The document discusses the spread of information age reforms and use of information technology (IT) in government. It provides examples of increasing IT spending by governments around the world, with estimates of up to $500 billion spent annually on public sector IT systems globally. Four approaches to reform are identified: ignoring IT, isolating it, idolizing it, and fully integrating IT and information management into organizational change. Barriers to reform are also discussed.

1. THE SPREAD OF INFORMATION AGE
REFORM
SHERYLE A. DOMINGO
DM 216 - Information Technology Management
Master in Development Management

2. INFORMATION AGE DOES
EXISTS BUT IS IT REALLY
SPREADING?

3. If we consider reform in general, then there is no
doubt about its spread: whatever their guise or
terminology, public sector reform initiatives have
been on the increase. They have spread to all corners
of the globe. Within individual countries, they have
increasingly set the agenda for public sector
managers.
The most tangible evidence of SPREAD comes from
the increasing use of Information Technology within
government.

4. The origins of Information Technology in
government are often traced back to Herman
Hollerith, who work for the US Census
Bureau in the 1880s. He developed a
tabulating machine based on punched cards
which was first used for the 1890 national
census and subsequently for tabulating
military payroll. The company Hollerith
founded to produce his machine is today’s
International Business Machine(IBM); the
largest IT firm in the world.

5. Just as IBM has grown huge from small roots, so too has government
use of IT. There are no reliable figures, but can guess estimate that up
to US$500 billion per year is being spent world-wide on IT based
information systems in the public sector.
WASHINGTON – The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its updated
annual “Report on Information Technology (IT) Spending for the Federal
Government.” This update details the approximately $66.4 billion of requested FY
2008 IT spending, a 2.3 percent increase over the FY 2007 enacted total.
http://georgewbushwhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/pubpress/2007/052407_it_spending.pdf ACCESSED
9/20/2013
In 2008-09, annual Queensland Government ICT spending reached $1.5 billion , of
which 56% or $845 million was directed towards ongoing operations of the sector's
existing business applications and technology infrastructure
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Research+and+Markets%3a+In+200809%2c+Annual+Queensland+Government+ICT...-a0213312431 ACCESSED
9/20/2013

6. In year 2008-2009 Australian government spend
US$5.17 billion in IT
http://agimo.gov.au/files/2012/04/ict_expenditu
re_report_2008-09_-_2010-11.pdf Accessed
9/20/2013
Philippines Governance Systems and Efficiency
Digitalization Program Php6,600,00.00;
Php66,797,000 Financial Management
Information System Php71,802,000 for the
National Payroll System. (Office of the President)
http://www.dbm.gov.ph/?page_id=3610
accessed 9/20/2013

7. • Saudi Arabia spending on information
technology to US$4.1 billion dollars in 2012,
with an annual increase of 9% over the past
years
http://we-en.blogspot.com/2013/02/41billionin-spending-on-information.html accessed
9/20/2013

8. Public Sector organizations undertaking their
initial computerizations will typically see IT as
means of increasing efficiency; automating the
human effort within existing manual procedures
and thereby attempting to cut staff costs. It is
here that the majority of IT has so far been
implemented in the public sector. At the other
hand of the spectrum, a number of countries
have been investing in electronic government
projects, with a particular emphasis on using IT
to improve the delivery of public services,
combining the aims of increasing efficiency and
becoming more customer responsive.

9. In dynamic terms, the IT base available to
support the reinvention of the government is
increasing every year. In many governments,
increasing hopes about IT’s contribution to
reform translate into increasing IT investment
rates. Recently real average increases in
annual government IT expenditure include 8%
in the US, 23% in Malaysia and 61% in
Singapore

10. The relationship between IT and government
reinvention is increasing not only in terms of investment,
but also in terms of visibility, with a number of highprofile initiatives having been launched during the 1990s.
These have spread on a policy wave from early
epicenters: notably the US but also Singapore. They
include:
• Australian Initiatives to make use of IT in government
reinvention were launched in 1996 as an IT blueprint for
the public sector. By 1998 the portfolio of initiatives
included Fed link, which will create a whole government
intranet, and the Commonwealth Information Centre,
which will provide a single point of access to government
information.

11. • European Union The Interchange of Data
between Administration (IDA) programme,
initiated in 1995 and entering its second phase
in 1998, uses computer networks to enable
exchange of public sector information
between European governments.
• India The Leadership and Excellence in
Andhara Pradesh in the 21st Century (LEAP21)
initiative, launched in 1997, aims to use IT as a
significant lever to the creation of better
government in Andhra Pradesh state

12. •Philippines The governments National Information
Technology Plan competitiveness and empowerment
that includes plans for extensive computerization of
government operations in order to improve
governments capacity and efficiency across the board.
In 1997, the plan was renamed IT21.
•Singapore The IT2000 Intelligent Island master plan,
first formulated in 1991, aims to make use of IT
pervasive throughout the whole Singapore society. It
includes a significant component of reengineering
public services through use of IT

13. • South Korea The snappily titled
Implementation Plan for Governmental
Administration Informatization
Promotion, originating in a 1987
information systems project, strives to
increase the efficiency and quality
government services through use of IT.
• US The National Performance Review
(NPR) of 1993 and subsequent Access
America plan of 1997 aim to create
better, cheaper government with a
substantial role for IT in that process

14. •World Bank/ developing countries. The
information for Development (InfoDev)
programme was designed in 1995 to harness
the "information revolution' for Third World
development. It includes the aim of using IT
more widely in government reform programmes
Within these initiatives, IT has often been
much more strongly identified as a part of
information age reform than have information
and updated information systems:

15. The primary objective is to investigate
the scope for a significant increase in
the use of on-line technology to
transform government so that, by the
turn of the century, most administrative
business is conducted electronically

16. • The initiative focuses on using Information
Technology as a strategic tool for improving
the quality of life for the people of Andhra
Pradesh
• The vision of IT2000 is based on the farreaching use of IT to see how IT can be
pervasively applied to improve business
performance and the quality of life
• Government direct will be founded on the
new possibilties offered by information
technology, and the private sector.

