Pierre Schoonraad

Insert Topic: ICT Innovations in the

Public Sector

Date: 22 October 2013

Track: Government Enabled by

Innovation

Content• Background• Why do we innovate?• ICT Innovation• Areas of interest / trends• Current CPSI projects• Expectations

Background• CPSI – Facility of the whole of Government to

entrench culture and practice of innovation in the public sector

• Innovation ≠ ICT

• ICT as an enabler of innovation, many innovations non-technological

• Category in our Annual CPSI Public Sector Innovation Awards – 11years of observing ICT innovations

Why do we innovate?• Not because there is now technology available• Citizens are sophisticated and expect more• (Criminals too and exploit our vulnerabilities) • Doing more with less (efficiency)• When what we have done before is not working

(effectiveness)• When Technology offers new possibilities to

improve services

What is “ICT Innovation”• ICT as a term somewhat outdated

• Whereas ‘ICT’ captured the convergence of Information and Communication technologies, we now have the convergence of many more technologies, including photography, navigation, music, bio-medical, etc.

• Innovation vs Invention

Trends• Open Innovation– Need platforms, access to data & OSS– E.g. Proctor & Gamble

• “PeopleConnect” (internal “Facebook”) • Connects 138,000 employees,160 countries to share ideas and

expertise; explore opportunities and overcome challenges; collaborate on projects.

• Cross-sectoral solutions– E.g. Lodox – from mining to

cutting edge health care (even featuring on Grey’s Anatomy)

– Health to Crime prevention

Trends• Agile development– Emphasis on solutions that work, not pre-packaged– Specific outcomes within specific time-frames

• “Hacking”, hackathons and accelerators (part of the Open paradigm)– Exploratory programming and hardware

configuration / re-assignment– Short timelines from idea to final product– Further development through accelerators

Trends• Combining disruptive innovation with efficiency

innovation (Clayton Christensen)– Using efficiency innovations to create savings– Using savings to fund disruptive innovations– Disruptive innovations to improve service delivery

Current CPSI Initiatives• Honeydew Policing– Best practice (NYC)– Adapted and contextualised (SA Priority crimes,

unique features of the cluster)– Agile Development– Interoperability of existing and new systems– PPP

Current CPSI Initiatives• Cooperative Inland Waterways Safety Project– Cooperative model – only government– Policy implementation– ICT and non-ICT– Testing and adapting solutions then tender– Strong project management

methodology

Current CPSI Initiatives• Partnership with The Innovation Hub– Leverage Innovation Exchange and GAP– Innovation Exchange (www.exchange.theinnovationhub.com)

• Open Innovation platform based on Nine Sigma methodology• Provide access to “Open innovation eco-system”• Seekers of solutions meet innovators

– GAP (Gauteng Accelerator Programme)• Competition around government challenges• ICT (focus on Mobile), Medical, Green, Biosciences

Current CPSI Initiative• Energy Efficiency at Helen Joseph Hospital– Average cost of electricity: R1m per month– Potential savings: R3m per year– ICT to measure trends and consumption– Combination of ICT (building management) and non-ICT

solutions (behavioural change, swop-outs)– Developing a model to leverage efficiency innovation to

release funding (actual savings + ESKOM rebates)

Expectations from SITA and CIOs• Affordable BROADBAND• “SITA Cloud” – using redundancies• Procurement of ICT innovations (vs “SITA

Tender”) – need a more sophisticated system• Stronger link with NSI – e.g. “Wireless mesh”,

Big Data projects of CSIR, SAnote• Funding for ICT innovations and innovators