Rikke Hvilshøj: Public leaders to the digital engine room
Posted: 25 August 2021
Rikke Hvilshøj, CEO at the Danish IT Society: Digitization of the public sector is too important to be left to the IT department. By Morten Andersen
The French statesman Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) declared war to be too serious a matter to entrust to the generals. Modifying his famous proverb, digitization of the public sector is too important to be left to the IT department. “Ever more often, when you read an interview with a top executive from a large Danish corporation, the importance of spending time in the digital engine room is mentioned. The time has come for public top management to follow that lead,” says CEO Rikke Hvilshøj, Danish IT.
The message is of course not, that public leaders should become experts on computing: “What private top executives have come to realize is that digitization is not just a tool in support of doing what they have always done. Digitization will fundamentally change the way that their customers interact with the company – or in case of the public sector, the way the citizen interacts with their organization. Therefore, it is essential that the top management does not leave digitization to the people of the IT department, but obtain an understanding of the new reality and of the potential in the new tools.”
A pioneer has more legacy
“I would like to add that we definitely do see examples of public top management with a strong commitment and knowledge on digitization. However, this is not the general picture. If I were to pinpoint one key area with an especially large potential for improvement, it would be getting public leaders to understand what digital tools can do for their organization,” says Rikke Hvilshøj.
The Danish IT CEO does not want to paint a gloomy picture of public IT efforts, she underlines: “Much to the contrary. Denmark consistently receives top rankings when it comes to digitization. This is well-deserved, we really are very advanced in many respects. However, being a pioneer implies that you have a lot of legacy. Many of the systems we rely on are quite old. They have served their purpose really well for some decades. We have entered a situation where we need to consider if we should continue updating these systems, or if we would be better off by switching to radically new solutions.”
Too rigid regime for tenders
A theme worthy of discussion is the way new public IT infrastructure projects are set up, Rikke Hvilshøj points out: “The current regime is too rigid in my view. A call for tender will pre-define how the task should be solved. In this way, we cannot benefit fully from the innovative capacity of the private sector. We are not doing too badly, but we really could do much better. If we are able to create the right framework for public-private collaboration in digitization, there is a large potential to harvest. First of all, we would get great solutions, and secondly, we will pave the way for more Danish business successes in this sector.” “If Danish companies were allowed more freedom to use their home market as a testbed for innovative solutions, this would be a stepping stone for them in conquering new markets abroad. This would be the ideal way to benefit from having a large, strong public sector as we do in Denmark.”
Catalyzing public-industry interaction
In order to establish the new public-private framework for IT projects, which Rikke Hvilshøj advocates, occasions such as the Digital Tech Summit shouldn’t be missed: “In Denmark, we are actually doing quite well when it comes to bringing people from the industry and the public sector together. Still, the interaction that we call for needs to be catalyzed in some way, and the Digital Tech Summit is a format with exactly that purpose. It is a truly exiting initiative, and it was a very natural decision for us to participate. I am looking very much forward to the discussions!”
