In the next in our series of interviews with key people in public sector technology, we talk to Matt Miszewski, Microsoft’s General Manager for Worldwide Government. Based at Microsoft’s head office in Redmond, Washington, he gives us his views on global e-government and the way the UK is responding to transformation.

We started by asking Matt to talk about his career and his current position:
I would say this, but I think I have the best job in Microsoft! My role is to advise government leaders – both elected and civil servants – on how to leverage Microsoft technology to benefit their authority and their citizens. We’ve 1.9m customers in government-related organisations, of whom 1.7m million are in local and regional government. So the solutions we create for this marketplace have to be scalable and deployable across this vast and diverse customer base.

Before joining Microsoft in 2007, I was Chief Information Officer for Governor Jim Doyle in Wisconsin, a mid-sized US state with 5.9 million citizens. My role was to manage the infrastructure for the entire state government. I was also President of the National Association of State CIOs, which represents technology leaders and managers from government bodies across the US. This gave me a great insight into the challenges faced by states of different sizes with different priorities, which is proving to be invaluable for me in my current role.

From your global viewpoint, what are the key differences in approach to e-government across the world?
All government CIOs think they have different needs but in reality they all face the same challenges. Where the key differences lie are in the ways in which government bodies are structured around the world and therefore how the technology they implement has to support this.

For example, the responsibility in the UK for public safety policy and execution lies at a very different level to where it is in the US: over here local government has much more direct control of policing. Conversely, responsibility for social care is at a much more local level in the UK than in the US and takes up a huge amount of local budget. This therefore needs to be supported by technology in a very different way. But overall, while there is this difference in the ways things are organised, across the world they are all doing the same thing.

What are the biggest challenges and barriers they are facing?
One of the biggest barriers in my view is the lack of integration and sharing of information between different cities, councils, boroughs and other government bodies. While some places are working well, others are really lagging behind. We live in a fluid and mobile society, where families no longer necessarily live in the same area; where divorces mean families split up and are geographically dispersed. Citizens should, for example, be able to find out about or be able to support loved ones in another authority region. But business processes are often too siloed to enable this.

The Microsoft UK Shared Learning Group is a great example of how government bodies can work together to try to develop common business processes and therefore open the way to sharing information. It consists of 11 councils across the UK who share best practice and develop solutions based on the Microsoft platform. This shows there is a will to work together to develop common solutions which will benefit both public sector organisations and the citizen.

Microsoft has launched the Citizen Service Programme: can you explain the drivers behind that?
Now, more than ever, local governments must maximise the potential of the technology they already own and deploy new solutions to provide greater agility and efficiency. We’ve designed the CSP with this in mind: our aim is to support the public sector in its drive to transform the way they deliver services through greater use of IT.

The reaction in the UK has been fantastic. We’ve been working with the Shared Learning Group and also with individual councils. What’s noticeable is that we see a far greater level of strategic input in the UK: over there the key is to identify the business problem and then to drill down to the solution. UK public sector leaders now understand that the technology is the least most difficult part of the process and in some respects can take care of itself.

We’ve developed the CSP in exactly this way. It enables local authorities to leverage existing investment and implement processes which are designed to improve the citizen experience, introduce efficiencies and deliver greater management insight. And it’s been designed in the same top-down way that UK government leaders are approaching e-government. We start with the challenges they face and their over-arching e-government strategy; we then look at the people involved in delivering services and how technology can support them; we then identify the processes needed to deliver services to citizens; and then at the very end we identify the specific technology needed – both from Microsoft and from our partners.

Are there any particular examples where local authorities have excelled in their use of the CSP?
The City of London is one example from the UK which we use as an exemplar around the world. Here we’ve worked with our partner Team Knowledge to transform the way citizens can get in contact with the authority. Now, whatever their enquiry, there is just one place they need to call. The City has taken all its existing processes and brought them together in this one citizen-facing call centre. As a result, 90 per cent of calls are taken in 20 seconds and, more importantly, 60 per cent of enquiries are resolved in that one call.

What has been the UK vendor reaction to the CSP?
In the past, UK vendors have been a little slow to understand that you don’t start with the technology: you start with the challenge and the process you need to solve it. But this is now changing.

We’re now working with companies such as NDL who are already helping the UK public sector transform the way they deliver services while at the same time generating efficiencies and cutting costs. The CSP offers the opportunity for local authorities to invest once in a reliable platform which they know will be here for years to come, and then identify solutions for specific lines of business to bring great value. Companies such as NDL can then focus on working with them on the last mile of the implementation.

NDL is already doing some great things, across local authorities, housing associations and other government bodies. Once example is the Weaver Vale Housing Trust where, through imaginative use of mobile working, the time taken to respond to citizens and to repair their homes has been slashed.

Do you have any fears for the future?
We mustn’t ignore what the greatest challenge all governments face at the moment: the economic crisis. My fear is this: that the temptation will be too great for governments to disinvest in technology. This would be a grave error. While there’s no doubt it will become harder to do the right thing because of shrinking budgets, this investment must continue.

And in particular, in this squeeze on budgets, there is a great danger that security and identity management may be given a lower priority. But these simply must not be an after-thought. In my opinion, strong identity management is fundamental to e-government success.