commentary E-government's identity crisis is no reason to perpetuate fragmented and inefficient ICT infrastructure.
Ovum research director
Steve Hodgkinson
(Credit: Ovum)
Governments face a growing challenge as they grapple with the evolving role of ICT in public sector reform. E-government once occupied a modernisation moral high ground, with the internet as a catalyst for citizen-centric, joined-up government. These days the imperatives are less clear.
In Canberra, for example, federal government executives anxiously await the announcement of the recommendations of Sir Peter Gershon's ICT review. It is expected that the review will advocate a stronger role for the government's CIO and, more contentiously, a move towards increased consolidation of ICT operations and procurement to cut the government's $5 billion plus annual spend on ICT.
In Sydney, on the other hand, the New South Wales state government recently scaled back the ambitions of its People First technology strategy, backing off an unworkable centralised approach. In Melbourne, the Victorian state government disbanded its Office of the CIO in 2006, and has embarked on a strategy to centralise a range of corporate service functions, including ICT as part of an efficient technology services strategy.
What does all this mean for e-government's goals now? Easier access? Service innovation? Policy innovation? Better engagement? Better coordination? Shared information? Efficient operations? Aggregated Procurement? Better ICT governance? All of these? As ICT has become fully embedded into the operations of government, the e-government agenda itself has become ever more diffuse and devolved.
E-government is no longer synonymous with the top-down transformation programs of the Government Online era, and has thus suffered a growing identity crisis over the past few years. As the "e" is absorbed into the "business" of government it becomes less useful as an overarching, unifying, lever of change. The locus of innovation, and major ICT investment, remains within departments and agencies: perpetuating a fragmented program-centric approach to ICT.
But wait. The harsh reality is that ubiquitous and efficient ICT infrastructure platforms are no longer a "nice to have". ICT underpins all aspects of modern government services, and is a rising cost. Rebelling against the perceived, and real, difficulties of whole-of-government reforms, with their centralisation/decentralisation tensions, is no reason to continue to support fragmented and inefficient approaches to ICT infrastructure.
E-government's identity crisis should not be used as an excuse for failing to move towards efficient whole-of-government provision of data centres, networks, desktops, and common corporate applications. The practical emergence of cloud computing models in the private sector illustrates the potential for ICT infrastructure to become a genuine utility service.
Victoria has bitten the bullet, creating a new central ICT services agency, CenITex, and a new model for whole-of-government ICT provision
In July the Victorian State Government launched a new centralised ICT service agency: CenITex, the "centre for IT excellence". This is a significant development in the evolution of the state's e-government agenda, most notably because CenITex was created as a state-owned enterprise entity.
CenITex is now outside of the line of control of the departments and their secretaries. Its CEO reports to an independent board of directors under the direct oversight of finance minister Tim Holding.
Peter Blades, who led CenITex's establishment, has been confirmed as the CEO of the new entity. Blades is a wily CEO with decades of experience of transforming organisations and making them perform. He earned his stripes in the restructuring of Telecom New Zealand and Victoria's previously state-owned electricity and gas companies and has led major change programs in a range of public and private sector organisations.
Victoria appears set to leap into a new phase of government ICT
Ovum's Steve Hodgkinson
CenITex's mission is to provide integrated, reliable and high-quality ICT infrastructure shared services for Victorian departments and agencies, and to realise economies of scale compared to department-by-department ICT operations. Its initial scope of activities comprises workplace services (desktop provision and support) and hosting services (datacentre and application hosting and support).
CenITex was created by the merger of two existing ICT shared services entities and will initially serve some 10,000 users over six departments, and ultimately other departments if service levels and costs evolve in line with expectations.
CenITex now needs to be governed for success
The new entity reveals the government's commitment to investing in a fresh organisational model for the delivery of ubiquitous ICT infrastructure on a whole-of-government basis, underpinning both connected government strategies and cost cutting objectives.
The new organisational model is, however, not without its challenges. Chief among these is putting the new entity's independence and autonomy into practice within the context of the government's broader Efficient Technology Services strategy.
CenITex was created as a statutory agency for a good reason. Its agency status gives the CEO the commercially oriented focus and discipline needed to both drive the required internal transformations and to create a genuinely service focused and sustainable-funded ICT organisation. The theory now needs to be put into practice for CenITex to be governed for success.If there are any lessons to be learned from the past five years, key among them is the need to accelerate the pace of both decision making and implementation of the reforms. CenITex has the potential to act as a catalyst for this acceleration, and Blades has a track record of delivering results, so Victoria appears set to leap into a new phase of government ICT.
Steve Hodgkinson is the director of Ovum's government practice in Australia and New Zealand. Before joining the analyst firm he was the deputy CIO for the Victorian state government in Melbourne. Ovum issued this commentary to media this week.
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