Recent pronouncements that government IT exists in the dark ages, coupled with several high profile IT failures, are a cause for real concern. But we should look carefully at the underlying causes of these IT failures before spending billions more.
The UK Government realised 10 years ago that it was not best placed to develop the complex IT that it needs. It has since largely out-sourced its IT departments, giving the IT industry the responsibility for designing and building systems. In the meantime, government has focused on managing these large contracts and adapting its staff and processes to use new systems. In both these regards, it can be argued to have done a respectable job.
We should rather therefore, challenge the major suppliers of government IT. Why, when designing solutions for government, is the outcome consistently the same: large, monolithic systems, that take years (and often billions of pounds) to develop, and fail to keep pace with changing requirements?
An appropriate investment in IT could and should underpin a dramatic improvement in the quality of public services. But this can happen only when government is better served by its IT partners. This means smaller, flexible, more modular systems; use of packages; faster development times; work to connect isolated networks; and creating the ability to share information around government. It shouldn’t matter who owns it.
