Can you ‘Crowdsource’ an ICT Strategy?

I recently managed a workshop, working with SOCITM South West Region, in an attempt to develop a Regional ICT Strategy using ‘crowdsource’ techniques. The object was to identify if there were regional initiatives that could help Local Government implement a strategy and achieve expenditure savings. Ahead of the event, the group received a short note summarising the Government ICT Strategy, updating the group on recent developments and suggesting some example projects in advance of the session.
The ‘crowdsource’ workshop was split into 2 sessions straddling lunch. The first session was to effectively ‘brainstorm’ ideas involving the whole group. In the space of 30 minutes, the group identified 24 areas where regional initiatives could help, although even more could have been identified if time had permitted. We then focussed on grouping the activities into 5 key areas (see below). Everyone signed up to one of the five groups over lunch. In the 2nd session, each group was asked to discuss their topic areas and to identify a main project or projects that could be taken forward. At the end of their time, each group had to ‘pitch’ their projects and sell it to the wider audience in 2 minutes. In total, 7 projects were reported back to the main group.
One project had almost universal support. This was to hold a SOCITM supported regional workshop for Chief Executives and Senior Directors to discuss the problems and challenges. This would be an opportunity to ‘set the scene’ for Chief Executives/ Senior Directors to the opportunity that ICT represents. The workshop would support local ICT Officers in taking a more central role in the savings process. This project had the singular advantage of being a quick implementation, minimal resources, easy to manage, a quick win, low cost and supporting the ICT professional role.
Overall the session was highly productive with many ideas that could be carried forward - 24 individual projects were identified. The 5 key areas were:
1. Data Definitions, Protective Marking and Common Architecture
2. Resource Pooling - Shared Teams – expertise, approaches, Innovation, Research and Development, Technical Architecture
3. Culture Change - Influencing Senior Management
4. Single Service and South West Cloud – Shared Services, User Authentication and Identity Management, Remote Access
5. Procurement and Supplier Management – Open Source and Joint Teams
Conclusion
The event was valuable in developing ideas and common threads. The ‘winning’ idea for a regional seminar is one that could be taken forward quickly and it is hoped it is precursor to more regional thinking with ICT at the forefront of the process. The SW regional group is taking forward many of the key themes arising from the session Overall, it was a worthwhile event and in the space of 2 hours we produced some amazing work. The technique is certainly one I would use again even if a little out of my own comfort zone. The South West region of SOCITM should be congratulated for its innovative approach.