Over the last week I’ve had three discussions in entirely different contexts that relate to a similar theme – how to get vendors of software products to tesselate effectively with state-run digital services.
Here’s a pattern that I see play out all the time, and have done for the last decade.
Supplier of fancy new software (typically involving AI these days) which is big in industry, or another country, meets senior person/people in a public sector organisation. The leadership gets excited and says “This is brilliant, we need this everywhere. Make it so!” Connections are duly made and this eventually filters to the poor delivery teams who are already up to their eyeballs delivering other things.
This is where shiny idea hits reality. Because then you have to figure out things like:
- Can a specific product be quickly bought in a way that complies with procurement law? (Usually not, which is why suppliers offer products for free to get a foot in. And by the way – no shade at vendors for doing this, I’m sure I’d use the same playbook if that was my job.)
- Is it compliant with all relevant standards from ISO27001, to DSP Toolkit, to MHRA regs to clinical safety standards?
- Is this a point solution, in which case what will it take to integrate it into one or more other workflows so that it actually saves time rather than creating a copy paste swivel chair nightmare?
- Does it manage data according to agreed standards that enable interoperability, and mitigates against lock in to a particular product set?
- Does it solve a genuine problem?
- Most importantly is this a priority against all the other thousands of things that the team are being asked to deliver? If so, why? Does it actually matter more, or is it just that an important person is asking for it? Is it really worth pivoting the teams away from their core work to focus on?
Getting convincing answers to these is non-trivial, so what then usually happens is lots of polite conversations are had but ultimately all parties end up disappointed. Senior leaders think their teams are intransigent and anti-innovation. Suppliers think government is impossible to work with. And delivery teams are left in the middle; managing the noise and soaking up the disappointment from all sides. In some cases, leaders really dig their heels in and the teams have no choice – but unless there is genuinely a good fit this rarely leads to good outcomes.
I’m afraid I don’t have a brilliant solution to this repeating pattern. Seeing it though the lens of procurement specifically, I suspect the key is in active and ongoing market engagement that builds relationships between vendors and delivery teams and enables vendors to respond to emerging need, rather than have to shoehorn square pegs into round holes.
Indeed, the most successful digital and AI products fly off the shelves not because leaders are bashing their businesses or consumers over the head to use them, but because they meet a need brilliantly and are great value for money. Government and the NHS needs great industry, needs great software, and needs great ideas. But if we don’t get the docking points right we will continue to disappoint.
This post originally appeared on LinkedIn.