A lead official of the Local Digital team has called on technology suppliers to be more open in aspects of their business with local government.
Ben Cheetham, deputy director of Local Digital in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, made the remarks while being interviewed at the Smarter State conference staged by IT industry association techUK this week.
Asked what he would like to see the supplier community stop doing, start doing and continue doing, he placed the focus on the availability of data, cyber vulnerabilities and a need to work more with other tech companies.
“On digital transformation, look at and APIs and data standards and make data more available,” he said. With AI and other things today, we don’t know how we are going to be able to use data and join it up.
“We’re still experimenting and things like AI and new technologies are coming along, so the more we can make data available and usable the better.”
The perspective reflects a sense of frustration among many public sector digital leaders – highlighted in UKAuthority research – that some suppliers of legacy systems are reluctant to make APIs available or impose a heavy price for doing so. This hinders efforts to increase the sharing of data between systems and modernise services.
Supply chain cyber
Cheetham also highlighted the importance of cyber security throughout the supply chain and called on suppliers to communicate better about any vulnerabilities.
“At the start it’s know you supply chain better and be able to explain that to councils,” he said.
“We are seeing an increasing number of vulnerabilities and the supply chain is a weak link in that. Councils need to understand where they whether they are holding a vulnerability, and we see examples where suppliers also don’t know whether that vulnerability exists in their products.
“So look at your supply chain and share that information with local authorities. And if something goes wrong and there is an incident, please talk to your customers about it.”
He said suppliers should not remain silent or downplay the seriousness of a vulnerability, as the earlier the relevant people in local government know, the more they can do to mitigate the consequences.
Cheetham also called on the industry to “stop being so siloed”, especially larger vendors who want to focus on their own unique systems. He said they can better support the transformation of public services by working more with partners and being ready to engage with SMEs on solutions and innovations.
