1.4 The Cabinet Office aims to tackle these systemic problems in the new Strategy. It has set out 30 actions for central government to deliver by March 2013. On 21 October 2011, the Cabinet Office published its Government ICT Strategy - Strategic Implementation Plan (the Plan) which grouped the 30 actions into 19 deliveryareas.3 Figure 2 shows how these actions and delivery areas fall into three categories of business change:
• Reducing waste and project failure by improving procurement processes, making systems more flexible and increasing the skills of ICT professionals.
• Creating a common ICT infrastructure, including communication networks, business applications, data centres, desktops and mobile devices. For example by providing standards and contracts to enable government bodies to buy ICT at lower cost.
• Using ICT to enable and deliver change. The Government has a digital strategy to move public services online ('digital by default'). It also wants different groups from the voluntary and community sector to be able to provide public services.
Figure 2 Description of the actions within the Strategy Reducing waste and project failure |
Area 1 - ICT assets and services knowledgebase Create a database recording government ICT equipment, systems and services, and their availability for reuse (Action 1) |
Area 3 - Procurement Provide a new system for buying items such as PCs, laptops and monitors (known as commodity ICT) that have been built to an agreed common standard (Action 2) Publish guidance on the policy for individual ICT projects not to cost more than £100 million in their lifetime (Action 5) Establish a new approach to procurement that will reduce timescales and cost (known as lean sourcing) (Action 6) Publish details of the length of procurements and contracts awarded to small businesses (Action 7) Publish all documents for new tenders over £10,000 (Action 8) |
Area 2 - Open source Publish documents, including guidance and best practice, to help procurers evaluate open source (software which guarantees the right to access and modify the 'source code', and to use and redistribute with no royalty) (Action 3) Set up three advisory groups to educate, facilitate and promote the use of open source solutions (Action 4) |
Area 4 - 'Agile' delivery methods Develop an approach for government to manage projects flexibly using 'agile' (using user feedback to deliver systems in small pieces and keeping ICT in line with emerging business requirements) (Action 9) Agree the common tools required for 'agile' delivery (Action 10) Identify specialists who will work together across departments and industry to provide advice on 'agile' delivery (Action11) Identify a project to pilot 'agile' delivery methods within each department (Action 12) |
Area 5 - Capability Publish a strategy on government ICT capability with a plan to develop talent among existing civil servants (Action 13) |
Creating a common ICT infrastructure
Area 6 - Open data standards |
Create a process for the submission of ideas, candidate standards and transparency in the definition of standards. This will enable the delivery of a core set of essential open data standards to improve the sharing of information between departments, businesses and citizens (Action 15) |
Area 11 - Data centre consolidation |
Set up a programme to reduce the cost of running facilities used to house ICT services, such as computer systems, networks and storage systems (Action 16) |
Area 10 - Public Services Network |
Facilitate the delivery of a private sector supplied, secure network built to common industry standards, for use in delivering public services across the whole of government at less cost (Action 17) |
Area 12 - Desktops and devices |
Publish a strategy for standardising desktops and other devices, such as smart phones and tablet computers, including detailed implementation plans (Action 18) |
Develop a desktop prototype which uses applications and computing services delivered through the Internet (Action 19) |
Area 9 - Cloud computing |
Publish a strategy, with detailed implementation plans, for cloud computing to provide ICT services, such as software and data storage, to government on demand through the Internet (Action 20) |
Create an online applications store for government to buy ICT services, such as email or data storage, on a pay-as-you-go basis (Action 14) |
Area 7 - Reference architecture |
Publish a framework that shows the fundamental organisation of business and ICT systems, listing the components and indicating their relationships to each other (Action 21) |
Area 8 - Open technical standards |
Agree common open technical standards for central government so that systems from different suppliers can connect, communicate and share data (Action 22) |
Area 14 - Information strategy |
Develop a strategy to be used across departments. This aims to provide a common basis for the secure, efficient, open and safe creation and use and re-use of information (Action 23) |
Area 13 - Greener ICT |
Publish a strategy for greener working practices and reduce the carbon emissions of ICT equipment, in line with other government policies (Action 24) |
Area 15 - Cyber security risk management regime |
Develop a risk management system to use on the technologies, processes and practices designed to protect networks, computers, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorised access (Action 25) |
Using ICT to enable and deliver change
Area 16 - Channel shift |
Move selected government services online (Action 26) |
Area 17 - Application Programming Interfaces |
Create cross-government standards on software-based components that are designed to enable ICT systems from different suppliers to connect, communicate and share data (Action 27) |
Area 18 - Online government consultations |
Enable the public to respond to all government consultations online (Action 29) |
Area 19 - Internet and social media |
Develop guidelines for departments on staff access to the Internet and using social media to contact the public (Action 30) |
NOTES 1 Figure 2 is written in non-technical language and does not use the actual words of the Strategy published on 29 March 2011. 2 The CIO Delivery Board has since developed its plans to implement the Strategy and these were published in the Strategic Implementation Plan of 21 October 2011. 3 Following planning work on area 14, the Board has revised its commitment to develop an Information Strategy. The Board will publish a set of common underpinning principles for an Information Strategy. Each Department will develop its own Information Strategy to apply these common principles within its own sector. 4 Action 28 - to appoint a Director of ICT Futures - is not included as a delivery area in the Plan. Source: National Audit Office |
1.5 These delivery areas will produce a range of products and services which, if well designed and applied successfully, will offer government organisations the opportunity to deliver greater value for money from ICT. However, realising the benefits relies on a wide range of organisations adopting the Strategy solutions and applying them to deliver real change.
1.6 Although covering similar technological themes as the strategy of January 2010,4 the Strategy takes a higher level perspective and, critically, must be implemented on a much tighter timescale. The Government is taking a different approach to other countries we researched, by trying to achieve three types of business change in parallel. The American, Australian, Danish and Dutch governments have adopted a more phased approach, concentrating on one major change at a time. For example:
• In Australia the 2006 ICT strategy addressed the need to reduce spending on ICT by coordinating procurement, increasing systems integration and publishing data on costs. Following a review in 2008, the Government introduced its ICT Reform Program to accelerate improvements in governance, capability and sustainability and the delivery of efficiencies.5 Since April 2011, the Government has focused on a strategy for delivering better services to people and improving its operations.
• Before 2011 there was no single ICT strategy in the Netherlands. The Government focused on using ICT to stimulate economic growth by developing e-government and digital access. In November the Government published its first ICT strategy, which says that common ICT infrastructure is needed to run government operations cost-effectively.
A summary of the government ICT strategies of Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States of America is in Appendix Two.
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3 HM Government, Government ICT Strategy - Strategic Implementation Plan, October 2011.
4 HM Government, Government ICT Strategy: Smarter, cheaper, greener, January 2010.
5 Sir Peter Gershon CBE FREng, Review of the Australian Government's use of Information and Communication Technology, August 2008.