India is a fascinating growth story today and the country is making key technology investments required to help maintain economic growth and to increase the speed and efficiency with which government services are delivered. The oversight, funding and administration of many government activities is typically segmented and managed through programmes. At its core, programme management focuses on fulfilling goals designed to improve citizens? quality of life in a cost-effective manner.
In the current scenario, where governments continue to be under pressure to do more with less, decisions about the ongoing support, development and funding of programmes become increasingly tied to the quantification of real outcomes. There is a need for special efforts to be made for effective programme management in the government system because of its infrastructure and procedures.
Agencies that can clearly articulate their spending outcomes can more effectively lobby for increased budgets or new programme ?stimulus? funding, to help transform the way they deliver citizen services using technology, reduce costs and improve processes and services. Experience has shown that agencies that rely on performance management for fact-based decision making are more likely to maintain or increase budgets.
Governments are transforming their business processes and deploying new technologies to meet their greatest challenges. The fact is, industry, governments, society, are all at the cusp of change, which can, in turn, affect performance management. Of course, as we know, governments are an important stakeholder in this whole process of transformation.
The world is developing into a ?smarter planet?, where there is a convergence of digital and physical infrastructures. The world is fast becoming instrumented, as intelligence is infused literally into the way the world works. As the world becomes interconnected via developments on the Internet, it is becoming intelligent, fuelling better innovations in the future.
There are three significant barriers preventing governments from realising programme innovation:
* Lack of information to determine strategy requirements: Cross-departmental insights need to be integrated into a comprehensive framework that offers granular clarity and risk control.
* New programme initiatives lack integrated process information needed to develop targeted offerings: Departmental barriers may stymie the programme management alignment process if there is no appropriate visibility and coordination.
* Inability to define measure and analyse the drivers of success: Initiatives are hampered by the lack of clarity and calculated assurance that any resource investment will lead to benefits.
Governments should combine cross-functional requirements, balance risk, learn from failures, and adjust or develop new programme and service initiatives, in a timely and effective manner to overcome these barriers.
A successful programme management process combines three areas:
* Programme services assessment value proposition: Does our service portfolio meet citizen, market and regulatory compliance requirements?
* Programme strategic innovation: Which strategic mandates and service gaps are addressable with available resources? What are the associated risks?
* Programme management milestones: How we manage priorities, goals, timing and monitor risks?
By clearly identifying strategic programme objectives and aligning them against performance metrics, governments can better understand their current mandate, their performance at any time, and what needs to be done to improve programme results. Technology and services have been deployed in several areas which have impacted the lives of the common citizens while helping the government to achieve more in lesser budgets.
Finally, in a smart world there are new business and process demands on a company?s workforce and processes that allow them to work dynamically. Government organisations need to see the larger picture?the relationships, connections, direction and details to make informed decisions and improve outcomes. This epitomises a smarter and a more effective government.
?The writer is vice-president, public sector, IBM India/South Asia