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Elliott identified that one of the biggest difficulties faced by young homeless people is keeping personal information required to access housing, employment, health and other services safe from theft or loss.

The Virtual Rucksack is a system that will act as a central store for their key personal records for their key personal records and documents. The service will also contain

"Too often IT professionals are seen as the uncreative boring people in an organisation, hopefully my entry will challenge this stereotype," said Elliott. "My design will provide tangible benefits to the services which St Basils is able to provide. IT people are able to deliver real insight when they work on genuine business problems."

In winning Microsoft's competition, Elliott was given a £15,000 reward to put his idea into practice. Microsoft's Design IT initiative is designed to highlight and celebrate the creative and positive contributions made by IT professionals outside their usual parameters to help a charity.

"We know that IT professionals are asked to solve problems on a daily basis, and we wanted to recognise this," said Bruce Lynn, head of the server business group at Microsoft. "Microsoft believes it has a responsibility to encourage and recognise talent within the industry."