It was the year of the News of the World phone hacking scandal, the rebuilt Wembley Stadium opened to the public for the first time and Celebrity Big Brother was launched on Channel 4.  2007 was also the year that ECINS was founded by CEO Gary Pettengell, following a successful 20 year career involved in crime reduction and community engagement initiatives.

ECINS was revolutionary in its mindset of creating an environment where multiple agencies could come together to share information and “wrap support around” people in a joined up way.  At that time data protection and data governance was a subject very much tackled at your own risk and it was often a challenge to engage organisations in the conversation.
The confusion around data protection regulations was a real barrier to enabling practitioners to use their own data to help the very people they serve.

Whilst there is still some way to go – the silo mentality still lives on in many departments – it is, however, widely recognised that the most successful outcomes are derived from people working together to provide intensive joined-up support.

10 years on from when we began, collaborative design solutions are leading the way and Government is championing the approach across local services.

We are immensely proud to have been at the forefront of this approach and we look forward to continuing to develop digital technology that will help the public sector to engage further with their customers to deliver improved outcomes for all.