Having been invited to speak at the Government ICT Summit 2011, I was rather taken aback at the lack of SMEs attending..
However, given this was the case, I decided to go for the open and honest approach and present the views that are all but too common in the SMEs world regarding working with the public sector. Firstly, SMEs feel that government sometimes "stitch them up" by tying them into contracts with the large systems integrators through eco-systems and the like. SMEs want a direct relationship with government and if this can’t be offered then my argument is that a strict code of ethics need to be signed up to by all - and adhered to! My second point was that government seem to have made an assumption that the right SMEs for the job are going to be up for working with them. Unfortunately, the ones which are the most innovative and useful to government are also useful to the private sector too and if they can make the money in half the time, (avoiding expensive procurement processes) then who can blame them?
My central point was this; for the new approach to work there needs to be ENCOURAGEMENT aimed at the best SMEs to take part and EMPOWERMENT for the public servants buying services. Nothing will change in procurement if civil servants continue to be risk adverse to the point of paralysis for fear of taking a step wrong.
Unfortunately, if central government thought that just by saying it should be thus, it would be made thus, they would be mistaken. I thought that I was preaching to the converted but a colleague told me that this was not the case and that civil servants need to be bought into the idea of working with SMEs.
We need to get to the heart of the culture of government, and change the structure (and length) of government contracts. We need to encourage SMEs to take part in the process and in parallel empower the buyers to take risks. Only then will Cameron's words become reality...
“.... Wherever possible, we’re going to break up large contracts into smaller elements, so that SMEs can make a bid and get involved”
We wait with anticipation Prime Minister...
Further analysis here
