For the people

South Africa's government is expected to deliver much hope: to the continent, the country, its citizens and the ICT industry. Nevertheless, it has a lot of work to do if it is to deliver on this potential.

Critical to achieving its goals is the implementation of appropriate systems and processes within and across government departments.

Dell head of public sector sales Suren Govender explains: “We've had a couple of very serious factors that have impacted on public sector spending in the last 18 months. On the one hand, we have a recession and government is aware of its ability to boost the economy through its own infrastructure development programmes. On the other, we had the elections earlier this year. This brought a new dynamic to government, with new people introduced who are out to prove a point over the next five years they are in power.“

But industry players say that instead of aiming for lofty, wide-reaching ideals, the public sector should look low and focus on getting quick wins that bring benefits in the short term.

Considering the public sector is the one area that offers potential business to the ICT industry in the economic downturn, you have to wonder why the sector is pushing for smaller projects rather than the large deals that could sustain their businesses into the next five years. What, exactly, is up?

Sara Ross, business development manager for Spescom, explains: “Government's focus is on improving service delivery to citizens. As a sector, we need to make sure that we are helping them to achieve this from a technological point of view. We need to help government go back to basics and find the low-hanging fruit; look at smaller, independent projects which bring quick wins but also work on a strategic view of the future.”

This does, however, require that the industry take its eye off the corporate bottom line and look instead at citizen value.

“We're suppliers and we are looking to sell to the State IT Agency (SITA) and other public sector organisations,” says George Makume, Sun Microsystems' sales manager. “Sometimes we forget that we're also part of the citizenship that government is talking about. The services that we are selling to government are the same services that we expect to fulfil our expectations in our roles as citizens. They are there to serve us as individuals. For me, it's important that we look at the projects we are introducing to government from that perspective. That way, we - industry, government and citizens - will make some serious progress.”

And this means being mindful of the bigger picture, even as you work on a smaller project, says Collen Mashawana, Internet Solutions' public sector executive.

“Competition and personal egos within the public sector has resulted in a lot of duplication of services and solutions, which, in turn, means that money that could have been directed to another area has been wasted. Take, for example, municipal broadband projects. All of the major municipalities are on broadband drives, but none of them talk to each other, none are aligned in terms of strategies and the budgets are totally different for each city. If these projects were implemented in line with an agreed upon bigger picture, government probably would get more bang - or broadband - for its buck. Instead, we have municipalities competing with each other,” he points out.

Not only should these projects be done with the proper awareness of a bigger picture, says Mimecast technical presales consultant Kendal Watt, but they should be planned and implemented properly. “We've heard about the systems going into healthcare, but I know the people on the ground are still going from Baragwanath Hospital to the satellite clinics with a paper file that has lost pages and is missing information. This is healthcare, one of the most essential services that government provides to citizens. Government needs to implement a process where a pilot is implemented and tested and then grown and distributed throughout the country.”

So, what does this mean for the public sector's big e-government aspirations?

Government's focus is on improving service delivery to citizens.

Sara Ross, business development manager, Spescom

Under Tony Blair's administration, the UK government claimed to have achieved many successes through the implementation of an e-government strategy. However, these early wins have been overshadowed in recent times by the revelations of considerable data losses. In the meantime, governments throughout the world have taken their own look at the concept of e-government and developed their own approaches.

And this means there is a plethora of methodologies to choose from, according to Novell's Nkululeko Nxasana. “There has been talk of e-government for as long as I've been in the IT space and frankly, I'm still trying to understand what the hell e-government actually is. The latest sexy government approach is apparently i-government.

“But we need to develop more before we go there; before we run, we should learn to walk. Shouldn't we be looking at making infrastructure service-ready instead of putting these fancy names on everything? We need to focus on the core.”

Nxasana points out that the new political regime has declared a greater focus on social services. This means that industry needs to help government figure out how to make the process of, for example, applying for a basic grant available to those who have no access to telephony, let alone the Internet.

Which means the local ICT industry must also realise that the use of technology may not be the answer to every one of government's challenges.

Says Hedley Hurwitz, MD of Magix Intergration: “The problem is that IT is supposed to enable anything and everything. However, if the very people who need it can't access it, then it's simply useless. Undoubtedly there are areas where IT has a significant role to play. The justice cluster is just one example. If we could just get the proper systems in place there, we could see significant changes to our crime rate. It's about applying IT where it's relevant and if it's done properly, then it can change the face of the country overnight.”

While industry players are encouraging government to shelve large projects for the time being, there are concepts or technologies that should underpin all of government's technology considerations.

Just one of these areas that could bring much benefit to government's efforts is open source software (OSS).

Despite Cabinet having set policies to put government on the path to having predominantly OSS environments, the actual adoption rate has been disappointing, according to industry players.

