Build transformation on e-gov foundations

According to Glyn Evans, Director of Business Solutions & IT at Birmingham City Council, “The e-gov programme, through the national projects, represented a huge investment and a lot of good things came out of it. We have now enabled services by technology. But the focus was predominantly on technology, not change.

“Now, with ‘t-gov' we have the chance to do things differently, to do the things that perhaps we didn't get right in e-gov and effect real organisational change.”

Evans believes that the key to transformation is to engage with the politicians, the chief executives and the business managers in local government. This, he says, didn't happen in the first programme - as it was seen as a technology programme these groups weren't as engaged as they needed to be.

“Unless this is seen to be delivering local priorities, we will never engage local politicians. But transformation is all about delivering the local political agenda in ways that politicians ought to be biting our hands off to get!

“Effectively what we're saying is that, through transformation, there is a real win-win here - you can have better services and you can do it for no more than it costs you now.”