Intellect launched a suite of important initiatives at yesterday’s Cabinet Office Supplier conference: “The Crown and Suppliers: A New Way of Working”. The initiatives are designed to provide government with better access to the tech market and help with government’s drive to improve ICT and commercial skills in government. This is in recognition of the fact that government is going to great lengths to seize the potential of technology to reform public services, and the technology industry and Intellect, as the industry’s trade association, are keen to proactively help drive that agenda forward.

The conference itself was very well attended with around 800 people registered, many from the private sector (cross-industry) with some key public sector delegates in the audience as well.  With an excellent line-up of speakers, Francis Maude, Joe Harley, Liam Maxwell, John Collington Ian Watmore, Phil Pavitt, Bill Crothers and many more, the event sought to provide delegates with a better understanding of government’s procurement, commercial and ICT agendas and an insight into government’s future potential contracting pipeline.

The highlight of the conference for us was three of the key names in government ICT flagging up the Intellect initiatives I have mentioned above in their speeches: the Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, The Government CIO Joe Harley, and the Director of ICT Futures, Liam Maxwell. (more…)

Technorati Tags: Government ICT, Government ICT Strategy, industry government working together, Intellect market access and skills

I have spent the day looking at the Public Administration Select Committee report on Government and IT, which was published this morning (which was difficult to miss given that it was reported by BBC and the broadsheets). My first observation was that it carried unfortunately a very negative title – ‘Government and IT – “a recipe for rip-offs”: time for a new approach’, which seemed to have been designed to grab the headlines. And it did just that! It is, therefore, not surprising that the press coverage of the report has been largely negative of government ICT and the industry.

However, I want to look at the positives of the report, before attempting to address some of the heavy-handed comments the committee has made.

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Technorati Tags: cartel, Government ICT, IT procurement, oligopoly, PASC, Public Administration Select Committee

Tonight, our director general John Higgins will be speaking at the launch of ‘System Reset: Transforming public services through IT’. This paper by the Confederation of British Industry shows a number of examples where IT has been deployed successfully in the public and private sectors as a facilitator of change. The unique part is that this is the wider business community acknowledging the valuable role for technology in public service reform. I feel that this really underlines the fact that technology is now just part of good business.

This happily coincides with the publication of the government’s Open Public Services white paper today, in which technology gets some explicit mentions but is also implicit behind the government’s moves to new service delivery models. At the launch of the paper, it was perhaps unsurprising that the Q&A with the Prime Minister was dominated by the phone hacking scandal. But over the coming days and months we look forward to examining in much greater detail how technology can be used to facilitate the move to open public services.

Technorati Tags: Government ICT, open public services

“Green, Lean, Machine” were the three words that one speaker used to summarise the Government’s ambitions for ICT at the Intellect Government ICT Strategy event held on Wednesday afternoon at the BIS Conference Centre. Another speaker went for “provocative, ambitious & dynamic”.

The event was designed to give our members greater insight into the strategy, its implications for government departments, and the opportunities and challenges it might create for the technology industry. There were over 120 industry representatives in attendance and government CIO Joe Harley and Mark O’Neill, the CIO from DCLG, were among the speakers.

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Technorati Tags: Government ICT Strategy

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee today published a report on public procurement & innovation. We submitted a written response to the committee back in December and have been eagerly waiting for the conclusions of the inquiry. We are pleased to see that the committee has recognised some of the key points we highlighted in our submission. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight three of our key arguments:

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Technorati Tags: Innovation, procurement, Public Sector, SMEs

The importance of getting government ICT right was explored once more this week, as Intellect gave evidence at the Public Administration Select Committee’s second evidence session of its inquiry into the Government’s use of ICT. I was joined by Janet Grossman, Intellect’s Public Sector Council Chair to represent the industry position. Also on the panel were David Clarke MBE, CEO of the British Computing Society and Martin Rice, CEO of Erudine, a small IT company who are also Intellect members.

