Exploring the opportunities and pitfalls of new and emerging technologies in Australian local...

Exploring the opportunities and pitfalls of new and emerging technologies in

Australian local government

Future of Local Government Summit

Rydges, Melbourne

Thursday 23rd May 2013

© All rights reserved. Rob Livingstone Advisory Pty Ltd. Unauthorized redistribution prohibited without prior approval. ‘Navigating through the Cloud’ and ‘Success is our story, let’s make it yours’ are Trademarks of Rob Livingstone Advisory Pty Ltd.

Agenda

Context

Perspective: Emerging Technologie

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Opportunities Pitfalls What

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Cloud under the lens

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Flickr.com

Technology fuelled Disruption + current climate: Weathering the sea of perfect storms

A perspective on Emerging Technologies

Organisations across the board, are finding themselves in the ‘perfect storm’ arising from the combination of forces:

• The first, and most influential of these forces in my view, is the increase uncertainty and volatility facing Australian organisations, whether public, private or government. This tends to drives technology decision making which is increasingly focussed on the short term.

• The second influence is the fundamental shift in the expectations of enterprise IT by other executives and the business as a whole. This is a direct consequence of having first hand exposure to user friendly, low cost (or free) consumer grade IT technologies and solutions, and compelling marketing from IT vendors.


Organisations across the board, are finding themselves in the ‘perfect storm’ arising from the combination of forces:

• The third is inconsistency of business strategies across organisations. This presents a challenge for those in IT leadership roles, who are expected to respond to inconsistent short term demands, some of which are fragmented, not always well thought through, potentially contradictory and not always in the long term best interests of the organisation.

• The fourth is the expectation that IT leadership should not appear as technologists. The ‘new IT leader’ should be able to communicate clearly in ‘business speak’ and turn technical, governance and risk complexity into plain language.



Determining the optimal approach in the use of Technology for the enterprise is not a trivial exercise

http://info.publicintelligence.net/GlobalTrends2030.pdf

December 2012

Context: Global influences

• Potential for cross-organisational collaboration to achieve joint outcomes using emerging technologies a now reality. – Question is, what is the appetite for a change from the

organisational perspective.• The opportunities for LGs to maximise the upside potential of

disruptive, new and emerging technologies exists – This will, however require a coherent and deliberate ‘umbrella’ IT

strategy• Fragmentation and inconsistency of existing IT systems,

technologies & related services across LG agencies contributes to duplication of effort.

Context: Government

(Not in order of importance)

• Limited budget and resourcing at LG level to take on major IT initiatives change– Seduction of the Cloud computing model – ‘pay as you go’.

• State and Federal Governments collaboration sits astride an active fault-line with occasional earthquake. A well known example being healthcare funding. – Question is: How does this influence LG’s willing and/or

capability to embark on a LG state-wide structural change on how IT is used?

• LG IT is ‘operational’ and has no real funding for innovation• Technology initiated disruptive change is the norm, and

responding to this volatility with legacy enterprise IT business model is neither simple or risk free.

Context: Government


• Budgetary pressures, cost cutting, austerity, uncertainty contribute to increasingly short term thinking and planning across all industries, whether public, private or Government. (result of GFC, deficit reductions and other factors)– Appetite and capability for making big, bold changes requiring

long term thinking.– Innovation, speed, agility not easy

• For LG, shifting away from locally developed, bespoke, non-integrated legacy IT systems with known cost and risk is not a trivial exercise.

• Ratepayers are increasingly ‘tech savvy’ and increasingly expect consumer style technology such as ‘apps’, etc

Context: Government


Context – Challenges facing Local Government

What are the key technology challenges facing LG?

1. Seduction of being spoilt for choice: Cloud2. Political reality3. Governance4. Standardisation

Cloud – is it a metaphor for disruption?


Challenge #1: Seduction of being spoilt for choice: Cloud• What’s the perceived value of specific cloud offerings, vs. the actual

value.• Cloud lowers (or can eliminate) the barrier to entry to enterprise IT

systems• The Cloud market is innovative, volatile and new products and

offerings are appearing on almost a daily basis• Cloud allows stretched internal LG IT staff to be directed to ‘value

adding’ tasks, not just keeping the lights on.• ‘Pay as you go’ model removes the need for up-front capital

investment which is appealing for organisations that are capital constrained.

