The IT profession needs to play more of a role in
national debate on technology policy, includingID cardsandinformation sharing, said Michael
Bichard, a former council chief and senior civil servant, who now
chairs public sector strategy consultancy RSe
Consulting.
Bichard, who directed the enquiry to police intelligence sharing
following the Soham murders, urged IT professionals to speak out to
help educate the public in technology issues.
"Government has done far too little to educate the public about
why, for example, information does need to be shared, and what
safeguards can be put in place which stop its being misused," he
said speaking in Belfast at the local government IT directors
association, SOCITIM, conference.
"The public are also still unaware of the dangers presented by
fraud, ID theft and money laundering. These are not issues for the
policy-making geeks or politicians. I would like to see IT
professionals take part in more informed debate - because you know
what you are talking about," he said,
He said that IT professionals were making progress in developing
softer communication skills alongside their technical skills, but
still had further to go.
"This has been a pretty good three years and there are grounds
for optimism. But IT professionals still need to deliver key skills
which will make people listen to them," he said.
The prevailing lack of softer skills in the IT profession meant
that there were still not enough IT directors at board level
Research shows that IT workers are increasingly using business
rather than technical language, but only 30% of IT chiefs sit on
council boards. "Only 25% of business leaders thought the
communication skills of IT professionals in this were good enough.
So more needs to be done," he said.
Another major issue for local government IT directors is the
need to redesign services. Transformational agendas will not work,
Bichard said unless there is a total rethink with IT at the core of
systems.
"Maybe we do not yet fully understand our customers. We do not
know enough about them to know what they really want. Part of the
answer is in looking again at the fundamental way that our services
are designed.
"We can do that by focusing first and last on the customer,
while integrating IT into the core design."
Michael Bichard based his speech on surveys done in 2004 and
2007 of chief executives and IT directors at about 80 local
authorities.