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The Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) has announced its merger with The Charity IT Resource Alliance (CITRA), a non-profit membership organisation supporting IT professionals in the third sector.

From Jan 1^st, 2009 CITRA’s members will automatically become Socitm members and have access to all the membership benefits available to Socitm members, including a broad range of national and regional events and an established professional development programme.

As part of the merger, David Clayden, Director of Strategic Information at The Salvation Army and a CITRA board member will join the Socitm board. The CITRA brand will continue to be used by a new Third Sector Special Interest Group that will operate within Socitm.

Speaking about the merger, Adrian Hancock, Socitm's Managing Director said 'This merger responds directly to the growing need for collaboration between the Third Sector and local and national government. It also comes at a time when the Society is transforming its ability to support professional development for its membership, not least in response to the Government’s IT Profession agenda.

John Tate, Chair of CITRA said ' We estimate that the Third Sector spends in excess of £750m annually on ICT and the sector needs skilled IT professionals to ensure that we are exploiting all of the potential benefits that technology can bring to our work.  This merger provides a superb opportunity to support the development of the sector’s IT capability.'

Further information:

Vicky Sargent or Rob Adams, Socitm Press Office
email: vicky.sargent@socitm.gov.uk or rob.adams@socitm.gov.uk
Tel: 0845 094 5641