FINAL WORD
are vendors not being held to account ? Why are they still being awarded new contracts ?
Indeed , why are they winning the business to rebuild and recover the systems damaged by a security breach that occurred on their watch , when other Managed Services Providers and cloud platforms can offer not only better pricing but a far better security track record . Something is wrong in public sector procurement .
The public sector is complicit in this overspending : any vendor attempting to come in and charge a lower , fair amount is automatically discounted from the tender process . Why ? There are multiple reasons , not least that the public sector has been trained by the IT industry to expect these inflated costs , but there is also a reliance on dedicated procurement officers who lack essential sector expertise .
Why for example , is every single system used by a city council located on the same public cloud platform ? It should be impossible for a system breach to extend and expand across every single part of the organisation yet by failing to understand basic security principles , the council set itself up for expensive failure .
The lack of expertise is a serious concern . Continued reliance on large IT vendors has resulted in many public sector organisations becoming dangerously under-skilled .
Given the lack of internal knowledge , organisations often turn to incumbent vendors for information to support the tender process , inevitably to further price inflation . Furthermore , when a crisis occurs , reliance on a third party , rather than inhouse expertise , leads to inevitable delays that exacerbates problems and results in additional cost to repair and restore systems .
The situation is frustrating for IT vendors with expertise to deliver lower cost , secure systems . The mis-directed spend has left public sector bodies out of date . Not only are security postures old fashioned ; but there are delays in vital service delivery innovations that would transform the citizen experience and provide operational cost savings .
Given the escalating pressures facing all public sector organisations , change is essential . In-house expertise must be rebuilt to ensure sector experts are involved in the procurement process and pricing expectations must be immediately overhauled : avaricious IT vendors will continue to over-charge unless challenged .
One option is to appoint an outsourced CTO with broad public and private sector expertise , an individual with the knowledge and experience to call out the endemic over charging and sanity check the procurement process .
It is also important to move away from the herd mentality .
Would , for example , an on-premises private cloud solution be a better option than a public cloud hyperscaler ? What is the cost comparison of adding in-house security expertise rather than relying on a third party , factoring in , the value of fast response if a problem occurs .
It is telling that the handful of local authorities with a good security track record have not adopted the same big vendor , public cloud approach but applied rigour to the procurement process to achieve a more secure and cost-effective approach . Others could and should learn from these organisations .
Good , effective IT systems underpin every aspect of public sector service delivery and , right now , the vast majority are not fit for purpose . It is , therefore , vital to highlight and celebrate the good performers , and challenge those vendors that continue to overcharge and underperform .
Sharing information between organisations , both to support strategic direction and day to day risk mitigation , is vital to propagate best practice . Critically , by pooling knowledge and expertise , the public sector can begin to regain control over what is , today , a broken model .
While the public sector continues to flounder with security and a lack of knowledge , IT vendors will continue to win . They need to be held to account and that can only happen if public sector organisations come together to demand more and hold the industry to account . •
Opinions and comments here have been expressed by the author .
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