Govt ICT - the industry reacts

Some of the UK's leading industry bodies have responded to the National Audit Office's report in the current ICT landscape in government, with some welcoming the report and others urging caution over the focus on value for money from contracts and procurement.

Sureyya Cansoy, director of public sector at Intellect, the trade association for the UK's technology sector said, "The report is a very useful snapshot of the current landscape and the challenges ahead.  We welcome the NAO's recognition of the important roles that information and technology play in delivering better and more efficient public services, increasing social mobility and driving economic growth."

"Public service reform should be focused on value, not just on lowest cost.  The NAO's approach supports this and we look forward to working with them to collectively address the challenges they have set out."

"The National Outsourcing Association welcomes the proposed approach by the National Audit Office for its Landscape Review of ICT in government," commented Adrian Quayle, board member, the National Outsourcing Association (NOA). "We would also welcome an early dialogue with the National Audit Office Study leader, Dr Sally Howes. We would strongly recommend that the NAO review tracks and learns from long term relationships that have genuinely delivered value for money and those that have not.

"Furthermore, we believe that the NAO should seek evidence of the benefits arising from genuinely collaborative business relationships.  We would hope that this study would identify how many Senior Responsible Owners in government are trained in, and working to, the industry best practices of collaborative business relationships set out for example, in the new British Standard BS11000."

Emma Watkins, head of public services policy at the CBI, said, "Making better use of information technology could boost the efficiency of our public services, while reaping big savings for taxpayers."

"There are many good examples of how technology is improving public service delivery. From giving midwives handheld devices so that they can access patient records on the move, to installing emergency alarms in the homes of older people, allowing them to live independently for longer," she added.

Watkins warned however that, "While it's right to focus on getting value for money from contracts and procurement, imposing a moratorium on IT modernisation could mean we are missing out on the potential benefits that making better use of technology can deliver."

"The National Audit Office report raises some issues that are public sector specific, such as the interminable procurement processes that buyers and suppliers have to wade through. These will have to change dramatically if we are to move to a modern Cloud-enabled ICT delivery model," commented Dr Katy Ring, director of research analysts, K2 Advisory.

"However, many issues mentioned are equally applicable to many other industry sectors in the UK: for example, is there really a widespread understanding of the use of business intelligence tools in the private sector? K2 Advisory is aware of many commercial organisations that don't drive their business development via "best practice" BI tooling. Furthermore, most people can probably think of many awful private sector online interfaces (anyone 100% happy with their mobile phone provider website, for example) and some very good government ones eg: HMRC online tax return service. And many local authorities also have excellent online service request capabilities."

Ring concluded, "The NAO report is a useful polemic to drive change in a set of public sector bodies that must be accountable for the money they spend. But, just to keep a grip on reality, the ICT use in many private sector bodies would not appear much better if put under such scrutiny. And, by the way, in the UK the majority of organisations, public or private, do not have a CIO sitting on the Board which has implications for understanding the strategic business use of ICT."  

A spokesperson for the BCS - The Chartered Institute for IT, said, "The report is an honest appraisal of the current ICT situation within government; we welcome the particular emphasis on value and the recognition of ICT as of fundamental importance for public sector reform."