Politicians and representatives of Microsoft and the IT community took part in a round table discussion about the importance of interoperability and innovation in parliament last week.
Describing interoperability as the equivalent of "a travel adapter for a plug," Stephen McGibbon, Microsoft regional technology officer for Europe, talked about the challenges.
"Largely the problems that we face are not technological but legal issues," he said.
"What we should be aiming for is simplification and standardisation," commented Bill McCluggage, office of the government CIO and SIRO.
"We need to look at it from a citizen's perspective; my son doesn't want to know how a fridge works, he just wants it to keep his can of Coke cold."
Founder and chairman of iWantGreatCare.org Neil Bacon agreed.
"Our successes are because we have a total obsession with the end user," he said.
Debate facilitator and House Magazine editor Gisela Stuart MP talked about the conflict between interoperability and consumer choice asking:
"How do you have interoperability without being hostage to one system?"
Explaining how industry standard software such as MS Word and Excel is available in both a free to download and professional paid for versions, McGibbon responded:
"There is a standards war because you can only have one standard.
"Indeed there is a market place out there but customers just don't want to be part of these battles."
The participants moved on to discussing the difficulties that innovation faces in the public sector.
"Society, individuals and companies make solutions," added Bacon, describing how it is entrepreneurs that find the best ideas to meet the demands of the public.
Websites such as Amazon and Google show the best solutions never come from the state, he added.
"Innovation is the lifeblood of countries," replied Nigel Gibbons, CEO of Unitech.
"But there are technologies that can't be tapped into for political reasons; the government just needs to stand back."
The participants discussed the role that small and medium businesses (SMEs) have to play in innovating the public sector.
"Microsoft has a lot of small business partners," replied Microsoft head of government affairs Paul Morris.
Commenting on the importance of getting SMEs involved in procurement he added: "One of the key areas is how to bring people in; we need to open up procurement instead of closing it off."
In a lively debate participants spoke about the problems with procurement in the public sector.
"Public sector procurement is so much more expensive than in the private sector," explained Sureyya Cansoy, associate director of public sector work programme, Intellect.
"Procurement is not designed to help innovation," added Bacon.
Among the many issues discussed regarding procurement the main issue was the barriers to entry that SMEs face when applying for government projects.
"The public sector get a very hard time about it," responded McGibbon.
"We have to remember that the private sector chooses who its end users are, it is a massively different environment."
Describing how the public sector has outsourced a number of staff, the Earl of Errol, a member of the parliamentary IT committee, said: "We have lost a lot of smart procurers."
There was a general consensus that the huge cost of applying for public sector contracts meant that many SMEs were excluded from the process, resulting in a loss of new and innovative ideas.
"Innovation is risky," warned Dr Andrew Hopkirk, director of the e-GIF programme.
"I think that innovation is the best thing since sliced bread, but we have to face the fact that it will go wrong. I think we need a greater tolerance of risk."
Please follow the links for podcasts of this session.
