camden.gov.uk
Open Brighton
How Camden is Building Government as a Service
& Why Open Systems & Disruptive Approaches are
Essential
John Jackson – CIO Camden Council
(@johnjackson1066)
camden.gov.uk
Life Before Austerity
camden.gov.uk
• Local Authority in centre of London
• Over £1Billion turnover
• Circa £350 M controllable spend
• Over 24,000 businesses
• Over 220,000 residents
• Circa 5000 employee’s
• 600 plus different lines of business
Camden
camden.gov.uk
Context• Like all Councils we must save £150 M between 2012-
2018 from our bottom line
• At the same time we need to deliver fundamental
transformation to tackle inequality, foster economic
growth and deliver citizen centric services
• The challenges becomes harder because social and
economic pressures are mounting as people live longer
and populations expand & Citizen expectations of
government services are rising driven by a
transformation of consumer experience
• We cannot deliver this without innovation and this drove
us to rethink our approach to Digital Strategy
camden.gov.uk
The focus of
today’s
presentation is on
three key areas in
our Digital
Strategy:-
camden.gov.uk
Citizen Driven Services
Integrated
Patient Care
Across
Sectors
Early
Intervention,
Improved Life
Chances
Seamless,
Multi Channel
Transactions
via citizen
account
Accelerating
Connectivity,
Code Clubs
& business
account
camden.gov.uk
Citizen Driven Services
Using Customer
Insight, Understanding
Consumption & Costs
to Deliver Services
Differently,
Integrating,
Collaborating
Efficiently - Multi
Agency / Cross
Sector Teams
Digital by Default
Workforce ,
Mobile,
Paperless &
Digitally Wired
camden.gov.uk
Reimagining Government Driven by IoT
Big Belly Bins
– Waste
Management
Toilet Flush
Sensors –
Independent
Living
Smart Parking
Bays -
Enforcement
E-Tourism &
location
based
services,
Digital Ads
camden.gov.uk
Digital Engagement
Crowdsourcing You CutCitizen Facing
Dashboards &
Open Data
camden.gov.uk
Building Government as a Platform for
to transform the Public Sector
- Digital by Design, Open by Default
camden.gov.uk
• Govt doesn’t have a lot of money
• Existing applications are largely proprietary
• A disproportionately small number of vendors
dominating the market
• A lack of API’s / Standard Web Services to enable
automation of govt business processes
• A very small open source eco system in local
government
• Lots of cynicism about the art of the possible AND
• I got the blame for badly designed , poorly performing
vendor systems!!!
The Problems
camden.gov.uk
• Local government is full of creativity and
passionate people
• There are Centres of Excellence in the digital
community (e.g. LG Markers)
• Many Council’s have retained in house digital
capability so not starting from scratch
• There is an appetite to be radical, innovate and
think differently that wasn’t previously there
On the Plus Side
camden.gov.uk
Disrupt
Medieval
Markets
Disrupt the UK Software &
Services Market
Lets not be shaped by
products we don’t
need but lets reshape
the market so its
delivers digital
solutions we do need
camden.gov.uk
• Joining-up together across local and central
government as part of a national procurement strategy
for IT
• Driving a consolidation of frameworks and routes
to market making it cheaper, less confusing and easier
to buy IT & Services
• Incubating fresh approaches / thinking into
procurement through multi sector collaboration
• Making the procurement process simple, low cost
and effective so more gets delivered for less (&
quicker)
Procurement Strategy & Digital Opportunity
camden.gov.uk
• We spend a lot of money every year on IT –The LGA
estimates that Local Authorities spend £2.5bn each year on ICT,
with £1bn (40%) of this spent on software applications and
related services– at a time of austerity we need to make every
pound count
• More importantly this spend needs to enable digital
transformation - so we save an awful lot more money -
because the majority of government spend (and therefore the
savings & growth potential) lies outside of IT in innovation and
applying digital to processes, people and assets (95-97% of
controllable Council spend compared to 3-5% on IT)
Procurement & Digital – Why it Matters
camden.gov.uk
• Economies of scale and increased vendor leverage from
aggregation of demand
• Fresh thinking, competition and innovation from new market
entrants
• Collective interventions are shaping the market so it delivers
solutions we need for digital innovation rather than flogging us
standard products that don’t deliver this
• Marbling in the tech standards that deliver the next generation
Digital Govt Services (Openness, Interoperability, API’s, SDK’s
etc)
• And now many suppliers I’ve spoken to are looking to include
/ develop API’s / Std. Web Services in their products
What Cross Govt Collaboration is Delivering
camden.gov.uk
BitCoin
The Power of Open API’s
Why bother automate
banking when I can just
replace banks through
API’s?
