Microsoft touts Maude as ICT transformation leader

In an interview with PublicTechnology.net, Coplin speaks about the way forward for public sector ICT, and the change required within the sector to instigate a cultural change of attitudes across central and local government.

 

“The most important area in the short term is the actions around the Cabinet Office and Francis Maude, and the changes to ICT contracts. Not just with suppliers, but with local authorities and departments too,” he argues. “[We need] new analysis about where are we are now, why are we where we are, and what needs to change.”

 

Coplin suggests much of that is already being undertaken, adding “the real drama and strategy will come from the innovation that’s required. We’ve spoken about transformational government for what feels like a millions years: Now is the time to do it.”

 

One of the key transformational ICT initiatives over the past year is the G-Cloud, which aims to deliver a robust government infrastructure and apps store. Coplin points towards Microsoft’s growing online business productivity suites that will affect the public sector, describing the G-Cloud as an obvious elephant in the room. For now its future remains unclear, especially with regards to its makeup, though Coplin suggests the marrying of John Suffolk’s G-Cloud (as part of the Government CIO’s ICT strategy) with public Cloud offerings like Microsoft’s Azure platform into a hybrid structure is a logical step to take.

 

“That’s a conversation we’ve been having for the last 18mths,” says Coplin. “Our platform is designed to move people left or right; we’ve been talking to them [the government] increasing about the public cloud.” Pointing out the expensive of building and creating government Clouds during a so-called age of austerity, Coplin says there’s a reasonable proportion of data that is classed as secure “but doesn’t have to be”. 

 

“Where’s the most appropriate place to hold the apps and the data?” he adds.

 
Taking the holistic approach

Coplin advocates and hopes the upcoming spending reviews, expected towards the end of October, will take a holistic approach to how ICT can facilitate a transformational government to emerge. “I’ve got great expectations and hopes that people will do the right thing,” he says. “It’s very easy to stop doing a service and just try to cut an area and take the saving. That’s not the right answer in many cases.”

 

“My hope is holistic thinking will be part of the spending review. What I think will be required will be asking a holistic approach that will look across government.” He goes on to describe the old metaphor of losing weight through either cutting off a limb (and swiftly losing weight) against changing eating habits and losing the excess in an intelligent manner. 

 

A shift in culture across central and local government and other public sector organisations is another to look at, according to Coplin. The development of shared services and the impact of commoditising common applications and platforms like email is one area he mentions. “A lot of the conversation about the G-Cloud and holistic thinking is about agreeing on what is a commodity service: Are document management and email commodity services? My simplistic view is departments should primarily care about what’s unique to their department, and not common to everyone.”

 

Coplin says he’s already seeing people get ready for such a cultural change, adding “You can see groups both at central and local level figure out how to get closer to business people – citizen facing or people involved in the business of government.”

 

Of course, ensuring the change is as streamlined and smooth as possible will no doubt require a strong figurehead: Over to you, Mr Maude.