Directors respond to government IT strategy

Tough organisational changes will be the key to success

The Cabinet Office’s Transformational Government strategy will only have an impact if Whitehall faces up to the tough organisational implications, according to influential business groups.

The Institute of Directors (IoD) and the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) submitted a joint response last week to the draft strategy published by the eGovernment Unit (eGU) of the Cabinet Office in November.

The strategy aims to ensure government makes the most of technology to address challenges such as economic productivity and public service reform. The three central themes are the development of customer-oriented services, the use of shared administrative systems and the enhancement of the public sector IT profession.

The IoD and the IEE response endorses the principles of the strategy, but criticises the lack of detail and warns of the danger of focusing too much on technology rather than staffing issues and process change.

The organisations make a series of recommendations, which include increasing the focus on the non-technical aspects of business process change, improved requirement analysis for complex IT projects and greater transparency in the specification, design and implementation of public sector projects.

The response also recommends that the Gateway monitoring process, run by Whitehall’s buying agency the Office of Government Commerce, be expanded to include all people and business change elements, and realistic budgeting for this.

Jim Norton, senior policy adviser at the IoD, says both organisations will lobby at the highest levels in Whitehall to ensure that the agenda gets sufficient support.

‘The aims are laudable, but there is an awful lot of hard work to be done, particularly on issues such as accountability and budgeting, to take the strategy from an aspiration to a reality,’ said Norton.

‘The eGU understands this, but what is needed now is power. This will come down to backing from people such as the Cabinet Secretary.’