The announcement the head of the e-government unit in the UK was made today, aka the UK’s CIO. Ian Watmore, presently the top bod in Accenture UK, will take over in September.
The CIO ….
The announcement the head of the e-government unit in the UK was made today, aka the UK’s CIO. Ian Watmore, presently the top bod in Accenture UK, will take over in September.
Lets hope this means a sense of commerical realism being applied to eGovernment. Can Sherlock\’s (rather Mr Blair in this modern world) little helper ultimatly deliver common good from £700m already spent…
Where does your £700 million figure come from and what\’s included in it?
Hi Alan,Local authorities are receiving £675m in support grants from the ODPM to help them reach their eGovernment targets. Aside from this there is £83m spent on true north, etc, etc. (but you already know this). According to a recient report, local authorities will spend £3.5bn acheiving their e-government targets. This means ODPM funding represents just 19% of the total amount local authorities estimate they will need to spend. £3.5bn is a lot of tax payers hard earned cash -enough to solve many serious social problems. (It would also eat nicely into my overdraft!!)My point is the OeE need to \”drive\” change and eGovernment forward in order to get maximum value for the tax payer. I see the OeE as having been complacent in the past – some good ideas but the worst communication I have ever seen.The only evidence I see of improved communication has been through software vendors. But who trusts a sales guy – they are only interested in their bank balance (unlike the OeE it seems). Are the OeE planning to improve communication?
I try not to stray into areas that will get me into more trouble – and your question is probably one of those. Whenever I ask people what we need to do in my team, \”improve communication\” is always at the top of the list, but I\’m pretty sure it was ever thus, whoever was asking the question and whichever audience it was. I am sure that Ian W will bring changes at all kinds of levels though. Meanwhile, believe me, my folks are working as hard as they can to be clear with their messages and even harder than that to simplify them.
Thanks for the taking the time to respond…