutions are very much a way for the UN to remain cost-efficient and be effective with its delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals. UNICC can help.

Operational Centres of Excellence: Valencia and Brindisi

   

Photo credits: UNICC/Allen

Building out UNICC as centres of excellence is key to its success. The Spanish government has contributed 6 million euros to support this strategic transformation, including a concentration of ICT services in Valencia for its Partner UN Agencies. As part of a larger UNICC programme to streamline, optimise and rationalize its services delivered from the right locations, UNICC has begun a transition to relocate operational resources to the more cost-effective locations of Valencia and Brindisi. Aside from optimized on premises solutions and services, UNICC is establishing new partnerships with local universities to encourage recruitment and thought leadership.

Client Headquarters: Geneva, New York and Rome

   

Photo credits: UNICC/Allen

The organization will rationalize and redefine its Client-facing relationships in Geneva, New York and Rome, where there is growing interest from several Partners for close-at-hand business relationship management and resources on the ground for new initiatives.

The work streams will seek to develop new capabilities, with an emphasis on building out services in new areas such as data analysis, information security, application development and other digital business services now at the forefront of Client needs. It will optimize the organization, with cost-efficiencies and strengthening of existing, legacy services, while building new strategic partnerships.

This include strengthening UNICC’s on premise data centres, services and solutions, while developing cloud capabilities and services as well as enhancing its professional services for its more than 50 Clients.

Partnerships already include Microsoft, Amazon, SWIFT, FIRST, Cloud Security Alliance, Center for Internet Security, and ID 2020, with ongoing plans to reach other key technology vendors with a goal for UNICC to be the go-to hub for the UN family.

Other changes include deepening UNICC’s Client focus and strengthening UNICC’s cultural values of involvement, ingenuity, integrity and inclusiveness, by way of behaviors such as respect, flexibility, honesty, passion, pride curiosity and transparency.