The 5th E-Government Exchange: views from the front line

Eric Woods, Research Director

In November 2005, the Ovum Public Sector team took part in the 5th E-Government Exchange, organised by IQPC. As part of our involvement we have produced a report on the proceedings, which is available in PublicSector@Ovum. Here Eric Woods summarises some of the key messages we took from the workshops and presentations.

Transformation: the over-arching theme

The over-arching theme of the 2005 E-Government Exchange was the need for a transformation in the way the public sector conducts business if efficiency and service delivery targets are to be met. The chairperson set the scene by calling for a bolder approach to the business process re-engineering tasks that need to be faced. This was a message picked up by many presenters and participants during the rest of the conference.

Transformational government may be the buzzword of the moment, but it also accurately represents the principal challenge that many, if not all, public sector organisations feel they are facing.

A practical not a theoretical challenge

Terms such as transformation are often presented as abstract or idealised concepts, far removed from the reality of public sector life. This leads to a sceptical response as to their value in actually improving services on the ground. Encouragingly, most discussions at the conference managed to steer a path between the extremes of idealism and scepticism.

Participants were largely experienced and battle-hardened public sector managers and professionals, who see the potential for delivering better and more efficient services but are also well aware of the challenges they face. There was broad agreement on the need for business change programmes, but also recognition and frustration as to how difficult it is to break away from inefficient, siloed ways of working.

Discussions therefore focused on practical ways forward for the public sector. Determined, high-level leadership was seen as essential, as was recognition that organisational and cultural change are the real issues not technology. But as well as these widely accepted basic principles, there were suggestions for practical steps to overcome organisational inertia, including:

· using a shared version of a citizen-focused organisation as a means of building common values and objectives - 'The customer is at the centre of everything we do.' (Liverpool)

· the promotion of a business, rather than technology, focus for major projects: 'We do not have IT projects anymore. We have business transformation projects that may or may not be enabled by IT.' (Birmingham)

· the use of new budget models to break-down barriers to co-operation

· the formation of cross-function and multi-skilled teams to drive change at different levels of the organisation

· new methods for benefits realisation - including ways of addressing the thorny issue of cross-department or cross-organisational benefits

· new types of partnership with suppliers to help drive change.

Our write-up of the proceedings documents these discussions in more detail, but it is worth focusing on the final point in more detail.

The view on suppliers

The role of software and IT service suppliers - particularly in relation to outsourcing or transformation - was raised many times at the Exchange. This partly reflects the fact that effective and flexible supplier management is becoming an increasingly important requirement across the public sector (though one that some delegates felt was still under-recognised).

There were inevitable discussions about the challenges of working with and managing suppliers, but there was also a considerable focus on the important role they can play in achieving ambitious transformation goals. Third-party suppliers were seen as particularly valuable in their ability to:

· extend available skills and capacity

· offer flexibility in financing change programmes

· enable efficiencies of scale.

A number of case studies were given of successful service and technology offerings that have helped organisations improve efficiency and/or meet service targets. A close alignment of the supplier's offering with the business drivers of the organisation was a common factor across many of these examples.

We heard of innovative transformation partnerships in local and central government, but also smaller projects that were also making a real contribution. A specialist HR consultancy, for example, was lauded for the help it provided to a large authority preparing for shared services. There were also examples of information management and CRM projects that were reducing costs and improving productivity.

The most positive stories typically reflected the establishment of a strong and flexible partnership between customer and supplier. It was clear that where software and IT services (S/ITS) suppliers can bring recognised and valuable assets to meeting priority goals, both local and central government continue to appreciate their contribution.

On the other side, there was a concern that too often external consultants had not helped organisations move down the path to transformation and business change. It is hard to know if this reflects false expectations on behalf of the client, or a lack of true commitment on the supply-side to addressing their problems. A mixture of the two is most likely. Similar opprobrium followed suppliers who were seen as eager to deliver technology but showed little commitment to helping organisations realise real business value.

Alignment: the key to success

The workshops and discussions at the Exchange showed that the pubic sector remains keen to work with ICT suppliers who can offer partnership and shared responsibility. But consulting and technology projects that don't deliver realisable value are seen as a waste of investment and resources.

What participants at the conference expect - and welcome - is suppliers that can align themselves and their offerings to the business goals facing specific organisations. It is those suppliers who will continue to succeed in the public sector, even as efficiency savings bite deep.

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.