Emerging Role of CIOs

1. Emerging Role of CIOs Nagy Hanna Senior Advisor, ISGVP

2. Challenges of e-Government • Incorporate ICT into the overall public sector reform strategy • Requires flexibility: experimentation, piloting and agile learning • Includes process, technological, institutional and social innovations • Harnessing intangibles such as information, knowledge, organizational and social capital • Requires coordinated approach to cross-departmental issues such as policy, standards and regulations, information infrastructure, ICT capability and skills, joint-up applications • Insuring focus on the ultimate beneficiary – citizens and businesses

3. Why CIO? • Initially, e-Gov projects driven by technology departments in separate agencies, or coordinated by Central Technology Office (CTO). • Often lead to to technology-driven e-Government that overlooks key elements of change management, process re-engineering, public sector reform and focus on for improving quality of services for citizens and businesses. • Such programs faced serious implementation and adoption problems, if not complete failure. Duplication of efforts and failure to deliver joint-up services. • Over-reliance on internal recourses: limited outsourcing due to conflict of interests • CIO is needed to bring-in crucial change management focus and capacity. • CIO’s broadly-defined role is to encorporate ICT into government strategic planning and business process reform to deliver customer-focused services.

4. Responsibilities of National CIO • Both operational and policy responsibilities, balanced according to local needs. May include roles of: • policy and oversight manager • networking specialist • business change agent • operations specialist • interagency coordinator • Often focus on strategy and policy-related issues that require central direction • Operational and management responsibilities are focused on projects crucial to insure interoperability and to enable seamless integration of ICT systems and services across agencies, leaving agency-specific applications and planning to individual agencies.

5. Issues in CIO Office • Technology vs. policy • Unlike the technology departments CIOs are not necessarily technically oriented. They are more engaged in planning, oversight of the strategic process re-engineering and change management than with the fine details of particular technology solutions. • Emerging model, following the private sector, is a split leadership between a CIO and CTO. The CIO and CTO work closely together with some blurring of responsibilities. Technology departments are often directly or indirectly subordinate to the CIO office. • Centralized vs. decentralized function. To strike an appropriate balance between centralized strategic guidance and policy setting and decentralized systems implementation and project development with line management ownership. • Powerful National CIO, tied to key ministry or reporting directly to the PM Office • CIO positions in major ministries and agencies with a significant degree of freedom. Natiuonal CIO Council for coordination • Other issues and solutions?

6. Tools of Influence • A central fund to initiate pilots and finance cost-share projects in support of the e-Gov strategy, especially for projects that cut across agencies. • Requiring that all projects receive the approval of the national CIO prior to the release of funds. • Internal loans, requiring ministries to pay back funds they consume through budget reductions over time, promoting projects with clear cost benefit paybacks. • Making agency’s CIOs formally employees of the national CIO office. They are hired by agencies with National CIO approval. • Building consensus and stakeholder commitment through CIO or eGov Council that represents all key agencies and ministries. • Others?