A diplomatic approach to IT

Government IT projects are notoriously huge in scale and complexity, not to mention budget-heavy. Julian Rogers travels to the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office to find out how CIO Tony Mather is managing a particularly complex IT transition for this globally dispersed organisation.

“You are always under pressure in the public sector...in the private sector it is easy to hide the things that haven't gone so well”
-Tony Mather

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) has a network of 260 diplomatic posts, including embassies and High Commissions, scattered all over the world. These 'little pieces of Britain' represent the UK interests overseas and can be found anywhere from ultra-modern metropolises of New York City and Tokyo to far-flung and dangerous outposts like Basra in southern Iraq and Afghanistan's Helmand Province. Overseeing global IT support for the FCO's 16,000 staff is the job of CIO Tony Mather. The FCO is a 200-year-old institution and Mather, a mechanical engineer by training, is its first ever CIO – a signal of intention by the powers that be that IT is an indispensable cog in today's operations. "The role was created because technology was becoming critical in FCO achieving its goals," explains Mather, who Mather joined in 2007 from the industrial gases group BOC. "Also, there was a government to get professionals into certain areas and IT is one of these – people used to rotate around so you would have a generalist doing a specialist job."

With this global IT responsibility comes a fair share of travel opportunities for Mather. Indeed, just prior to the Business Management's meeting with him at the FCO's Westminster headquarters, he had jetted in from Delhi, India, although he is typically tight-lipped for a government chief on what his trip entailed, merely revealing that it was "very productive". It transpires that Mather was there to assess better cross-departmental working, alongside replacing the overseas network next year. Despite his initial reticence, Mather waxes lyrical when quizzed about how the hugely complex Future Firecrest project is panning out. This multi-million pound plan involves replacing old hardwire and desktops along with dated back-office technology throughout the FCO's posts. It's hoped that Future Firecrest will revolutionise how FCO staff go about their business all over the world.

Apart from a physical systems upgrade, Mather envisions the move providing a catalyst for a change in working practices. "Future Firecrest will allow people to work in different ways and a mobility dimension that they have never had before. It will give people flexibility around where and how they work, so it will help us from a diversity point of view, and it will also help us to better handle our information and make sure we use information to generate knowledge." Mather suggests it is all about seeing the long-term benefits of the project. "I said to my boss that if at the end of the programme all we have done is replace technology, then I would see it as a big failure. We have to start realising the benefits of new ways of working, collaboration and gaining knowledge." It will also help the FCO to leverage global teams – both virtual and multi-departmental – and collaborate outside of a physical location, which has proved a particularly tricky obstacle in the past.

As an extension of Future Firecrest, Mather orchestrated an experiment last year where three diplomatic posts went 'off line'. Dubbed 'Unclassified Embassy', the test saw the posts cut free from the FCO network, allowing staff greater flexible working; the opportunity to work from home, use laptops away from their desks and access email on BlackBerrys. The flipside of this flexibility was being kept in the dark when it came to internal FCO news. "When they went off our system we gave them rules about how their work had to be truly unclassified so that they weren't breaking any of the information assurance rules. We ran this for just over a year and learned some fantastic stuff – both the advantages as well as the disadvantages of being outside of the wire because it was good to hear about how people missed having information that is within the FCO or government community and not the public domain." This radical idea may have raised eyebrows in the corridors of Whitehall but Mather insists staff weren't allowed to run amok when let off leash. "It isn't about being wild – there is a benefit for being on a secure and available platform but Unclassified Embassy was well received and sent out the message that we will try new things."

Balancing the books

A pleasantly surprise, especially for UK tax payers in this era of belt-tightening, is the fact that Future Firecrest is on course to be ahead of schedule and within budget - an exception to the rule with cumbersome IT projects in the public sector. In 2006 when the project was rubber-stamped it was expected to cost UK£450 million. When Mather joined in 2007 a new timeline was set with the FCO's technology partner HP, partly due to new security arrangements following Home Office guidelines. "We are currently aiming to bring the programme to conclusion around April or May next year, which is ahead of the August 2010 deadline that was originally set," Mather explains. And there's more reason for good cheer. "We have also taken about UK£30 million out of the overall spend base, so it's ahead of schedule and we are trying to create value for money and reduce costs where we can."

Value for money is key in these lean times but there is a perception that public sector projects fall under the full glare of the media spotlight. When things go wrong and IT chief's shortcomings or incorrect decisions will be open to scrutiny and ridicule. "You are always under pressure in the public sector," Mather concedes, "I agree will this idea of more visibility because in the private sector it is easy to hide the things that haven't gone so well. However, I don't think it drives the wrong behaviour. I would rather make sure that my pressure is because I know what we need to do and that's what drives the focus on delivering those things. It's just one of those things you live with."

The reason for the lion's share of project overspends and delays is due to their size of and complexity, as well as the large-scale nature of today's public organisations. "It's a factor that private companies rarely have to contend with and people sometimes forget about the scale involved," says Mather. For instance, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a huge organisation and you would struggle many in the private sector that match it terms of scale." Mather also highlights that strict procurement policies hamper some of things you want to do.

Naturally, the FCO needs to offer flexibility but protection of internal information – whether classified or not – will still be a top priority. For Mather, the most significant risk around information assurance is ensuring that information isn't shared needlessly. "We need to make sure that we can safely information so we have to educate people and make sure the processes are in the right place," he suggests. "It's not a bar that you set – it's a journey that you go on in terms of the maturity and constantly increasing your corporate capability around information assurance. Some of this is through process but a lot of it is through people and giving them the proper training." And the larger and more scattered an organisation is, the greater the chance of leaks emerging in defences. And although the FCO is an organisation that understands data classification and has processes in place to protect classified information, Mather describes geographic dispersion as something that he "just has to live with".

Making the switch

At this point in our discussion Mather makes a furtive glance towards his wristwatch. With a bulging inbox to plough through after his Indian trip his PA pre-warned me his time is in short supply. Nevertheless, he continued to answer a question about making the leap from the private companies to government-run organisations. Before dipping his toe in the public sector Mather, who says he has always been interested in the impact of IT, as opposed to the technology in its own right, worked for established brands like AstraZeneca, Jaguar and Philips. However, he says his arrival at FCO as a "real eye-opener" and that he could never have imagined exactly what the job would be like and the challenges ahead of him. "I don't think I could have worked out what it was going to be like, but I spoke to a few people with the FCO beforehand to get a pulse on things. Even now I find that each time I make a trip to a post – be it an embassy or a High Commission – I find out the different things that FCO people are doing." He also found his preconceptions that the private sector is where the talent lies quickly evaporated. "I always thought that if people were good they would be in the private sector because that is where the money is, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of talent in the public sector at the moment. I am working with some fantastic people so the whole idea about there being no talent in public sector is an absolute myth."

A meeting of minds

As well as being CIO of the FCO, Tony Mather also sits on the Chief Information Officer Council. Formed in 2005, the council brings together tech chiefs from a cross section of the public sector to discuss and address common issues. It also aims to utilise IT in order to transform government to deliver modern public services effectively and formulate ways to make cost savings across the public sector. Mather says: "We all leave our departmental agendas at the door and speak about cross departmental opportunities and to discuss the long-term IT strategy for government There are big savings to be made if this is done properly and some big opportunities so the council is about how we can achieve better value for the public. It is also about the impact we can make by raising the quality of the IT profession throughout government."