IT and the Business – the CSO experience

MSIS 2009 - Oslo

Margaret McLoughlin & Joe Treacy

Central Statistics OfficeIreland

Central Statistics Office, Ireland 2

Key issues in this paper

Governance

Change Management

Application of corporate standards

Lessons learnt for future enterprise initiatives

… In the context of NSI culture

Central Statistics Office, Ireland 3

About the CSO…

60 years old in 2009 (Anniversary event – 3 June)

About 900 persons work in CSO 750 full-time equivalent

Office locations in Dublin and Cork140 professional statistical staff

Big increase in recent years

IT divisions – total of about 70 staff Some IT functions in other parts of organisation e-Government Census of Population

Central Statistics Office, Ireland 4

Our IT Organisation – “ a loose federation”

Central Statistics Office, Ireland 5

Statement of Strategy 2008-2010- Strategic issues for CSO

Corporate Priority Areas More statistical outputs – scope, quality, timeliness

Developing the Irish Statistical System

Reducing response burden

IT and e-Government

Skills; Training; Efficient work practices

European Statistics Code of Practice

Changing economic climate - pressure on resources

Strategic review being completed by CSO management demand for IT application development

to support organisational change

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CSO’s organisational culture

Professional statistical group was small Cohort of senior / top managers – most recruited in 1970s

“Brain drain” imminent! Need to plan for continuity.

Culture and communications in a small organisation Informal

Based on personal networks more than on formal management processes

Effective in “getting things done”

CSO has grown – especially in past 10 years More staff overall

More professional statistical and IT staff

Projects are more complex than in the past

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Implementing corporate standards to support a larger organisation

Corporate Data Model (CDM) Statistical data an important asset of NSI

Management of that asset at each stage of the production cycle

Conceptual basis for corporate Data Management System

Professional standards for IT services CMM – application development

ITIL – service delivery (from 2007)

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Corporate IT Projects- Enterprise applications and systems

Data Management System (DMS) Corporate databases for statistical data

Central processing applications

Reduction in “islands” of data and processing

Went live – September 2007

SAS Enterprise BI migration Migration of 200+ PC SAS users during 2009

Enterprise rather than desktop system

Greater control & standardisation of end-user computing

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Paths to IT service delivery

ITIL = the official way

In practice, users take many routes to get IT services

… often bypassing corporate standards …

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Moving beyond the status quo- Driving and Restraining Forces

Advancing a corporate vision – enterprise-wide systems

Behaviours which drive or restrain the achievement of a goal:

Driving forces often “top-down”

Reflect corporate benefits

Don’t acknowledge individual cost or effort

Restraining forces often involve individual behaviour Benefits not obvious at individual level

Time taken to realise benefits

Costs & effort are more visible

Need to get balance right: encourage achievement of shared vision.

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How quality assurance can help

European Statistics Code of Practice

Principle 4 – Quality Commitment

Principle 7 – Sound Methodology

Principle 12 – Accuracy and Reliability

Quality assurance of the IT aspects of statistical production

End-user computing - particular quality assurance issues

Spreadsheets – managing the risks

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IT and the Business- Future lessons for CSO’s IT Strategy

Governance: Build on implementation of ITIL Not an “extra layer” – integrate with existing decision making and management systems

Assign new customer service roles within IT

Establish Business Intelligence Competency Unit Business analysts

Dialogue between IT and the Business

Work with our organisational culture Power users

Communications / networking

“Champion” the governance process.

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End of Presentation

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