Tuesday evening was a big one for HM Revenue & Customs chief information officer Steve Lamey. Not only was he honoured with an award from BASDA for promoting collaboration within the business software industry, it was also announced that he has been promoted to chief operating officer for the department. Alan Shipman and John Stokdyk report.

"It means I'll have a much wider remit to get involved in other areas as well as IT," said Lamey after receiving BASDA's Theo van Dort Award at the Business Software Satisfaction Awards ceremony in London.

The purpose of the award, explained BASDA chairman Kevin Hart, was to honour the person who had done the most to promote collaboration within the business software industry. On many occasions through the year, Lamey had "gone the extra mile" to make the taxman more responsive to software developers' needs.

For many people exasperated by HMRC online breakdowns and mishaps, Hart admitted that a government official might be a controversial choice for the award. But Lamey had consistently responded to the challenges raised by the software industry and represented its interests in the corridors of power.

One of the fruits of this collaboration was a better experience for the taxpayer, Hart told the audience. "He has recognised that their customers are our customers too," he said.

As HMRC's chief operating officer, Lamey will be able to continue "educating colleagues within the department about these benefits, and further encouraging them to include us in both policy and delivery forming discussions", Hart said.

Lamey moved from British Gas to become the tax department's first CIO shortly after the merger of HM Customs and the Inland Revenue in 2004 and has been responsible for integrating the two departments' myriad technology systems. The achievements noted in the BASDA award citation include the availability and increasing reliability of online PAYE year-end filing, CIS online filing and verification, and eVAT.

By supporting the more commercial approach to IT that has developed within the merged department, Lamey has played a key role in pushing forward HMRC's transformation agenda [1], which includes a £300 million-plus budget for new technology infrastructure. Lamey will work closely on this project with Deepak Singh, who takes over as CIO.

The Theo van Dort Award is named in honour of BASDA founder Theo van Dort, who succumbed to cancer in 2005. It was one of 20 awards presented at the 2007 Business Software Satisfaction Awards [2] organised by Sift Media with BASDA's support.