For Tech’s Sake?
Dave Baldwin, 22/01/2010, posted in "Analysis"
Dave Baldwin is Managing Director of Getronics UK and Ireland. He has worked in the ICT industry for over 15 years, primarily with major private sector companies in the ...more info
Dave Baldwin is Managing Director of Getronics UK and Ireland. He has worked in the ICT industry for over 15 years, primarily with major private sector companies in the retail, telecoms and financial services markets. Dave's career started on the development side, having studied electronic and computer engineering in Birmingham, but after a few years of large systems development it was time for a change and he moved into client management at ICL, where his focus was enhancing IT support and development services. When ICL was bought by Fujitsu, Dave led the transformation of the field support and logistics capabilities to become a world class capability both in terms of service quality and efficiency. After a brief spell as Regional Managing Director of Chubb Fire, Dave re-joined Fujitsu Services to lead their largest customer in the private sector – Royal Mail Group, from which he went on to lead their retail business (2005 – 2008). He joined Getronics in the summer of 2008 for a fresh and renewed challenge, taking the helm of a major provider of ICT solutions to clients across the UK and Ireland. ...less info
The subject of public sector ICT is back on the national media’s radar. The Independent has outlined the results of its investigation into the cost of what it says are “a series of botched IT projects” across Government.
The targets set by the Operational Efficiency Programme (OEP) Report last year are challenging, but if they are to be met there needs to be significant change to how public sector ICT is procured and delivered.
If an additional £7.2 billion in efficiency savings from back office/IT functions is to be delivered as part of the OEP, then Government needs to embrace the opportunity to work with progressive delivery partners outside its traditional sphere of operations. There needs to be wholesale change in thinking amongst all involved in the delivery of ICT projects in the public sector – from civil servants themselves, through to their private sector delivery partners.
Crucially, the application of technology must be inextricably tied to the business outcomes that each government department and agency is set. In this regard the public sector in Holland can be used as an example of how to do things, where an overarching layer of business architecture identifies the issues that need to be tackled, and guides the mapping of business outcomes to the appropriate technology.
This may not be the newest and most topical tech, but by mapping business objectives to the most appropriate ICT solutions, you reduce the chance of project failure by ensuring that technology is the means, not the end. If one lesson needs to be learned from these perceived ‘IT failures’, it should be that technology for the sake of technology is not a solution, just another problem.
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