In The Spotlight with UK-Engage
Welcome to In The Spotlight, a series where Manchester Digital interviews its members to shed light on their work within the digital and technology industry in Greater Manchester.
In this edition, we have the pleasure of speaking with UK-Engage's General Manager, Andy Tye.
What does your organisation do?
We provide secure election services to any company, charity, co-operative, membership organisation, housing association, local authority, club, etc. that wants to run a democratic process to elect people to positions or vote on any issue.
We have a wide range of portfolio services to offer clients, and are seeing more and more requests for secure online services which relate to voting processes, whether that be voting for Trustees/employee representatives, voting at AGM’s, voting at a conference, consultative ballots, etc.
What do you think is currently the biggest issue facing the digital and tech industry?
In our industry the biggest issue relating to digital services is vote security. If the security of a vote cast is not assured, then the voting process can be called into question and the result may not be trusted. Therefore, the security of the vote in a digital platform is paramount to the integrity of the election process. Consideration is given to all aspects of security for the digital solution and consequently its security is based on all possible threats, these include factors outside of the digital context, and how the system operates in circumstances where voters may be subject to coercion, persuasion, or pressure to vote in a certain manner by others.
There are many factors to consider which can make the digital platform extremely complex not only to create but then to maintain, whilst from a user perspective making it engaging and simple to use.
Another key issue is how to easily convey to an ordinary voter the levels of complex security within the system, so that they trust the solution is secure and works as expected. End-to-End verifiable solutions offer the voter the ability to ‘verify’ any vote cast into the system is correctly managed throughout the system. The added complexity is that the vote must be secret and anonymous. So usual security, tracking and audit methods used in the banking sector, for example, cannot be used.
What is your organisation’s biggest achievement?
Reacting to the covid pandemic with digital solutions for Annual General Meetings (AGM) offering clients the ability for their members who had previously voted in person with a show of hands to securely vote and meet remotely. AGM’s are a legally binding process and must be undertaken as per each organisations articles or constitution with many detailing prescriptive processes regarding voting and attendance, to not only validate the meeting itself, but pass the necessary resolutions and motions needed to keep the organisation functioning.
Our solution integrates digital secure voting technology with virtual meetings, allowing members to be seen and heard and cast votes that are authenticated and independently scrutinised. At that time we undertook a series of workshops and webinars to assist those wishing to undertake their AGM’s virtually, so they met their governance objectives and made it simple for the members to join/vote.
What would you consider to be your organisation’s biggest challenge?
The elections market is dominated by legacy systems, processes and procedures, many were written decades ago before digital technologies were thought about.
The biggest challenge is to assist and transition those organisations to adopt digital technologies and determine the benefits to their members and to the organisation. Some are bound by legislation and unless there is political appetite to change legacy processes toward a digital solution then it is unlikely we will see any movement.
What do you think the future looks like for Manchester’s digital and tech sector?
We are proud to be part of and a member of the Manchester digital and tech sector. Manchester led the way in June 1948, where the world's first stored-program computer, the Manchester Mark I, was built and demonstrated at the University of Manchester in England.
Since then, Manchester is not only home to over 10,000 digital and tech businesses but was again crowned the UKs Top Digital Tech City in November 2022. Retail tech giants like The Hut Group and Boohoo were born out of Manchester, there is a boom in cyber security businesses setting up in or moving to the city, and many other businesses who operate in industries such as FinTech, AI and data.
Having a rich history of innovation, being home to many influential tech companies, academic institutions, and research centres, and having made significant investments in digital infrastructure and technology, Manchester's digital and tech sector is likely to continue its growth trajectory, driven by continued investment in the sector, the presence of a talented and diverse tech workforce, and the city's reputation as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, with many companies choosing to locate their operations in the city.
Tell us something we might not know about your company?
When starting up; we had a chair, pad, and pen with a phone to call people.
All housed in an “office” the size of a rabbit hutch we rented, in an old converted spinning mill.
Our office was on the third floor and the lift rarely worked – we had to regard the stairs as a real bonus to keep fit.
Prince (now King) Charles came to the Mill and kindly met us … but we’re not sure he was impressed with our office furniture.
Thank you Andy!
To find out more about UK-Engage, click here.