The key points discussed included the role of large companies versus SMEs in the public sector marketplace, agile development, skills, open source and public sector procurement. Intellect sought to highlight the importance of focussing on business needs and outcomes first, before deciding on what technology solutions can help achieve those outcomes. This is in line with our key message around government ICT which we have been setting out for more than a decade.

We acknowledged that there have been mistakes made in the past, but made clear that industry is eager to do its bit to help government improve its use of ICT. Change can only be achieved if government and industry work collectively. I would now like to expand on some of those points that were discussed at the hearing.

Helping smaller companies and new entrants
We recognise that the current environment makes it difficult for SMEs to do business with government. Opening up public sector business to different types of organisations – especially SMEs, as well as social enterprises and charities, is clearly a high priority for the Government. We attended the SME summit hosted by David Cameron and Francis Maude at the Treasury last month, where a number of initiatives were announced to make it easier for SMEs to do business with the public sector.

As over 60% of our members are SMEs, we strongly support this agenda. However, we are also strong advocates of the creation of a diverse ecosystem. The best results for government can be achieved through a broad ecosystem of different suppliers doing different things, including large and small companies. A public sector market that attracts a range of suppliers, large and small, will have added benefits in that it will lead to increased investment and the creation of more jobs in the UK.

Improving procurement
One of the biggest barriers for SMEs and new entrants to the public sector market is the cost and length of procurement in the UK. Procurement of a major project or programme takes an average of 77 weeks in the UK, as opposed to 40 weeks in Germany. Bidding for a major procurement can cost millions of pounds to suppliers which clearly hinders many SMEs. By making procurement simpler, faster and cheaper, government can open up the market to many new players, including SMEs. Intellect has worked closely with the government for many years on reforming the procurement process. However, many of the good ideas that have been jointly developed have not yet been fully rolled out across the public sector.

One of the key elements to successful procurement is early engagement with key stakeholders and particularly with the supplier community before the start of the formal procurement process. Intellect’s Concept Viability is a service that does just that. This enables public sector customers to consult with a broad range of experts from the technology industry before the launch of a procurement. It helps the customer assess the potential risks associated with a specific project before committing to a particular approach. Concept Viability has been used for over 80 public sector projects and is recommended by the National Audit Office.

Open source and open standards
Open source should be used where it makes best business sense, where it provides best value for money and where it delivers the best solution and outcome. Innovation and value for money can be derived from both open source and licensed software business models. But even more important in this debate is the need for open standards. Open standards are fundamental in ensuring that systems mesh together across government and enable greater interoperability.

Intellect is looking forward to working closely with our members, both large and small, and with government to ensure that technology is used more effectively by the public sector in future. And we hope that the next time we are invited to give evidence to a select committee, it is to share the lessons learned from the successful use of ICT by government!

Technorati Tags: Government ICT, Open source, open standards, PASC, procurement, Public Administration Select Committee, SMEs in government

The Institute for Government (IFG) launched its eagerly awaited report on Government ICT on Wednesday last week. Within a day of release, it was already the most downloaded report on the IFG website which highlights the level of interest in the way government makes use of technology.

I was at the launch event and was struck by the sheer size of the audience which was well over 120. There were a lot of familiar faces in attendance from the civil service, the ICT industry, a variety of trade associations and from the press. Ian Watmore and Mark O’Neill gave speeches and the likes of Bill McCluggage, Tom Steinberg and Annette Vernon acted as members of the taskforce which provided guidance throughout the development of the study.

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Technorati Tags: Government ICT, Ian Watmore, Institute for Government

Last Friday’s SME Strategic Supplier Summit held at the Treasury was a highly anticipated event and was considered as a key milestone for many SMEs who have historically struggled to gain public sector business. The summit was attended by around 100 delegates and included representatives from a variety of SMEs, other industry associations as well as those in the voluntary sector. There were also a number of senior government officials present including Ian Watmore, Katherine Davidson, Sally Collier, John Collington and Adrian Kamellard.

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Technorati Tags: David Cameron, Efficiency and Reform Group, Francis Maude, Government ICT, Ian Watmore, Innovation Den, Prime Minister, sally Collier, SMEs, Stephen Allott