Forget Digital and Gov 4.0. Just do it.

It’s becoming all too common to read people on Twitter in particular carping about various elements of “Government” approach to IT. In the last few weeks, I’ve seen someone complaining that one department was too focused on outcomes and not willing to “experiment”, other people say we should just copy the UK (which is by the way not quite going as well as some say) and then of course there’s open data….

My experience of working in Government is that every question that starts with a debate about process or systems will automatically lead to the wrong answer. The first question has to be about improving service delivery or saving cost. Ideally both. No one doubts that digital can be a great enabler, especially when fit for purpose and not cobbled out of legacy systems, but technology itself is no more the solution than electricity.

As I may have mentioned before, it’s important to understand that now, more than ever, Government isn’t an IT “sandpit” or test bed. With state and national government facing deep and real issues about revenue, a major business imperative has become the streamlining of costs. And a lesson I learned many times over in the tech space is that you don’t reduce costs by focusing on which websites you need to close, instead you should focus on creating the best business solution, thereby making redundant websites actually redundant.

Suppliers to Government in all its shapes and forms need to get this simple truism. Like all big businesses, departments want investments in technology to improve their business either by cutting costs or improving service. They have no interest at all in being famous for IT development. However clever it might be.