The British Ministry of the Interior Government CIO needs more enthusiasm

The work of Annette Vernon, the CIO of the British Ministry of the Interior, was perfect. Her work has transformed government services. Annette Vernon used the enthusiasm of public service to lay the road from an ordinary civil servant to a CIO in the key public service department.

The impact of the decision is far reaching as one of the largest and most compelling public services in the UK. The affairs of the Ministry of the Interior include: borders, immigration, anti-terrorism and law and order. As a CIO of the Ministry of the Interior, Annette Verno's projects include scans of illegal radioactive materials, anti-terrorism security at the 2012 London Olympics, and the highly controversial GBP 4.8 billion British national biometric ID program. Few CIOs can shoulder such heavy job responsibilities. However, these projects are all on the schedule of Annette Vernon, the CIO of the British Interior Ministry.

The IT decisions made by Vernon have a significant impact on the public service sector in the UK. The scope of influence includes three administrative agencies: the British Border Agency, the Identity and Passports Service, and the Criminal Records Bureau. In addition, her decision-making will also affect about 20 non-public services and armed groups, such as the UK's National Police Improvement Bureau and the Serious Organized Crimes Authority.

The management structure of the Ministry of the Interior is no different from a large private multinational conglomerate. Vernon wants to report to the Ministry of Interior’s responsible finance and business officer. But unlike CIOs or IT leaders who simply manage a department or administrative agency, Vernon is also responsible for recruiting, providing professional services, and developing overall IT strategies.

Vernon soon realized that government IT work is more than just streamlined management. "I think the Ministry of the Interior is the most complex and changeable place." She said, "In our Ministry of the Interior, we can find the oldest system and we can also find the most cutting-edge technology. You can find everything. You are in any private enterprise or other Many government departments are unable to find so many IT changes. It has the most incredible combination here and it also provides the most challenging work environment."

As a CIO in the public sector of the Ministry of the Interior, Vernon has to do more than just cope with complex changes and transformation projects. At the same time, she does not have to worry about money, and she is much more relaxed than the private corporate CIOs who have to keep their eyes on their wallets. Moreover, she can also hire consultants to advise the government.

Effective work The biological ID program is one of the largest projects of the Interior Ministry. The project plans to invest 4.8 billion pounds, the goal is to issue biological ID cards for every citizen. According to sources from the Ministry of the Interior, this kind of ID card can be used simply to prove the citizen’s age and identity. It can also be used as a substitute for a passport to facilitate citizens’ travel within the EU.

This plan has been strongly opposed in terms of privacy and civil liberties, and some of the technical experts have been raised. Such objections are only aimed at collecting and storing personal biological data. They can only be regarded as the tip of the iceberg, and project budgets are even more controversial.

However, so far, the British Border Agency has issued more than 100,000 biological ID cards for foreigners living in the United Kingdom. The first British citizen’s biometric ID card was also issued in Manchester on November 30, 2009.

The ID card business is an old book for Vernon. Before serving as the CIO of the Interior Ministry, Vernon served as the CIO of the Identity and Passport Service. This institution is responsible for implementing the ID card program.

In addition to this huge project, Vernon is also responsible for supporting the "enterprise-level" IT that the Ministry of the Interior runs on a daily basis to ensure that the government's IT strategy is as efficient as the enterprise, low cost, and green IT.

The Ministry of Interior recently signed a new £430 million new IT service agreement with Fujitsu and Atos Origin, which includes application management, management of the desktop and network systems used by 24,000 Ministry of the Interior and staff of the British Border Agency. By 2016, when the contract expires, these transactions are expected to help the government reduce IT costs by 100 million pounds, which is a 25% savings.

It all goes well that Vernon has been working in the public service. She is satisfied with this feeling of providing public services and is excited about the opportunity to improve the quality of life for millions of people. “I became a civil servant in 1984. I do think that some of the things we did made a big difference in the situation, although this may sound a bit cliché.” She stressed that “as a government CIO really please me It is to provide support for people and provide them with better public services."

Vernon's ability to rise to the present position is inseparable from her previous performance in several government departments and projects. "I just walked up one step at a time." She said, "I have also done basic work such as coding, design, prototyping, release management, project management, technical support, testing and implementation."

Initially, Vernon was an administrative officer of the Department of Social Security in the UK and was responsible for disability transport assistance and legal aid. At that time, she began to call for more staff to use information technology. She admits that at first she was attracted by better positions and salary, thus passed the exam, became a COBOL language programmer, and supported the salary IT system.

In 1992, Vernon participated in a project called the "Five-nation Exchange Program" and was seconded to the Australian Social Security Department for nine months. To take this opportunity, she learned how to do the second-line support of the IBM architecture. At that time, the British government’s IT system was basically supported by the British computer manufacturer and IT service company ICL (acquired by Fujitsu in 1990), and only a few projects began to use IBM's mainframe.

Vernon, who returned to the UK, began to gradually switch to more comprehensive IT services. She was seconded to the Children's Aid Bureau and was responsible for resolving problems in the department's IT system. This system was started in 1993.

After that, Vernon designed the job search allowance payment system and the single-parent home prototype system, and combined these systems with the welfare agencies, children's aid bureaus, and local government departmental systems, so that many services are linked together through a unified Service portal provides electronic services.

Vernon’s greatest achievement was during her time as an information services specialist and CIO of the Department of Political Affairs (now the Department of Justice Administration) of the United Kingdom. At the beginning, she was responsible for the "Money Claim Online" project. This is the first batch of British government projects known as e-government. It is an early-to-public online service. It allows people to make claims through the civil court system. Vernon himself has used this system to successfully claim dry cleaners. Its processing power is now 10 times stronger than originally designed.

Next, she was responsible for a very good project - Xhibit. This portal allows people to share real-time information about court cases. This service is used by many Criminal Justice Bureau staff, police, volunteer organizations, victims, witnesses and the public. Because the information of witnesses and victims can be updated in a timely manner, the police station can obtain information in advance when the witness is required to appear in court and make appropriate preparations without the need for a full day of waiting. The success of this system has attracted widespread attention from society and the government. This is an important reason why Vernon received the highest level of the CBE medal from the Queen of England.