When we apply this to
government its means lets
not just automate govt but
instead reimagine
government through API’s
camden.gov.uk
Service
Oriented
Architecture
(SOA)
Architect for Flexibility
Why should government
be locked into proprietary
software designed for a
different era
Lets take control of user
experience, business
process and data storage
through SOA.
camden.gov.uk
Why pay for the same
stuff time and time again.
Lets open source our
apps and harness the
crowd to scale it through
an Open Systems
Alliance
Harness the Potential of Open
Source
Don’t
outsource
it, crowd
source IT
camden.gov.uk
• Local Government is potentially a significant
group that, if harnessed , could be a strong
group to crowdsource
• It would make sense to share code
• It would great to share API’s
• Collaboration makes more sense than payingfor
the same thing many times over
Opportunities the Alliance Could Offer
camden.gov.uk
Don’t lock
our data up
Harness The Power of Joined Up &
Open Data
Lets Mash it up
using next
generation
analytics, MDM &
open data
platforms
camden.gov.uk
Service Oriented Architecture
Ability to change how things look, how
processes work and swap legacy systems in
and out
Master Data ManagementLinking our data together across silo’s to
enable us to drive up data quality and
mine data
Agile Workforce
• Mobile by default, electronic by default,
unified communications by detault
Analytical Capability
Build breath taking dashboards that are
driven by and responsive to the
requirements of services
Camden’s Government As a Platform
Identity Assurance
Using identity assurance to build services
from different pieces of the jigsaw
Citizen Account
Intergrated point of access to services
irrespective of channel and device
Hybrid Cloud Govt Open API’s
camden.gov.uk
Other Lessons Learnt
camden.gov.uk
There are information and
security risks to manage –
but these should not
prevent you doing
something or lead to
treacle like IT
implementations where
security forces rebellious
(and high risk) behaviours
or simply costs a lot of
money
Challenge Doom and Gloom
camden.gov.uk
Making it Happen – Agile Software
Development
- Co-creation
- Co-Designed with Customers
- Developed Iteratively
- Bonding Across the Organisation
camden.gov.uk
Thematic Digital Centres of Excellence
replace Old Style IT Departments
Agile
Working
Customer
Access &
Channel Shift
Business
Intelligence,
Analytics &
Open Data
Seamless
Government
Cross Cutting
IT Capabilities
camden.gov.uk
• Business Drive Digital Opportunity
• Digitally Savvy Leaders
• Digitally Skilled Staff
• Digitally Progressive Policies
• Evidence Based Policy Making
• Embedding Digital Practices
Evolve the Organisation for Digital
camden.gov.uk
Other Key Enablers
4. Focus on Pace from the top
2. Importance of external challenge and Systems Thinking
3. Loosening up of “classic” organisational controls
5. Move to evidence based leadership
1. Digital woven into other Strategies at key trigger points
6. Integration of Services (including public Heath)
7. Changed behaviors & attitudes to Digital
8. Importance of leadership modelling & change champions
camden.gov.uk
We are at a tipping point for the public
sector where we can save billions, drive better
outcomes and meet rising expectations through
digital…
So lets get digital …
camden.gov.uk
And :-
1. Reimagine Government so we don’t just
automate it we #Bitcoin IT
2. Lets not be defined by the market, but lets
disrupt it #MedievalMarkets
3. Lets be Digital by Design and Open By
Default #SOA #API’s #OpenSystems #GaaS
4. Don’t outsource IT, lets crowdsource IT
#OpenSystemsAlliance #Opensource
5. Don’t lock our data up, lets mash it up!
camden.gov.uk
Let’s Get Digital –
How Camden is Building Government as a Service
- Digital by Design, Open by Default
PSEICT conference 11th November 2014
John Jackson – CIO Camden Council
(@johnjackson1066)