Finding a smart path to digital transformation in the public sector

The challenges facing public sector IT are not existing systems; rather, it is the legacy approaches to how IT initiatives are planned, implemented and managed

Sometimes it feels as though efficiency and modernisation are at opposite ends of a spectrum of public sector IT strategies. At one extreme, those that are completely focused on efficiency may be inclined to avoid investment in major transformation projects for fear of public criticism, concentrating instead on IT consolidation to reduce costs on behalf of taxpayers. This may be perceived as a risk averse approach at a time when public sector IT needs a radical shake-up.

At the other end of the spectrum, however, there is total focus on modernisation with organisations undertaking massive, complex implementations under the belief that moving away from existing in-house systems is the only way to achieve transformation. Such an approach has led to well-publicised examples of failure and wasted taxpayer money.

In reality, there are ways to achieve both efficiency and modernisation goals in public sector IT strategies, without compromising on quality of the end goals, but it requires a smart path to digital transformation that is neither overly conservative or excessively disruptive.

This is important as the public sector has many challenges ahead, including the need to automate more back-office and citizen-facing systems using AI, enhance strategies for hybrid work, and increase the adoption of collaboration tools and analytics capabilities to be more responsive to the public.

Optimisation vs integration

A key start point for change is ensuring organisations have a single view of the data across all their systems. Without such a clear picture, organisations may automate processes and decision making based on incomplete information. Many believe this requires robust and comprehensive data integration, which can be difficult to achieve in large central government departments that have adopted and customised applications over many years. And it becomes even harder when multiple agencies want to share information across various social, healthcare and justice systems. Optimisation, on the other hand, offers a lower risk, more cost-effective mechanism to ensure applications can interoperate and talk to one another, and enable gradual change. Using existing applications in conjunction with tools such as APIs can enable interoperability without the wholesale change of moving to SaaS equivalents of in-house applications.

Demand transparency to avoid vendor ‘pea soup'

Longer-term, many public sector bodies will adopt some mix of cloud services as a key enabler of transformation. Having applications in the cloud can give organisations greater flexibility to scale and change application functionality. It also enables more sophisticated and predictive analytics and the use of artificial intelligence to pre-empt demand for services. Once organisations arrive at this destination, though, they face other challenges such as how to support hybrid cloud environments when in-house applications are operating alongside private and public cloud applications, as is often the case. This complexity has the potential to create a "pea soup" of work and vendor mix, which adds to complexity and creates inefficiencies that the traditional in-house environment is often spared.

It was telling that the NAO warned there was a real need for "transparency and honesty" from both Whitehall and technology vendors when it comes to examining the causes of project failure. Perhaps such an attitude of accountability be extended specifically to the debate around efficiency and modernisation of public sector IT. For example, those who implement enterprise applications and adopt software vendor support should question the return for the substantial fees associated with that support to ensure that the achieved goals are commensurate with the investment. In understanding this equation, it may be wise to consider third-party support services, a simple yet important measure towards greater efficiency, frequently at 50 per cent reduction in the fees. Furthermore, central and local governments would be wise to use this benchmark to review its small handful of vendors, as this reliance raises questions about value for money and also can hinder how effectively and quickly organisations can evolve.

The fact is that honest discussions should start at the planning stage. If organisations are planning modernisation projects they must start from the point of asking, "What value will this bring to the organisation?" Upgrading to a SaaS business application, for example, should have a clear link to solving fundamental operational or organisational issues, while also assuring the total costs of these changes make good business sense.

Efficiency and modernisation

The challenges facing public sector IT are not existing systems; rather, it is the legacy approaches to how IT initiatives are planned, implemented and managed. Modernisation usually only happens if we enable more flexibility in how organisations optimise, evolve and transform their IT systems.

As Gareth Davies, Comptroller & Auditor General, NAO, said: "There has been a consistent pattern of underperformance in delivering digital business change, often resulting from decisions on technology being taken too early, before the business problem is properly understood…"

Above all, organisations should be more challenging of decisions at every stage of the process so that efficiency and modernisation are optimised by a smart, well thought path to transformation. This way, public sector bodies can engage in more timely, healthy debates with vendors about how best to drive efficiencies that deliver value to the taxpayer, while still enabling the modernisation that citizens increasingly expect from public sector organisations. Organisations that map out their journeys to modernisation through the lens of ‘optimise, evolve and transform' will be best placed to balance these aims and achieve more. Working with the right expert partners, organisations can progress steadily through key stages, minimising disruption and managing cost implications, as they embark on their smart path to transformation.

Mike Cattermole is public sector director at Rimini Street