ICT Strategy for Scotland
- President Obama has appointed a CIO, so is it time to re-assess Scotland's strategy regarding information technology?
- Like the US, the UK and Scotland were early adopters of information technology, assimilating new developments as they came onto the market.
- Use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has grown but with little planning
- Although we have an aspiration to be a digitally connected knowledge based economy the reality is that there is no Scotland wide focus on ICT
- Also a key issue is a lack of shared understanding as to ICT’s role as a catalyst of productivity improvements, innovation and service delivery.
- Even emerging economies such as Romania and Egypt have a clear national ICT strategy, informing government policy from digital interactions with citizens to education, health and business.
- This provides clarity as to how ICT interacts across a modern economy, enabling school children to access boundless educational resources online, individuals to interact with the workplace, government, friends and family, the health service to ensure seamless delivery of patient services, business to trade efficiently domestically and internationally, and underpinning research and innovation
- This holistic mindset is currently missing from Scottish government policy. All the evidence underlines that investments in ICT are a major catalyst of productivity improvements, and underpin innovation, and that digital communications and high performance computing enable breakthroughs in research
- If the Scottish economy is to come out of the current recession in reasonable shape then Scotland needs to be much more joined up and embrace the opportunities ubiquitous ICT provides.
Education opportunity
Whilst the western world talks about projects like one lap top per child in Africa - here in Scotland, many schools are lucky to have one PC per classroom; this at a time when scarce funds are being channelled into buying jotters and books on an annual basis, the Government is resourcing the development of the Glow project, an on line portal for teaching and education reference materials, and some councils have entered into contracts with their ICT suppliers which make connecting up the schools population prohibitively expensive - a more holistic approach would see the spend on jotters transferred to electronic notebooks (with a much longer shelf life) and Glow acting as a Scotland wide web based resource for learning.
Online sales opportunity
The UK is in an exceptional position regarding online business with online sales (B2B and B2C) increasing by 30% last year alone despite the downturn, and a market worth some £160bn per annum. But where is all this business going - well mostly south of the border - so we need to get Scottish businesses online to grab a share of this lucrative marketplace.
Online background information
- Massive opportunity for online trading - The Office for National Statistics report online sales in the UK (retail and business to business) are now worth a staggering £160bn, nearly twice the size of Scotland’s GDP.
- Beyond the fact that this is a significantly important and growing channel to market, online stores have a very fast return on investment if done properly.
- Online stores are relatively inexpensive to establish, don’t require major investment in property and enable you to access not just your local market but the whole UK and beyond.
- Using the web offers unlimited possibilities for automating a business, for example order and payment processes, inventory management and customer support.
- It also offers you a 24/7 global presence and in some cases the freedom to live and work where you like.
- Increased use of online trading, social networking and new media methodologies will allow businesses to be more productive and agile during this difficult economic time and give them a blueprint for future growth
In tough times, ICT can more than ever help improve productivity and cut costs.