Globally, public sectors fail to leverage IT effectively {writer:Steven Woods}

Technology has changed the way businesses operate – streamlining operation, improving productivity and increasing efficiency in the private sector.

It has the potential to do the same for the public sector, by helping to improve service delivery dramatically and continuously.

The fact, however, is that across the world, public sector has failed to leverage information technology (IT) effectively, and its potential remains largely untapped.

Some of the problems that have plagued public sector IT implementations include cancelled projects, and projects that fail to meet objectives or live up to expectations.

Another issue includes the lack of integration between and even within various government departments, which in turn can negatively affect service delivery to citizens.

One area that is of particular concern is overspending. According to a recent analysis of contracts, conducted by Compass Management Consulting in the United Kingdom, the public sector is paying around 40% above the market rate for outsourced services, and there is every indication that this trend is global.

These are merely some of the many reasons IT in the public sector has performed poorly to date, all of which stem from inadequate IT governance. As a result of this, recommendations such as the King series of reports was released, the latest of which, the King Report on Governance for South Africa 2009 – more commonly known as King III – came into effect recently.

King III builds on previous iterations of the report, aiming to provide guidelines for the improved management and efficiency of businesses as a whole, emphasising sustainability with a new focus on IT governance and IT risk management.

IT within government can have an enormous impact on service delivery, either positive or negative. Unfortunately, the current reality is that the impact tends to be more negative, as there are several issues with public sector IT implementations.

Chief among these is a lack of consistency among systems, compounded by the fact that there is no single repository of information. This means that every time a customer – in this case, a citizen – needs to interact with a government department, the information needs to be registered once again, which is inefficient and leads to other issues such as duplicated information and inaccuracies.

In cases such as this, the public sector could take a page out of private sector’s book, changing the management focus and approach. In the private sector, the attitude is one of needing to make a profit or risk causing the business to fail, putting efficiency top of mind. This is not the case in the public sector for obvious reasons, but King III aims to change this by emphasising IT governance and responsibility.

The public sector faces several key challenges when it comes to IT, such as drawn-out, complicated tender and approval processes, the need for decisions to be made by committee and the need to satisfy thousands upon thousands of stakeholders.

Whereas the private sector only has its own interests to deal with, there are still lessons that can be learnt and which King III aims to entrench in processes.

As in the private sector, public sector should ensure that all IT projects have a sound business case, to ensure that money is spent where it is needed and will deliver what is required.

All IT initiatives should be geared at improving efficiency, in order to allow government organisations to spend less, yet deliver more services.

When it comes to dealing with overspending in IT in the public sector, this is the result of a combination of factors, including a lack of knowledge. The people who take the decisions around tenders of things such as IT services often do not have a comprehensive knowledge of the market that would enable them to understand whether prices are market related and fair, or not.

Added to this, much time is spent on the actual procurement process, which in itself has many rules and regulations that need to be followed, which means that at the end of the day, the deal taken may not be the best one.

Finally, this is compounded by the fact that often the service taken is more than is actually required, as the solutions taken up are often over-specified. IT services should be fit for purpose, which will bring down the price dramatically more often than not.

One solution that may assist governments and public sector enterprises with IT implementations is benchmarking. This can be conducted internally, to help understanding of the particular requirements of the department, which will help to ensure that specifications of proposed solutions are indeed fit for purpose.

Internal benchmarks conducted by outsourced experts offer specialist knowledge to provide an independent review of outcomes, requirements and services needed, and convey these needs in a well-articulated fashion to ensure service providers can deliver the right solutions and services.

The public sector can take one final lesson from the private sector in this regard, and that is to focus on the citizen, developing a customer-centric approach that makes the life of the citizen easier and delivers services efficiently.

When it comes to IT, governance is vital to ensure successful implementations that address core needs and help to improve efficiency and service delivery, and the guidelines proposed in King III aim to do just this.

Steven Woods is the South African country president at Compass Management Consulting