Deploy and manage technology effectively and securely

Technology plays a mission-critical role in the effective functioning of any Government administration.  The systems that enable the delivery of services to citizens and businesses and to manage the supporting business functions, and the data that they contain, are key assets.

However, technology transformation projects, be they in the public or private sector, often result in outcomes that are seen as sub-optimal, that do not deliver the intended benefits or are simply deemed a failure.  In addition, organizations are faced with making key strategic decisions in relation to their choice of technology partners, their approach to cloud models and the management and security of their data.

The typical challenges that public services organizations face, include:

• Delivery of technology initiatives – Public services is an industry where requirements in society and the economy change rapidly and even by the month.  Therefore, it is simply not credible to structure any technology implementation programme around projects that take longer than 6-9 months to deliver business or technology value.  Any roadmap and associated design/build/test processes must be based more around continuous improvement and incremental change where possible.  And to include time and space for innovation and to try new things. 
• Return on investment – There is a fundamental difference between spending an IT budget and leveraging technology to add value.  Many organizations struggle to articulate, track and measure the return on their investment in technology.  These investments are significant, are often viewed as high-risk and which are challenging to deliver on-time and within budget.
• Ownership and control – Particularly in the context of both the development of cloud computing models and significant consolidation in the technology provider sector, organizations are having to fundamentally rethink their strategies around selection and ownership of technology.  There are important trade-offs to be assessed in relation to technical agility, vendor lock-in, licensing, support, build-or-buy considerations, procurement and migration paths for examples 
• Capabilities – Organizations need to address the fundamental consideration of what their core capabilities are and should be.  From a technology and IT perspective these cover aspects such as strategy, architecture, design, build, test, deployment, support, vendor management and governance functions.  There is the added dimension of multiple technologies and systems existing within the overall IT landscape, with different development and support characteristics.  Having a clear sourcing strategy for the capabilities to be retained and developed in-house and those to be provided via an external service is a key priority.

Pearsons Consulting Ltd’s Government and Public Sector technology teams bring an established track record in advising on, selecting, deploying and managing technology to enable mission-critical public services.  We combine our deep sectoral, functional and technical know-how and practical experience with that of our application and platform partners including the likes of Microsoft, Salesforce and SAP.