Can new strategy stop government IT disasters?

The government spends £14bn per year on technology, with various amounts going on maintenance, staffing, legacy and new technology.

This month, the Cabinet Office unveiled new plans to transform all IT in the public sector. It aims to scale down the UK's 130 government-owned call centres (creating a single phone number for non-emergency calls) and squeeze 2,500 government websites into a handful of portals - all to make life easier for the taxpayer.

The [government public sector IT] report makes reference to data sharing as a key objective. This sounds like a good idea but can citizens be sure their privacy is safe-guarded with this approach?

-- Jeremy Ward, services development director, Symantec

Digital television and text messaging are to play a large part in replacing these. For example, under the proposals, people would be able to book a doctor's appointment using their digital TV's red-button function and receive confirmation by text message.

The overhaul will see a number of public sector websites redirected to the central government website DirectGov. People will also be able to access their own records to cut the cost of handling simple enquiries.

This is all part of chief government CIO Ian Watmore's plan, in which work will continue well into next decade to modernise the public sector.

Earlier this month, Watmore said: "I want to ensure every IT professional in government has the right skills and support to make this happen. This is about designing systems around the public's needs, using technology to deliver policy at the front line and breaking down barriers to enable us to share case information."

But despite the gung-ho rhetoric the reality might be more complex - analyst Gartner has advised the public sector and companies working around it to not lose sight of planned changes, as many existing contracts in the public sector still have some years to run.

The analyst said: "Gartner believes the strategic goals set for the first 18 months can be achieved but that they must be detailed and quantified to instil confidence in the rest of the strategy. Because many government IT projects are currently underway, much of the effort will be deferred until 2007. We fear that this delay may cause a loss of interest and the project may be undermined by a lack of visible results."

Watmore is also looking to share some of the internal services to cut costs. As well as one massive IT infrastructure, areas such as human resources and customer services will be shared.

Andy Vernon, PA Consulting Group's public sector specialist, said: "One key cause of government IT delivery failures is the scale and complexity of the initiatives undertaken. One role of the CIO forum must be to engage with ministers and policy makers to temper the ambition for individual projects to ensure that delivery can be truly incremental and achievable. In many ways this education and engagement process will be key to the strategy's eventual realisation."

Most companies appear to have welcomed the announcement. But Jeremy Ward, services development director at Symantec, thinks there could be problems.

He said: "If we're brutally honest, transformational government contains a lot of well-intentioned information but is essentially the same plan that has been repackaged over the course of the past six years, since the original conception of the Office of the e-Envoy.

"The report makes reference to data sharing as a key objective. This sounds like a good idea but can citizens be sure their privacy is safe-guarded with this approach? Will the right data be used by the right departments and how will this be controlled? How does this fit in with the increasing pressures around compliance, particularly where data protection is concerned? All these questions will need answers before too long."

Ward added: "The government should be applauded for persevering with its plans but it should most certainly listen to the private sector to understand the risks and the pitfalls associated with change."