The Naked CIO: Enemies of the state

The bureaucratic bog created by politicians is only part of the problem for IT in this country. Failure to foster innovation and talent is what's really coming home to roost, says the Naked CIO.

Questions about the UK government's role in IT excellence and progress rarely produce a positive response.

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That perception may be inevitable because some of the things government is responsible for are necessary evils with negative connotations on IT and commerce in general.

After all, controls and security are very real concerns of the modern technology age and cannot be dismissed lightly.

Yet the administration of these objectives could be much less painful. We, as IT leaders, are drowning in bureaucratic processes that are unnecessary in many cases.

Governance produces a constant stream of rules that stifle innovation, impede productivity and create barriers between IT and the business. These rules create protocol that is misconstrued by users as attitude.

It is a travesty that the biggest growth area in recent years in IT in terms of cost and resources is governance and compliance - especially given constrained budgets and the need to deliver better and faster for your business to remain competitive.

The governance overhead has no inherent business value and draws resources and spending away from areas that could deliver much greater end value to the organisation.

But that is not the major reason for considering the government an enemy of IT departments everywhere.

The concentration on legislation crippling the IT industry may be partly to blame for growing concerns about UK IT effectiveness but it is not the root cause.

The real problem is the UK government's abandonment of developing talent and its lack of incentive to drive innovation at grassroots level.

We are losing jobs and devaluing talent because of growing offshore initiatives by companies the government is implicitly encouraging through its silence and inaction.

It is blind to the long-term effects of an eroding talent pool that is a direct result of offshoring, which is made easy in the UK. It does nothing to inspire young or old to pursue or develop a career in IT.

The government should provide companies and individuals with incentives to innovate and employ UK workers. They should reward those that choose to stay and penalise companies that decide to offshore IT services.

Politicians need to inspire educational institutions to breed the next generation of inventors and innovators that will shape the UK as a leader in the IT industry.

Only 20 of the top 300 IT companies reside in Europe and even fewer are in the UK. This staggering statistic suggests that we are already dependent on foreign innovations to support our IT needs.

Money being spent on IT is going elsewhere. The talent required to develop next-generation technologies is going elsewhere. Our government refuses to recognise its responsibility to change this situation.

The UK is rapidly becoming a third-world technology community, a decline that the government through its policies and ignorance is supporting.