‘We’ve messed up digital transformation enough to have learned how to do it’

At Friday’s think Digital Government 2017 one-day conference in London, well-known public sector ICT commentator Gary Barnett of GlobalData will be speaking on the subject of ‘assessing the progress of digital transformation in government’.

We caught a very busy Barnett in advance to try and get a sense of what’s on his mind and thus what we’re likely to hear on the 15th.

Hi there Gary, looking forward to hearing your session at the conference. What’s your role and responsibility at GlobalData, to give delegates some context?

I’m Head of End User Advisory at GlobalData, and I’m really looking forward to it, too.

Great. What does that job title mean?

I advise and support public sector organisations and help them deliver digital transformation.

You’re booked on the Think Digital Government agenda to speak on the subject of ‘Where To Now?’ What does that mean?

I’m going to try and share lessons from the frontline as I have seen and experienced. The bottom line is that enough people have messed up digital transformation work now that we have accumulated some hard-won wisdom at last on how to actually do it in a sustainable and efficient way.

Sounds fascinating, and useful.

The key message has to be that we’re in a new phase of digital transformation in the public sector in the UK, built on lessons learned over five years of trying to do it.

Who’s the best audience for this?

Anyone in the public sector interested in transformation – in thinking about new ways to operate and deliver services to citizens. It’s more and more clear that that’s a much broader discussion than just an IT one, so I think the Think Digital Government 2017 audience is absolutely the right one to debate this with me.

Thanks for your time, Gary, and good luck for Friday!

I’m really looking forward to it.

If you’d like to hear Barnett’s talk on digital transformation, as well as our other digital government leaders and stakeholders, there are still some places left for the conference – please go here to get the last ones. See you in Islington!