Innovative Uses of Technology in the Public Sector

Stephen G. Fridakis , chief of IT programs and quality assurance of UNICEF. Mr. Fridakis of asks where the public sector can innovate. Can only the private sector innovate? He believes that innovation is caused by people who are angry. There is a lot of innovation in the public sector, according to Mr. Fridakis.

Mr. Fridakis discussed innovation and strategic planning in organizations. He pointed out that innovation means redesigning the organization. Operational improvements and "me too" approaches is not strategy. Planning is often incremental. Organizations rarely create, we imitate. We spend more time on analytical tools that are not effective.

Although the public sector does not have the same bottom line measurement of the private sector, there are ways to evaluate goals, according to Mr. Fridakis. The public sector can be aware of customer goals. He advocates the notion of moving from the project approach to a portfolio approach in the public sector.

Mr. Fridakis looked at the notion of public value. Public sector innovation is about new ideas that work at creating public value. Public value is an analogy to value-added in the private sector. It is not good enough to be happy internally to the organization. There needs to be more effective measurements of public value.

Capacity building in IT is critical to innovation in countries, according to Mr. Fridakis. Capacity building means reducing the reliance on foreign consultants. Organizations need to make IT innovation sustainable. And, the customer context needs to be understood.

Mr. Fridakis applied a private sector strategic framework to the public sector. This framework includes business goals, identifying the customer, products & services, and establish new controls. He has found that government reform must be in sync with innovation.

IT in UNICEF is a difficult organization to innovate because of the hierarchical organization, strong controls and decentralization, according to Mr. Fridakis. The organization operates with both a cash and an accrual basis.

Why is innovation good? Mr. Fridakis identified a number of ways:

• Improved efficiency
• Improved ease of use
• Integrates easier with the private sector
• Enables collaboration and knowledge transfer

Mr. Fridakis presented examples of innovation in the public sector. A major theme is mobility at UNICEF. Information needs to be accurate and trustworthy. The coordination of information across agencies is critical for handling natural disasters. Mobile technology innovation enables this coordination.

Mr. Fridakis described the benefit of accessing policy documents over time. UNICEF is looking to store this information with taxonomies to make them easier to find.

Mr. Fridakis believes that if we have access to information, we can predict potential natural and economic disasters. He stated that "innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity - not a threat."

Mission-driven public sector organizations can leverage technology innovation, according to Mr. Fridakis. Transparency and outreach are enabled through innovation.

Stephen Fridakis has responsibility for the oversight, coordination of IT Programs worldwide. Prior to that he was the Chief Information Security Officer of the United Nations Development Programme, the UN's global development network. He is the former Chief Security Engineer of BearingPoint, where he had enterprise-wide responsibility for IT security of government and defense contracts.

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Good Practices in Implementing Government Financial Management Systems

Wayne Job, Senior Director, Office of the Comptroller General of Canada, described the methods of implementing and managing financial systems in the Government of Canada.

Mr. Job described that the Government of Canada spends billions of dollars in IT. Some of these projects do not have positive results. He pointed out that clients are accountability for the effectiveness of their systems. Processes come first, technology second. Software costs can often be a small factor of the entire IT costs. He described key principles for success:

• Government and departmental strategic IT plans.
• Investment plans for IT with an oversight committee.
• The total cost of ownership (TCO) needs to be analyzed.
• Large projects can generate cost overruns that embarrass the government.
  

Finance and Technology for More Effective Systems

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Mr. Job says that there are so many delays in procurement that systems get implemented quickly. Often the system does not integrate across multiple needs such as supporting financial and non-financial reporting requirements.

Good practices in strategic planning was described including a 3 to 5 year plan with clear performance measurement. Finance managers have a value for money perspective, so the strategic plan must demonstrate what will be needed to achieve success.

Mr. Job says that government financial systems must be owned by the functional users, not Information Technology personnel. He described some of the factors in government budgeting in Canada. Most budget funds cannot be carried over to the following year in Canada, so many often acquire IT equipment near year end. IT staff has ballooned over the past few years in government departments.

Mr. Job recommends that software should be thought of as an asset where there will be a limited life span. Upgrades will be needed. He also described many of the hidden costs that increase the total cost. Software effectiveness is 5 to 10 years. Computers are obsolete by the time they are put into place.

Cost overruns have been very embarrassing to the government. The practice in Canada for large projects is to hire a large systems integrator and a different integrator to provide oversight. Government departments are encouraged to buy standard systems. The cost for custom systems is very high and difficult to maintain. Mr. Job encourages government departments to use standard processes in the Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) software.

The Government of Canada has reduced the number of financial systems in use from over 50 to 7. Mr. Job expects that this will be reduced to 2 or 3 in the future.

Mr. Job described how the Auditor General of Canada was consulted about risk, controls and reporting for the stimulus package in Canada. There is a bill in Parliament that will mandate quarterly financial reports. Accountability will become more targeted in Canada. He expects much more oversight by the press in June. This includes non-financial measurements like the number of job created by a stimulus program.

The current systems in place in the Government of Canada do not generate the quarterly financial and non-financial reporting needed. Many IT systems have failed in the Government of Canada, as they have in many other countries. "Don't treat IT as a black box solution." Mr. Job says that "just like stimulus money, IT spending must be clearly managed, understood and explained to all."