Transforming IT at HM Revenue & Customs - Phil Pavitt, CIO for HMRC
Making IT boring
Phil Pavitt could not have made progress in meeting the government spending review without winning over HMRC’s IT staff and its senior leadership.
His first job, he said, was to make IT so boring that it no longer featured on the board’s agenda.
“When I first got there, there were 11 items on the board agenda, 6 of those items were IT related,” he said.
“The last board meeting and the one before and the one before, we did not mention IT once apart from the Aspire contract [HMRC’s framework contract with Cap Gemini and Fujitsu]“
Pavitt said that making sure basic IT services like email and printing worked properly across the organisation was a priority.
“My biggest success in persuading the board to tackle the Aspire contact, which we have talked about for many years, was making sure everyone's printing work.”
Download Phil Pavitt's PowerPoint presentation here