| ISQW awarded by the British Computer Society |
|
|
|
In March 2002 the Met Office received the British Computer Society's
Information Systems Quality at Work (ISQW) Award. This resulted from
a successful inspection of their Professional Development Scheme,
a training and career development package developed by the BCS for
IT specialist staff. The inspector commended the solid foundation
that had been laid in the Scheme's first year and the strong commitment
to it from all involved.
In the words of the BCS, "The ISQW Award …is designed
to encourage, support and recognise best practice within employers'
career development processes and procedures and is awarded only
to those organisations who have achieved accreditation against a
set of critical success factors and key performance indicators".
|
| Sunday Times Culture Magazine site test 16
June 2002 |
|
|
|
'The new shipping area, FitzRoy, is named after the Met Office founder,
Captain Robert FitzRoy, who commanded HMS Beagle on Charles Darwin's
historic voyage. Set up in 1854 to provide mariners with meteorological;
and sea-current information, the Met Office today boasts a lurid website
where seafarers will find gale warnings aplenty. There are also tailored
forecasts for pilots and balloonists. Most visitors, however, are
more interested in what is happening beneath the clouds: is it going
to rain? To find out, click on the fiddly map of the British Isles
on the home page. If you still cannot decide whether or not to mow
the lawn, a Met Office forecaster can advise by telephone (fees from
£17).'
|
|
|
|
|
'Surely a barbecue would be no fun without the threat of rain? But
if you'd rather keep the drizzle off your happy gathering, take
a look at the good old Met Office's website first for a clear, breezy
guide to how the weather might turn out. Click on Weather &
Climate and check out the three-day rainfall radar animation.'
|
| Web User Gold Award 16 May 2002 |
|
 |
'The Met Office is used by the BBC, ITV and many news sites when
compiling their weather reports, so we expected its own website
to be accurate at least. But we were surprised to have so much fun.
In the Virtual Innovation Centre we
downloaded a 'spring' screensaver, sent an e-card of TV weatherman
Rob McElwee's face, played the cloudbuster game and, on an educational
tack, viewed webcams
for spots like Aviemore, played with the UK
Rainfall Animation and signed up for mobile
weather alerts.
|
| If you're interested in more than just
local cloud cover, click on World Weather
on the Weather & Climate page and pick a foreign destination for
forecasts or summaries. The Education
section is a superb back-catalogue of daily weather around the
world, and has links to international weather news stories along with
sections on climate prediction
and global warming, tropical
cyclones, and real-time
satellite maps of Europe, North America and Africa.
The maps and charts are quick to download, and are as simple to
understand as they are stunning to look at, and we found the site's
forecasts easy to follow.
Stuffed with features and multimedia, the Met Office site is more
like a weather theme park than a government department. It does
its job quickly, clearly and with great balance between fun and
scientific insight.'
From Web User, the best-selling UK Internet magazine
|
|
|
 |
On the 8 February 2002, the Met Office was re-accredited with the
Investors in People standard following its second review. The assessor
commented that 'this was especially noteworthy in the light of all
the amount of ongoing organisational change'. Planning is now under
way to enable the Met Office to retain the standard at its next review.
|
The Met Office was awarded the Investors
in People standard in December 1999. On the 27 November 2001, we were
confirmed in our first review, as still meeting the Investors in People
standard. The assessor commented 'on the effective way we had addressed
the development areas' contained in the first report.
|
| Best Practice Management Awards 2002 |
|
|
The success of innovation and improvement strategies within the
Met Office were acknowledged with awards from the Management Consultancies
Association at a ceremony in London on 6 February this year.
Our responsiveness to customers and the streamlining of our operations
brought a shower of praise from the association, who represent most
of the leading consultancy firms in the UK, and who recognise outstanding
success in consultancy projects.
This year, we received an award for our work with Impact Plus on
redesigning our web site. Within a tight deadline, the partnership
succeeded in producing a cutting-edge web site in a time of increasing
competition. Our relocation partnership with Mouchel Consulting
was also highly commended, lighting the way for our move to Exeter.
