Has the Private Sector caught the Public Sector IT Disease?

The reputation of IT in the UK public sector has long been tainted. A succession of expensive high-profile IT project failures has irrevocably tarnished the reputation of government in delivering effective, on- time and in-budget IT programmes, leading to a widely held view that government cannot do IT. Unfair perhaps, many smaller public sector IT projects are implemented successfully, but these are unheard of, little gets written about success and the government's IT victories are pushed into the shadows by its massive failures.

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Do we need IT?

(As published in Isle of Man Examiner 16th Feb 2010)

As an ex-CIO / IT Director I probably know a bit more about Information Technology (IT) than most business people. I'm a Fellow of the British Computer Society (The Chartered Institute for IT) and a Chartered IT Professional, I led my last company to be one of the finalists for the "Most IT-Enabled Business In the UK" award, I give occasional lectures, and my work has been the subject of academic and UK government research in understanding the potential of IT in business - so I think I'm qualified to answer the question.

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Is there a place for Women in IT?

In response to a Computer Weekly article on a subject close to my heart ...

As an IT leader (male) I have struggled hard to ensure that my teams have a good gender balance to achieve the benefits of differing skillsets and aptitudes that both sexes bring.

I have struggled because it has been hard - there simply aren't enough women looking to come into IT, typically female applications would make up under 10% of all CVs received in response to a recruitment campaign. Achieving my goal of a 50/50 balance has been tough, but worthwhile.

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Bad IT is Worse Than No IT

Love it or hate it, we are all stuck with IT. We tolerate it's faults and frustrations, we often accept less than we would like because some IT is normally better than no IT. But not always.

Customer-facing IT - normally delivered via the Internet, is an exacting art. It must be quick, easy to use, provide up to date information, and above all be reliable and accurate. Recent experience of using the electronic banking system provided by a major UK high street bank, the IT division of which would be a FTSE 100 entity in it's own right if separated out, has reminded me that however hard an organisation strives to present its qualities, attributes and values to the customer, all that effort can all be swept away in moments through bad IT.

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