Jim Murphy, the cabinet minister in charge of e-government, told a London conference that IT can generate huge efficiencies, but Government must be vigilant not to “wastefully duplicate infrastructure and applications.” After witnessing how IT can help small businesses, the disadvantaged and the young, Mr Murhpy said technology in the public sector must make a real difference to people's everyday lives.
“There’s a lesson for Government there,” the minister said, reflecting on his UK-wide tour of how IT is bringing benefits to Britons.
“[To] help them deal with their issues, meet their deadlines and to feel valued. IT can only do that by being customer centric. And that requires transformation of our public service.”
Murphy said the improving performance of IT in the public sector is worthy of celebration - over three quarters of Government services are now online – but acknowledged that young people found Government websites wordy, clunky and even clumsy.
Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, has supported Murphy’s assertion that more needs to be done to improve IT in the sector, yet she highlights computerisation has already kick-started a cull of 80,000 civil servants posts using “unsung vital systems.”
Speaking post-conference, Mr Murphy elaborated on his “new approach to joined-up service delivery across the public sector,” by explaining that a Government IT strategy to cover the next 10 years will be published later this month.
He said a system of portfolios would usher in fresh controls on IT suppliers that would stretch across all contracts they have with Government, rather than the current system where each one is scrutinised individually, The Financial Times reports.
For the future, Government would shift towards the phased introduction of projects underlined by a focus on more strategic roll-outs, away from the fanfare of project commencement dates that fosters a false expectation of instant delivery.
Moreover, the new strategy would demonstrate the Government’s willingness to cancel contracts with suppliers even after investment had begun.
Such a move, Murphy said, represented a change of tact from the Government’s former approach that dictated - “if you’ve started and put money in, then you just keep going.”
“The government is committed to putting the citizen at heart of public services,” Murphy told the conference. “Not the provider, the producer, the department, the agency or council.”
The strategy is also expected to incorporate objectives set out by Ian Watmore’s CIO Council by pledging a “real step change in IT professionalism across the public sector,” the minister said.
Murphy supported the fostering of professionalism throughout public projects, but conceded too often public sector IT professionals have a series of jobs, rather than a career path.
Quelle: Contractor UK, 12.10.2005