17. DIFFERENT
REFORM
APPROACHES TO
The approach to reform in the public sector has
changed over time as regards IT and Information. In
large part, these changes relate to the changing
nature of senior public officials (both politicians and
managers), who have tended to set the
implementation agenda for reform. We can categorize
four different approaches to reform that appear over
time in a "four-eyes" model:

18. 1. IGNORE
Public Officials are ignorant about IT
and Information System (IS).
They therefore do not include
consideration of their plans for reform. IT
expenditure is minimal and any IT
managers accidentally appointed in the
public sector have a pretty thin time.

19. 2. ISOLATE
Public Officials remain computer-illiterate
and lack an understanding of information's role.
They nevertheless are aware of IT and its
potential. Investment in IT is therefore included
in reform plans but is seen as the responsibility
of IT experts. It is mainly associated with
automation and some idea that efficiency gains
will result. For other reform agendas, it is added
as an afterthought and is not linked in any
systematic way to the process of reform. This,
nonetheless, represents the first step on the
path of Information age reform. IT managers get
the budgets they always wanted and a certain
amount of freedom from management oversight.

20. 3. IDOLIZE
Public officials have become semiliterate. They use computers and are overaware of ITs potential. They believe that IT
can transform the business government.
They are dimly aware that Information is
something important. The public sector
becomes awash with IT-driven reform
projects which place technology at the heart
of the change process. IT managers get
huge budgets, immense workloads and the
boss always looking over their shoulder and
claiming any credit.

21. 4. INTEGRATE
Public officials have become informationliterate. They recognize information as a key
organizational resource that is central to all
government functions. The reengineering of
Information systems and the introduction of
IT are now fully integrated into the process of
organizational change, driven by reform
objectives

22. INFORMATION AS A RESOURCE: IMPLICATIONS
FOR GOVERNMENT
• Managing
government
information:
government information in all forms is a
strategic resource and will be effectively
managed throughout its lifecycle
• Data administration: all government
information will be subject to data
administration
to
ensure
common
definitions, integrity and consistency of
data.

23. • Sharing
and
re-using
information:
information will be captured once, as close
to the source as possible, then shared and
re-used by authorized users.
• Exchanging information: once captured,
government information should be stored
and exchanged electronically to avoid
transcribing and re-entering it manually.

24. INFORMATION AS A RESOURCE: IMPLICATIONS
FOR GOVERNMENT
• Protecting information: the security, integrity
and privacy of government information will be
ensured by integrating information technology
security measures with physical, personnel
screening, and other security measures.
• Retaining
information:
government
information will be retained only while there
exist a business need, a legislative or policy
requirement, or when it has historical or
archival importance.

25. • Stewardship: specific organizational units
will be accountable for managing
designated classes of government
information to ensure its integrity, quality
and relevance, and to restrict its
accessibility to authorized users only

26. BARRIERS TO AN INTEGRATED
APPROACH
1. Barriers that restrict progress from the
ignore approach;
2. Drivers that encourage continuance of
the idolize approach;
3. Barriers that restrict diffusion of the
integrate approach

27. OTHER BARRIERS INCLUDE:
Technical Barriers
Skills and knowledge barriers
Data barriers
Structural and cultural barriers

28. BARRIERS TO PROGRESS FROM
THE IGNORE APPROACH
1.Skills and knowledge
2.Finance
3.Risk
4.Suspicion
5.Infrastructure

29. DRIVERS SUPPORTING THE
IDOLIZE APPROACH
1. The image of IT as reform solution
2. Pressure from other external institutions
3. Continuous novelty and unfamiliarity of IT
innovations
4. "Me too" attitudes
5. Other enabling trends

30. ALTERNATIVE REFORM MODELS
example of a government's Bureau of Statistics:
• Automation Phase
Once collected from the field, statistical
survey is typed by clerical staff on to a
computer instead of being held on a
paper. Tabulations are now performed by
the computer and not by hand.
.

31. • Optimization Phase
The survey forms and data entry screens
are simplified, and networked computers
are placed in regional offices. This enables
direct entry of data by field staff instead of
central entry by a pool of clerical staff at
headquarters.

32. • Reengineering Phase
Survey questions are redesigned to
provide the information that is actually
required by the Bureau and its clients.

33. .
• Transformation Phase
The Bureau is renamed the Statistical Services
Agency. It has outsourced much of its data
gathering and has set up a commercial unit that
provides income generating statistical services for
foreign and domestic private firms. These services
include an annually-updated CD-ROM of national
data sets; access to certain national data sets via
the internet; and an online analysis service for the
provision of customized trend analysis and
reporting