Sometimes we forget that we're also part of the citizenship that government is talking about.

George Makume, sales manager, Sun Microsystems

Says Obsidian Systems' MD Muggie van Staden: “There's been lots of talk and very little action. An example is the open document format (ODF). Does government ever use it? Even SITA issues its requests for information or proposal in Word format. That isn't a government standard.

“I've had the privilege of speaking to a government audience and I asked them why they were there. Who was there because Parliament said so? Or because OSS is free? Or if it's because it's built well and you can get enterprise support? No one was clear why they had to go open source. A lot of them were there because someone said so. Someone said they were there because it's supposed to cost nothing,” he adds.

The concept of OSS being 'free' has certainly been a stumbling block for many software providers in the space, agree Van Staden's industry colleagues.

Software AG regional sales manager Anthony Kamwaro explains: “The problem I have with government's OSS movement is that the first thing they say is that it's got to be open source and it's got to be free. This is all wrong. The primary focus should be on open standards so that there is the ability to interoperate across systems.”

Krushen Moodley, strategic account manager at SAS Institute, agrees: “There is a definite perception that you can substitute proprietary software for OSS and access a major operational cost benefit. But this is not necessarily true, even if you are using a free, open source solution. Very little - if any - consideration is given to issues around training, customisation, implementation and support. In my opinion, OSS is the way to go for government, but, as Van Staden says, the focus should be on open standards rather than open source.”

What's more, government's preoccupation with getting OSS onto its desktops is misguided, according to Van Staden.

“Government's CIOs are focusing on the wrong things. Why should there be such a push to get OSS on every desktop in the public sector? The desktop is not where the real value lies and it's also not where it has its best performance. The real value lies in commoditising server environments, introducing virtualisation and the like. If government were to focus on the backend, it would find that 95% of its infrastructure could be commoditised. And if it's in an open standards environment then it doesn't need to worry about being tied into a single vendor or having to do a rip and replace every time there is a new technology it wants to implement,” he says.

Moodley and Van Staden point out that the software world is fast moving to open standards. Given widespread availability of solutions based on open standards - from reputable vendors - there is no reason why SITA should allow any tenders to be granted to offerings that still follow the old proprietary route, they say.

But Barry Gill, Mimecast senior consultant, notes it may not be the lack of solutions that is hampering the uptake of OSS.

“There is a perceived fear that should something go wrong with the implementation or the operation of a system, then the person who signed that off will have to carry the can. And no one in any form of government wants to put their head on the block for potential failure,” he comments.

It is this fear that could be the reason why government isn't doing more to consolidate and virtualise its infrastructure, despite evidence of efficiency and effectiveness gains. Unfortunately, the downside of this fear is that technology solutions cost the taxpayer more than they need to.

Government's CIOs are focusing on the wrong things.

Muggie van Staaden, MD, Obsidian Systems

Themba Gezane, public sector business consultant at Bula Technologies, explains: “Government departments and organisations operate in silos and procurement isn't central. What happens is that you get industry using a box-dropper approach to government work, which won't facilitate virtualisation and doesn't make the most of its purchasing power.”

IBM public sector client executive Vincent Makoti agrees: “I engage with government departments that act and behave in a silo-type mentality. Projects are run and infrastructure is acquired based on specific projects, so there's a lot of duplication. I've tried in a number of instances to advise the customer to look at virtualisation where it will increase efficiencies and other things.

“I have a big problem when a government entity is made to spend more money that it should. When a department spends more than what they should have, then I have a fundamental citizen challenge to that,” he adds.

Whether it is virtualisation or OSS, government does need to be sure it is going about an initiative for the right reasons, and with the best approach, according to Lee Naik, senior manager of public sector at Accenture.

No one in any form of government wants to put their head on the block for potential failure.

Barry Gill, senior consultant, Mimecast

“We generally see two approaches from government. Some departments come to us and say, 'Help us figure out how to create a strategic cost reduction agenda'. Other departments come to us and say, 'Virtualisation/OSS? Cool, I've read about that somewhere, let's try it!' I've seen some departments go about projects without thought to the consequences on actual service delivery. As an industry, we need to advocate that government thinks through its projects properly,” he says.

Despite strong competition for revenue among vendors and service providers, the industry players that ITWebspoke to agreed that industry needed to collaborate with government and each other in order to improve delivery to citizens.

Richard Menton, product development manager for Bytes Communication Systems, says the public sector is one area where all could benefit from 'co-opetition'.

“We need to share the public sector pie for the benefit of the country. Some may not believe this is possible, but those same people would never have thought that presidents Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk could have worked together, against impossible odds, to achieve the greatest thing this country has witnessed. These statesmen delivered the 'Rainbow Nation'. We need to collaborate to help the Rainbow Nation achieve the best possible environment to meet its needs.”