(2017-01-19) Paul Shetlers Perspective On Uk Us And Australian Government Digital Transformation

Paul Shetler's perspective on UK, US and Australian government (egov) digital transformation. “You can’t Kumbaya your way through this,” smiles Paul Shetler as he relaxes in a cafe in Sydney’s fashionable Potts Point while talking about the challenges of managing a government’s digital transformation

The US right now is a mess, they don’t really have a digital strategy, I do think the new administration is more likely to do something big to fix things than perhaps the Obama Administration was, because they are talking about national infrastructure. If you to the United States it’s shocking, the physical level infrastructure is falling apart and on a digital level things are pretty much the same.

The USDS which operates out of the White House gets really great talent in to do fix something but they don’t have the authority across the government. They also have 18F who operate on a cost recovery basis who act like an internal consultancy… they have some extremely talented people there and we’ve learned quite a bit from them. But there’s no vision or strategy that guides it all.

if you don’t have the political will and authority to drive it then a recalcitrant bureaucracy will not going along with it because their interests aren’t in alignment with their users.