• Real risk of a fragmented, inconsistent array of Cloud applications which are poorly integrated, which could compound the problem

• Showcasing a series of Cloud vendors without understanding the key organisational drivers or requirements may not be in LG’s best interests


Challenge #2: Political reality

• At what level of government should the LG technology strategy sit?• What influence does LG have to elevate the discussion to the

Australian Local Government of Australia (ALGA) (national) level?• Balance between local ‘loss of control’ and a coherent, well thought

through ‘umbrella’ IT and technology strategy needs to be struck to:• Maximise ‘value’• Maximise collaboration between LG councils.• Minimise cost (Both short term and TCO)• Minimise risk (or at least identify the risks & mitigate)• Minimise risks associated with opportunistic vendor predation • Develop and relevant vendor management strategy

Challenge #3: Governance:

• Map the inventory of legislative, policy or other compliance mandates to your current and any proposed cloud solutions.

• Public Cloud offerings may present a range of challenges to LG in respect of the various statutes and regulatory mandates (eg: Privacy using overseas Cloud services).

• Recognise that Cloud may not eliminate the need for effective IT governance (eg: change control)


Challenge #3: Governance: New / emerging technologies• Making sense of the myriad of position papers, guidelines etc across

Federal and State governments no small task. • For LG: Like drinking from a fire hydrant

• Based on the principle of “Here’s the guidelines, then proceed on an informed basis!”


Challenge #4: Standardisation:

• Public Cloud is built on the premise of standardisation. Build once, use many times allows for greater efficiencies, hence lower cost.

• The challenge lies in ensuring that, over the life of a specific Cloud system’s use, if it cannot be configured to meet a changing environment (eg new legislation), LG may be forced to adapt or abandon that Cloud system.

• Understand where the real value in the standardisation of so called, ‘commodity IT services’ using Cloud lies. Eg: email, file and network storage, etc


Cloud Computing under the Lens

• Real opportunities will be identified through the systematic and deliberate attention to what is possible, rather than looking for a solution to fix a problem.

• Emerging can lower IT operational costs – but not always!• Faster delivery of IT projects and related initiatives• Increasing organisational agility through the configuration of,

rather than development (e.g. coding) of systems • Universal access to smart systems using Smartphones can be a

game-changer in delivering services to ratepayers• Improved coordination between LG services• Emerging lends itself to pilot project / proof of concept trials for

innovative local initiatives with low penalty costs for failures.

Opportunities of Cloud Computing

Some Pitfalls of Cloud

• Lack of clarity over what organisational problem needs solving by the application of the latest ‘big thing’ in technology

• Fragmented, localised Cloud systems could increase the systemic (not technical) risk to LG

• Vendor predation and/or individual stakeholders ‘opinions’ are no substitute to good, well informed commercial decision making on new technologies.

• Adopting Cloud without knowing your exit or ‘transition-out’ strategy at the start

• Inappropriate pre-purchase due diligence leading to real problems

• Lack of visibility of total cost of ownership• Legal and jurisdictional issues associated with overseas Cloud

providers

• Integrating Cloud systems with any others can be costly & complex• Security – You are at the mercy of the provider’s standards• Business Continuity• Identity Management• Forensics• Contractual complexity….. To name but a few

Some Pitfalls of Cloud

• Recognise that Cloud computing is only one of a number of new and emerging, potentially disruptive technologies

• Clarify what problems you’re trying to fix first, then identify the potential solutions

• Do not necessarily, make public Cloud, or any specific technology your default position without careful assessment.

• Due diligence is the weapon of choice in the fight against future systemic risks.

What next?S

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W: www.rob-livingstone.com

E: [email protected]

P: +61 2 8005 1972

M: +61 419 632 673

F: +61 2 9879 5004

Tw: @rladvisory

ROB LIVINGSTONE- Fellow, University of Technology, Sydney- Principal, Rob Livingstone Advisory Pty Ltd

Thank You!

© All rights reserved. Rob Livingstone Advisory Pty Ltd. Unauthorized redistribution prohibited without prior approval. ‘Navigating through the Cloud’ and ‘Success is our story, let’s make it yours’ are Trademarks of Rob Livingstone Advisory Pty Ltd.

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