Suffolk emphasises 'demonstrable savings'

John Suffolk told GC News that the requirement to cut the public spending deficit has led the government to emphasise the importance of IT initiatives that will lead to significant new efficiencies. "Anything that is demonstrably saving cash is moving up the priority list," he said. "The Government ICT Strategy has already been highlighting issues such as removing duplication and unused assets. "It's all about things like common platforms and shared service that can all save cash. All of this will be very important in the light of the spending review." Speaking on the day that the government's comprehensive spending review was published, Suffolk said this will encourage take-up of the Public Sector Network (PSN) and development of the G Cloud and Government Applications Store. Prior to speaking to GC, he told the Beyond 2010 conference in Birmingham that the longer term priority is to ensure that digital strategies are linked into the broader policy thinking on public services. "If we are going to come out of the changes in better shape, the tools and techniques of technology will become part of the bread and butter of policy management professionals and will absolutely come to the fore," he said. The government would have to take a more "horizontal" approach to digitisation, he said, whereby it makes changes once across the range of its operations. This contrasts with the "vertical" approach of recent years in which digital changes have been introduced inside individual departments and agencies. Looking forward to the next 10 years, he said it is impossible to predict how technology will develop, but that public sector policy makers should focus on the outcomes that could be produced by the technology, and give smaller companies the opportunities to provide innovative solutions. He added that, while the financial outlook is now very tough, this is likely to encourage innovation. "The environment we are about to enter will generate a whole head of innovation," he said.