Schemes to boost e-government

The public sector IT managers' group Socitm and technology industry association Intellect launched separate initiatives in February to pinpoint gaps in government IT policy, and suggest how e-government could be improved.

Socitm's e2Government programme is designed to promote efficient use of IT in local government. According to Socitm, current e-government initiatives focus too much on technology and improving access to services, while ignoring the need for back-office efficiencies.

"Every project should be approached with two things in mind - improving the service for the customers and making the service more efficient," said Glyn Evans, chair of Socitm's Information Age Government Group. "E-government is no different."

Evans also called on IT chiefs in the public sector to break down the barriers between business staff and IT departments.

"The business managers need to engage with their IT colleagues more and the IT managers need to talk the language of business managers more than they traditionally have done," Evans said.

Meanwhile, Intellect has revealed plans to develop an "Intellect Index" framework, to identify gaps in the way government assesses technology, and to help it shape its policies for the knowledge economy.

Intellect also hopes to identify a range of new indicators that the government should consider in its technology plans.

Beatrice Rogers, senior programme manager of the index, argued that the government often measures the wrong things; or measures the right things but inconsistently or with large time gaps, rendering the resulting figures misleading.

"The general consensus is that government policy does not react quickly enough," commented Rogers. "Measurements inform policy, so if we measure the wrong things then we can't create the right environment to compete in this fast-changing global economy."

Rogers argued that government often fails to fully grasp the business potential of IT. "There seems to be a lack of understanding of the importance of IT in facilitating all industries to provide high-value goods, services and knowledge so we can compete globally."

Intellect is undertaking an analysis of gaps in the government's current data collection processes. It will publish the first index findings this autumn in collaboration with the Institute of Directors.