Alan Mac Neela, Government Director for the UK at Dell, discussed with me the G-Cloud and what will affect the project moving forward.
Having held a leading position in the media for over a year, the development of the G-Cloud project has been followed and anticipated by millions. It would be inaccurate to say that progress has been rapid, but now with the six month Cloud framework trial soon to begin, the G-Cloud finally seems ready for takeoff. Well, almost ready. Last month, for example, witnessed the deadline being extended for the second time, as a result of overwhelming interest from businesses. Although the deadline extension has mildly slowed down progress, the significant amount of interest can be indicative of a promising future.
The UK’s G-Cloud is in fact modelled on and inspired by the US’ Cloud First Initiative, which has seen a high level of success so far. Of course the US system is privatised and very different to the UK, but by drawing on success stories from the US, the UK government can develop best practice solutions.
Three common themes have emerged around the G-Cloud strategy: cost reduction, reusability and mutualisation. But how can these approaches be best implemented so that the G-Cloud dream becomes a concrete reality, and avoids the same issues that the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) experienced?
A key business driver behind the G-Cloud is quite simply, cost reduction. UK government ICT departments continue to face the challenge of cost reduction on a scale not seen for some time. This has resulted in a sharp focus by government ICT leaders on driving initiatives that yield both real cost reductions in the near term and also provide a platform for incremental, longer term savings. For many in government ICT, it is a very personal response to a cross government mandate.
One of the areas which can be developed further with the G-Cloud is shared services. Shared services refers to some form of a consolidated or aggregated service provision model. Shared service arrangements involve the aggregated provision of services between multiple, and sometimes autonomous entities. Shared services aim to achieve benefits by using a single group to provide a service to multiple departments or functions, rather than each department requiring its own capacity to provide that service. Benefits can result from aggregated economies of scale or scope, the ability to negotiate from a stronger aggregate base and through adoption of streamlined, common business processes, particularly when significant simplification and standardisation are involved. Shared services over the G-Cloud could enable government departments to share knowledge and best practice as well as the services themselves.
Key factors in implementing successful shared services programmes include a strong emphasis on cross-party operating level agreements. Also key is the development of centres of competency/excellence that take advantage of key areas of competency within participating organisations. These will be the same factors for success the government needs to examine when implementing the G-Cloud.
Leveraging reusability successfully is more complex than simply using software components developed elsewhere. The successful application of reusability is predicated on a fundamentally different service approach to delivery and user experience. It can enable increased speed of change, which alters the way users interface with ICT service resources. If treated as a complex change programme rather than simply leveraging a technology or service innovation, then reusability is more likely to provide returns in terms of cost savings and customer satisfaction.
Mutualisation is also a theme gaining popularity. The Prime Minster has expressed his desire to delegate more power to the local governments and mutualisation is one way to achieve this. Mutualisation is the spinning out of an organisation from the public sector, but which continues to deliver public services. Public sector mutuals are typically formed when there is a case that a service can be run more effectively or efficiently, achieving better outcomes for users. Or where there is a gap in service provision. The focus on cost reduction strategies may well extend the mutualisation concept into functions such as ICT in government. The opportunity to hold greater control and autonomy over the service or to provide for current gaps in service areas may be a powerful incentive for some to extend the mutualisation beyond its more common areas of usage.
The G-Cloud is the emblem of change. By developing new skills, giving more power to local government and implementing new services and solutions, the government could lead a successful Cloud programme. However, the huge transformation that will be induced by the G-Cloud requires relentless commitment as well as caution. The biggest challenge facing the project now is how to accelerate this program of change. Central and local government’s ability to turn on a dime isn’t well known but we believe this challenge is driven as much by cultural, team, technology and business issues as it is by financial issues.
If the government really want Cloud computing to account for half of its new spending in 2015 then every one of these issues must be attentively addressed in the near future.