Both are examples of best practice in action within the Met Office!
|
| National Business Calendar Award 2002 |
|
 |
The National Business Calendar Awards are sponsored jointly by the
British Printing Industries Federation, the British Advertising Calendar
Association and various other companies. The aim of the awards is
to extend the use of printed business calendars and to encourage high
standards in design and production. |
|
Our Food for thought calendar was entered into two categories and
was awarded a certificate of merit in the free-standing calendars
category. The calendar was considered by the judges to be of a high
standard and only narrowly missed out on receiving the winning trophy,
which was no mean feat considering the category attracted 35 entries
in total.
The judges were impressed with our calendar for:
- the innovative approach that combined the portrayal of food,
embedded in weather conditions - an original and innovative approach
to the subject matter
- the fact that there were designs on both sides of the calendar
leaves, with a connecting message
- the use of colour, the originality of the design, and that this
was a calendar with a great deal of interesting detail and information
- the placing of the dateline
- the excellent exploitation of the format
- the overall impact - they thought that this was an unusual and
intriguing calendar
As a winning entry, the Met Office calendar is included
in the main exhibition in the Eckersley Gallery at the London College
of Printing (LCP), and will also feature alongside the other winning
calendars in the travelling exhibitions, which will be held around
the country throughout the year.
|
| Marketing Society Awards 2001 |
|
|
|
The Met Office is one of four finalists for the Marketing Society
Awards 2001 in the category of 'Best use of a new channel to market'.
This is for its 'Time and Place' mobile phone service.
The annual awards aim to recognise and reward exceptional marketing
strategies; each entry is thoroughly assessed and measured against
strict criteria.
|
| Silver Award from the Geographical Association
2000-2001 |
|
 |
'Geography teachers are always on the lookout for relevant up to date
clear material either for preparation of their work or for students
to use. This website provides a factually accurate, relevant and dynamic
resource for both teacher and student. The Met Office has built a
site which provides live and archival weather data from the local
to the global. Apart from weather data the site has a curriculum learning
centre, a teacher-training centre, education resource lists and information
about historic weather events. Students can access information recorded
at a met station reasonably near to their school and relate it to
local conditions.
|
| The website is well designed and can be
used by both primary and secondary students. The site provides some
useful images, maps and data sets. The 'active' weather maps are especially
good, enabling students to watch the systems develop. The site also
contains many interesting facts and differentiated activities. It
is a cheap but effective teaching aid.
A well thought-out website of some quality, significant effort
has been put into its design and development. This will make a significant
contribution to teaching and learning in schools.'
More
from the Geographical Association
More about the education pages
|
| Computer Active Web Guide Spring 2001 |
|
|
|
A brilliant website with everything you'll ever need to know about
UK weather and climate.'
|
|
|
|
|
WINNER OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE MOBILE INTERNET SERVICE
MET OFFICE 'TIME AND PLACE'
The judges said 'it is an excellent service with serious applications
that are genuinely useful for a wide range of users'. They also
commended its innovative approach, which they said 'makes a change
from targeting teenagers for text.'
More about
Time and Place
|
| Sunday Times Doors Magazine - Weather 18 March
2001 |
|
|
|
The Met Office's website is as crisp and authoritative as you would
expect from the UK's leading weather forecaster. There are five-day
summaries for Britain's regions and largest towns, along with forecasts
for 400 cities worldwide. Any current weather hazards are prominently
featured in bright red weather warnings, and there are helpful UV
forecasts here, too. For kids, there is advice on how to become
a weather observer, and a fascinating historic weather events section.
There are Wap, SMS and PDA forecasts, too.'
More
at the Sunday Times Doors Magazine
|
| Sunday Times Doors Magazine - Travel 7 January
2001 |
|
|
|
'...if you want the most authoritative information, head straight
for the mother lode - the Met Office's snappily redesigned home page.'
|
|
|
|
On the 8 December 1999 the Met Office was recognised as achieving
the Investors in People standard. This was as a result of concentrated
effort by managers and staff. Despite being an organisation where
training has always played an important part in the way we operate
and there being a lot of good practice across the office we needed
a more common approach to Staff Development. |
|
With the introduction of the Staff Development Process and the rolling
out of a training programme first to managers and then offered to
staff we concentrated our efforts on a single approach to Staff
Development.
Our first review was successfully completed in November 2000 and
we are looking to further consolidation with our next review in
February 2002.
Comments
The assessors report started with the words, 'The Met. Office is
clearly benefiting from the visible and unequivocal commitment of
the Chief Executive, the Directors and colleagues to communication,
training and development and the principles of Investors in People'.
|
Home 
