Government has had no co-ordinated technical leadership for
the past three years, since its IT strategy unit, the Central
Computing and Telecommunications Agency, was rolled into the Office
of Government Commerce, e-envoy Andrew Pinder said last
week.
Speaking at a National Computing Centre conference Pinder called
for a chief information officer to oversee and co-ordinate
government computing.
He said that his departure next year from the e-envoy post,
coinciding with the departure of the director of the Office of
Government Commerce Peter Gershon, presented an ideal opportunity
to have a new chief information officer combining both roles to
provide IT leadership.
"That person would not be a boss to IT directors in government
departments, for constitutional reasons," he explained, "but would
be a Civil Service appointment, probably based in the Cabinet
Office, to provide stronger professional leadership."
The role would focus on pushing centralisation and economies of
scale in IT across government departments, he added.
Government sector IT directors should think about building
alliances and working across government, "They will have to relate
more to the centre and that will be a nuisance to any 'barons'."
They will also have to raise their game and help to educate
departments in how technology can transform their business, Pinder
added, noting, for example, that CRM systems are not used much in
government.
"For the first time over the next two or three years government
will address more leading edge technology," he said, which would
require a fundamental rethink of how to produce services in a more
customer-focused way.