The reputation of IT-enabled business change projects in the public sector is on the line. The publication of the Strategy for Transformational Government by the eGovernment Unit earlier this month laid down a series of challenges for politicians, civil servants and IT suppliers (Computing, 10 November).
These are challenges that, if shirked, would undermine the role that IT will play in the delivery of public services.
Too often, critics claim that public sector IT projects cost more than planned and deliver little benefit. In reality, the projects that grab the headlines are mostly those that focus on introducing changes in the way people work – citizens accessing services and government employees providing them.
In such projects, IT is just one component; an understanding of the wider business change is often overlooked or, perhaps more worryingly, not understood.
As the public sector seeks to meet the demands of the Efficiency Review, this understanding of wider business change in the context of shared services gains importance.
Pure IT projects are delivered every day – upgrading PCs, networks and communications to do the same job as old kit, but faster, better and cheaper.
Such projects face problems, but only in the same way as other complex pieces of work in construction, engineering and high-tech development, such as Wembley Stadium, the Millennium Bridge and the Jubilee Line Extension – projects which are eventually considered successful. In comparison, projects of a similar scale are delivered successfully by the IT industry on a regular basis.
Huge improvements enabled by IT have been realised and possibly taken for granted in the public sector: new passport applications processed in four days; buying car tax without visiting a Post Office; and Land Registry searches completed in days rather than weeks.
Too often, large-scale changes in technology have failed to deliver the benefits envisaged because of over-simplification of the required changes, unrealistic expectations about the pace and project management failures.
IT has often worked in isolation from the business and other back-office functions. If the nature of change is to be better understood, IT needs to work collaboratively within and across organisations to support better-integrated solutions.
An open and effective relationship must be established as a platform for success during the procurement phase and throughout delivery. Intellect’s IT Supplier Code of Best Practice represents a respected platform on which supplier commitment can be assessed and rewarded by public sector customers.
Intellect’s Concept Viability service also demonstrates how early engagement can benefit government bodies. This service should become an integral part of activity designed to assess the market’s capacity and capability to deliver any given system within a given timeframe.
This commitment needs to be maintained over time, and care must be taken to ensure that political imperatives do not take precedence or override the commercial reality when it comes to delivery timescales.
Contractual agreements must be negotiated on the basis of partnership between the customer and supplier, and should avoid terms that distort the market, stifle innovation, unfairly burden the supplier with unrealistic levels of risk, and inadequately reward the supplier for success.
Intellect, recognising the progress that has been made with the establishment of the government CIO Council, is launching its own Public Sector Council to encourage small firms to compete effectively in the public sector marketplace.
This will provide a forum for the supplier community to discuss and disseminate collective views on issues such as the progress of the eGovernment Unit’s strategy and the status of customer-supplier relations.
Making such changes in government presents special challenges, and through bodies such as the Senior IT Forum, the value of co-operation between suppliers and customers has become apparent. But it is clear that more needs to be done.
John Higgins is director general of Intellect, the trade association for the UK high-tech industry
