This strategy sets out the direction for Government ICT through to 2020. It will not be delivered by bodies such as the CIO Council or central departments such as Cabinet Office of HM Treasury. It will be delivered and implemented through individual public sector organisations who want to exploit the infrastructure available to them to enable delivery of their business plans and objectives. It is therefore critical that the delivery structures of the strategy (governance) reflect the needs and experiences of front-line delivery organisations.
The CIO Council have agreed a governance structure that merges CIO Council lead, central Government input (Cabinet Office), Commercial expertise (a public sector representative from the OGC Collaborative Category Board), Technical expertise (nominated by the CTO Council) and a Delivery lead from a public sector organisation. This will provide all public sector bodies with the opportunity to shape and develop the implementation of the ICT strategy to ensure that solutions never lose sight of the need for improved public services as well as increased efficiency. It will also ensure that local requirements and the need for flexibility are not overtaken by a ‘one size fits all’ approach that will negatively impact service delivery. In order for the strategy to fully deliver its potential, CIOc will work with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and its partners to promote and embed lasting improvements to ICT across the public sector. This will mean working initially with the Local Government CIO Council (LCIOC) and the Local Government Association (LGA) to develop a shared vision for public sector ICT to enable local authorities to align with Government’s ICT strategy for the wider public sector.
This is a substantial strategy for Government. Transforming services against a backdrop of such economic pressure, requires leadership and a fundamental change in the way we specify, procure and deliver ICT to the public sector. This strategy provides the means to achieve the benefits outlined above. CIOs and their businesses will implement the strategy and provide transformed ICT, that supports and enables the public sector to meet its core aim of improving the lives of the citizens and businesses it is here to serve.
“This strategy sets out the direction for Government ICT through to 2020. It will not be delivered by bodies such as the CIO Council or central departments such as Cabinet Office of HM Treasury. It will be delivered and implemented through individual public sector organisations who want to exploit the infrastructure available to them to enable delivery of their business plans and objectives. It is therefore critical that the delivery structures of the strategy (governance) reflect the needs and experiences of front-line delivery organisations.”
This is fluent gibberish hybridised with resposibility-offloading. “Here is a ridiculous strategy – if it isn’t implemented it is the fault of the departments”.
And the real tragedy? Whatever they come up with will be out-of-date before it’s rolled out.
iBRIX
The opening paragraph of this section is pretty much fur coat and no knickers. Considerable amounts of support and enthusiasm, but also inertia, friction and temporary resistance will occur in the array of organisations outside the CIO Council and the central departments quoted above. If this is supposed to be a strategy that delivers, rather than a set of aspirations and influences, it needs a dirigiste backbone. Otherwise how are the assertions about savings justified?
“It will be delivered and implemented through individual public sector organisations who want to exploit the infrastructure available to them to enable delivery of their business plans and objectives.”
So… We ain’t gonna make anybody do anything we said, so we have very little chance of anyone doing anything different. Consider this all a giant waste of time. Move along.
This is largely warm words, but the idea of all good things coming from a central committee does not really bear examination. In the first instance, IT and IT governance must align to the business at hand, and there has to be a well-designed trade-off between getting the job done for individual business functions and applying uniform standards. Having read this section several times, I cannot figure out how this is going to be achieved, or even if the concept is accepted. They could at least have given us a structure diagram in order to aid understanding.
It is all very well to say that ‘one size fits all’ approaches are incorrect but the document to this point is pretty much that, with no acceptance of the diversity of government business.
The report appears to be written by some clueless bureaucrat who can use cut and paste and the obligatory buzzword generator…
This is a serious issue and demands the attention of people competent to deal with the matter.
My blog of 11 Feb 2009 covered the Government’s lamentable track record on IT…
http://www.itpreport.com/default.asp?Mode=Show&A=1839&R=GL
And a comment on Web 2.0
http://www.itpreport.com/default.asp?Mode=Show&A=1906&R=GL
“CIOs and their businesses will implement the strategy and provide transformed ICT, that supports and enables the public sector to meet its core aim of improving the lives of the citizens and businesses it is here to serve.”
Will they? Why should they? What’s in it for them?
Oh – right – I see – so how much will it cost us?
A Central Committee — sounds ominous.
But does the committee have any clout, can they hire and fire departmental heads who choose to go their own way and ignore the strategy.
Does anybody have anything on their Personnel Management Plan for the year that says we will move 50% of our apps to G-Cloud ? Without that motivation why would they change behavior ?
Merging applications to achieve the goals laid out in the earlier sections will be at odds with some of the other department objectives, how do they plan on reconciling those conflicts?