SAP straw poll spotlights next-government IT ambitions

Vendor survey suggests public-sector IT directors want more help on organisational change

SAP: The next government should be ambitious around ICT

SAP believes the next government's leaders – whoever they might be – should be more ambitious with their IT plans.

The business management software vendor has quizzed 100 public-sector IT directors and CIOs, 80 of whom were from local bodies, about current government ICT strategy.

Forty-three said current strategy was not ambitious enough, and 71 said they needed government to be more ambitious if they were to meet their own organisational goals.

Simon Godfrey, director of business development and government relations at SAP, said: “It’s good to see that public sector IT directors are optimistic about achieving change.”

Godfrey believed that many find themselves faced with an increasingly demanding and tech-savvy public while IT spend continues to shrink.

“They are finding themselves in a Catch-22 situation,” he said. “The challenge is working out how they can achieve more with less.”

Around half of the respondents to the poll talked about aligning business and organisational goals, with reducing complexity being a “quick win” for public sector CIOs.

About a third cited the need to reduce energy and power costs.

However, 38 added that it was possible to be more innovative on a smaller budget, by streamlining processes, and embracing collaboration or on-demand technologies.

Respondents were not averse to emerging technologies – as long as they met business needs, SAP found.