I recently gave a brief talk on our digital strategy at Adur and Worthing. Here are the (rather dull) slides, in case they are useful. Important to note that only one of the five key themes are anything to do with technology!
[slideshare id=55264642&doc=davebriggs-for-southwark-151118184242-lva1-app6891]
Interestingly, two related posts from two local government CIO types pop up in my feed reader within a few days of each other.
Firstly, Steve Halliday points to the Solihull digital strategy.
Then Rich Copley says we really shouldn’t be writing digital strategies.
Oh dear! Who’s right?
Both are.
Some organisations need a digital strategy. They are at the point in their evolution where having some of this stuff spelt out in a separate document and process is helpful.
Others though can take a different approach, with digital being embedded in individual service plans, or what have you.
It all depends. Depends on how things are structured in your organisation. What the personalities are. How these sorts of programmes and projects have gone in the past.
It’s one of the reasons why I don’t think local government needs a single digital service. It needs several, with a plurality of approaches. If there is one thing that digital teaches us, it’s that one-size-fits-all approaches don’t work.
At Adur and Worthing, I will be writing a digital strategy. It will help focus on what I need to get done to support all the services areas in what they want to achieve.
More on that soon.
Update: Jason Caplin answers the question ‘why have a digital strategy?’