The Disposal Service Authority (DSA) e-commerce website, www.edisposals.com, which VEGA has provided expert security support to for nearly seven years, has won the ‘Shared Services’ category at the 2008 e-Government National Awards.

The award was presented by Her Majesty's Government Chief Information Officer, John Suffolk, at the awards dinner in the City of London on 20 January. The DSA – one of VEGA’s key Government clients – won the award ahead of six competing finalists in its category.

www.edisposals.com has grown to provide expert and accessible disposal solutions to a wide range of clients including the Ministry of Defence, Other Government Departments and public sector organisations. As well as supplying a collect-to-dispose service, the site also sells a wide range of refurbished items, from socks to computers.

Since 2002, VEGA has played a key role in providing technical support to the DSA. Our work on edisposals specifically has involved ensuring that the site’s detailed security requirements have been met, by providing a Security Assurance Coordinator under the CLAS scheme to help define and manage the resources and processes required to address www.edisposals.com’s security requirements. In addition, VEGA managed and supplied CHECK-approved staff to perform two rounds of formal penetration and application testing of different versions of the website before they went live in 2004 and 2005.

The e-Government National Awards highlight the UK's most effective services which improve citizen and business transaction with councils, central government departments and other public sector organisations.

VEGA General Manager, Paul MacGregor, said: “Winning an e-Government National Award is testament to the way in which edisposals.com has become such an important tool for the UK Government, in delivering effective services and efficiency gains. As a key part of the edisposals team for nearly seven years, VEGA is delighted to be part of this award victory.”

Les Taylor, DSA’s Director for Business Development and Information Systems, said: “It is an honour and privilege to have our team’s hard work rewarded in this way. The advice from Chris Ennis, VEGA Security Principal Consultant, has been invaluable in enabling the whole project to break new ground in website usage within Government. Chris and VEGA are an integral part of the team that is enabling the success of the website.”