‘eGovernment is dead: long live e2Government’ announced Socitm President Chris Guest, speaking at the Government IT Confex in London yesterday. It may look good as a logo, but 'e2Government' and the catchphrase are exceedingly banal - and defuse and devalue the important message that Socitm is trying to get across. The real, must-be-listened-to message (as follows) has massive import:
‘The potential for transformation will not be realised without strong leadership and management from the top of the organization’ said Guest. ‘Senior Managers and Chief Executives need to understand the potential and limitations of ICT better than they do. At the same time, Heads of ICT need to shed the role of supporting actor and take centre stage. For some Heads of ICT taking on this role may require a shift of focus and attitude and the acquisition of new skills. Above all they will need to be driven by their organisation’s business needs to develop strategic solutions to service problems and to continue to break down the traditional division between business analysis and IT delivery.’
According to Socitm, the efficiency targets set for local authorities are a driver for a new and better approach to eGovernment. ‘e2Government’ will build the notions of efficiency and effectiveness into eGovernment investment programmes and in doing so will achieve the desired for – but as yet elusive – transformation of public services.
Socitm points out that since 2000 councils have spent some £2.5 billion on eGovernment, supported in England by £675m of central government funding. However, as yet there is little evidence of transformation in local authority services, while MORI research shows a 10% decline in satisfaction with local authorities over the last three years.
Socitm says this should come as no surprise, given the recent emphasis on putting services online, since transformation requires not just ‘connecting’ citizens but rethinking everything from a citizen point of view. Ultimately, this may mean completely redefining the business model and not simply re-engineering processes within an accepted business design. By and large this has not happened because eGovernment initiatives to date have been concerned too much with technology and too little with change, too much with improving access to services, and too little on back office efficiencies.
The demands placed on local authorities by Gershon will, says Socitm, force them to change this approach. Socitm says things should move from a technology initiative in which the focus is on electronic service delivery and discrete eGovernment projects, with limited potential savings or change - to a strategy about developing new approaches to government and is a business transformation initiative enabled through ability to manage information. This says Socitm, should lead to potentially significant efficiency savings; major changes to public service operations, and will involve higher risks but higher rewards.
Quelle: PublicTechnology, 16.02.2005
