Mike Bracken: Government must stop ‘stumbling into’ digital dependence

Decades of disconnected procurement choices have created digital dependence. What can CIOs do about it?

Digital sovereignty is no longer a niche policy concern. Decades of procurement decisions have left organisations dependent on a small number of tech suppliers. As AI reshapes the market, CIOs have an opportunity to make deliberate choices about technology partnerships and control.

Decades of outsourcing “orthodoxy” in government have left the global public sector dependent on a handful of major suppliers, creating markets that have hardened into near-monopolies.

The UK has been one of the “most slavish” adherents to this philosophy, says Mike Bracken, founder of the heralded Government Digital Service and Gov.uk. That hasn’t necessarily worked in our favour. In particular, as geopolitics shifts, “some of those legacy relationships now look less ideal,” actively harming attempts to achieve digital sovereignty.

Mike defines digital sovereignty as the ability of governments and organisations to decide where they retain control, where they partner and where they accept dependence.

This situation has emerged from “a bunch of uncoordinated policy and procurement decisions” that have accumulated over decades rather than any deliberate strategy. In fact, Mike puts most the blame on the lack of a coordinated approach.

“We haven't designed [procurement choices] in the UK and many other countries. We've just sort of stumbled into them as a series of quite tactical but very large procurement and policy decisions made in different parts of government.

“We've not had an overall strategy, and we've ended up where we are: with some successes, some failures, but mostly...in a position that we haven't designed the current landscape around us. So now we have an opportunity to do that.”

How decades of procurement shaped digital dependence

While accepting that everyone depends on each other to one extent or another, it is possible to build dependencies intelligently and stop drifting into the disconnected procurement choices that have defined the last three decades.

Instead, governments can begin deliberately deciding where they want control, where they want partnerships and where dependence on others remains acceptable.

“The best time to take that opportunity was 30 years ago. The next best time is tomorrow,” says Mike. “Recent geopolitical events...have really thrust that into the near view and into sharp focus.”

Mike and I talked on the same day Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch announced plans for an “Iron Dome for Britain.” He said this was an example of an area where policies can change quickly, and where “we need the ability to act.”

What tools can CIOs use to reduce dependence?

Being dependent on a network of different stakeholders is the antithesis of being able to respond quickly and reactively. To even start to solve that, organisations – whether public or private – must start to think about their short-, medium- and long-term capability to react.

In his new book, Digital Sovereignty: The Power to Decide, Mike argues that there are a range of tools available to CIOs in procurement-led organisations. Although he focuses on the public sector, several apply to for-profit companies as well.

For example, IT leaders can look to use or even build digital public infrastructure. This could be open source or a specific national system that becomes an industry standard (admittedly easiest for governments). Examples include India's Aadhaar centralised ID system, Brazil's Pix payment platform or the UK's mass-messaging Notify tool.

Standards and requirements can also become a string for your bow, forcing suppliers to shape themselves around your needs – although, this is easiest for very large firms or those in industries where every company demands the same approach.

Finally, procurement – using investments, stimulus and capital access to "aggressively shape markets" – can be your ally. Mike says the UK government is already "starting to use that muscle" with its sovereign AI approach. Private sector CIOs can do the same on a smaller scale.

"A combination of those [tools]...are the right levers to engineer and design the dependence and the relationships that you want – but not using those levers, not being aware of those levers, and instead just thinking everything is a procurement exercise is going to lead to much more of the same."

AI demands a different procurement approach

This is where the discussion swings back to AI. The technology is a capability accelerator, but it is not only speeding up "the challenges, pressures and opportunities" organisations face – it is its own emerging market.

"We can't approach AI as a different set of technologies. It's a different emerging market in the way that we approached, in the UK, adoption of a procurement-led outsourcing approach in the mid 90s.

"That would be a wholly inappropriate response from our government to a different technological phenomenon."

As you choose the partners and tools that could define the next 30 years consider whether you are making those choices deliberately and strategically, or if you are once again stumbling into accidental dependence.