Local government faces more years of continued efficiency improvements and must find new ways of using technology to deliver high quality services. High on the agenda are developing more mobile workstyles for council employees and meeting citizens’ demand for digital council services via their smartphones.
The days of the internal, central IT department are surely numbered, as cloud services offer flexible and affordable alternatives. So is this the beginning of the end for the traditional CIO? Or a Darwinian moment for those who can adapt?
BT’s research, Art of Connecting: creativity and the modern CIO, shows that although more than eight out of ten public sector CIOs say that their role is fundamentally changing, they see these changes as decidedly positive. They enjoy more influence and have an opportunity to add value to the organisation.
There is a new, perhaps surprising, requirement: to be creative. More than half (55%) of senior IT decision makers in the public sector say their board recognises the need for a more creative CIO, and two thirds (66%) are positive about getting more creative. And it is no longer enough just to keep the computer systems working: the modern CIO in local government is business-savvy, able to understand the commercial pressures on the organisation and to connect with other people to make things happen.
A creative response to shadow IT
Shadow IT (where departments or teams bypass the IT department to buy their own technology solutions) is rife in the public sector (69% of IT decision makers report that it happens) and accounts for 20% of IT spend. CIOs in the public sector have to spend 18% more time and extra budget to manage the security fallout. But a creative CIO’s response is ‘don’t fight it, invite it’.
He or she will start positive conversations with colleagues about what they want to achieve, and encourage them to exploit the right technologies for the right reasons. Such a CIO also gets a valuable overview of how people are using data, where the bottlenecks or affinities are, and, vitally, what the wider implications might be. (One team’s new video-based application might consume so much bandwidth that other parts of the organisation grind to a halt.)
Taking a lead in service delivery
This knowledge equips the CIO for a more strategic role, as senior counsel for business and technology, who has the knowhow and authority to help design and deliver services for the digital age.
CIOs need not go it alone as they set out to make the most of this opportunity. IT partners are willing to help. However, although nearly nine out of ten (89%) CIOs consider their technology partners to be creative only three in ten (29%) actually approach vendors for creative solutions. They are missing a chance. There is huge scope for CIOs to tap into creativity of their IT partners.
A good place to be a CIO?
In spite of its many challenges, UK local government is an exciting place to be a CIO right now. Central government wants the UK to be the best connected country in the world. Reform of public services remains high on the political agenda. More collaboration and shared working with other agencies are required. Citizens are eager for more digital services. The opportunity for the CIO to make his or her mark is very great. CIOs who can step up creatively and commercially will lead from the front, and deliver innovative, more diverse public services that improve quality of life for us all.
Paul Taylor, Vice President - Local, Devolved & Health, BT