Beyond e-government: UK launches a new IT strategy

By Eric Woods

The UK government has launched its new IT strategy in a document entitled 'Transformational government: enabled by technology'. While the strategy addresses specific issues facing the UK public sector, it also highlights important trends that are relevant to other countries as well.

The document is not so much an IT strategy as a manifesto for the changes needed if the public sector is to harness the potential of technology effectively. As such, it is an impressive review of the challenges and demands facing the public sector, as it struggles to deliver a modernisation agenda that is increasingly technology dependent.

At its heart are three core themes - the need for a new generation of technology-enabled, citizen-focused services, the need for greater professionalisation of public sector IT, and the value of shared services.

The focus on a new generation of citizen-focused services, and the need for a transformational agenda, reflects a general recognition that the push to online services has delivered limited benefits to citizens. The next stage in e-government requires a more radical re-engineering of public services and the structure of government.

The emphasis on professionalisation is perhaps a more UK-specific issue - and aims to addresses long-standing concerns over the UK's ability to manage large-scale public sector ICT projects. As ICT becomes central to an ever-wider range of public services, continued failure to address this issue is not an option. It is also in line with broader changes to civil service culture, which will see much more demand for those with specific skills and professional experience rather than generalists. Improvements in the management of supplier relationships also come under the professionalistion theme.

However, it is the emphasis placed on shared services that may be the most significant element of the strategy for the supplier community and to public sector workers. The aim is to transform the provision of corporate services such as HR and finance from a series of siloed applications into a limited number of standardised processes and solutions supporting a wide range of organisations and departments through shared service centres. The shared services programme has the potential to deliver significant efficiency savings, but it is also a major re-engineering challenge in its own right; one that will require fundamental changes in the way government works.

The overall success and value of the strategy, however, will depend on all three elements being given equal and sufficient support across government. New levels of service will be necessary to gain public approval - but they can only be delivered efficiently and effectively if the engine of government (including its ICT capability) is itself modernised.

Eric is responsible for directing Ovum's research into government IT issues, providing advice to our government and public sector clients, and supporting our services to software and IT services companies targeting the government market. He is the Service Director of PublicSector@Ovum.