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MOD Digital & Information Technology Functional Strategy

A summary of the Ministry of Defence's Digital & Information Technology Functional Strategy, which sets out how the establishment of a CIO-led D&IT function will enable...

Information and its successful exploitation underpin and enable all aspects of Defence business, helping the Ministry of Defence to effectively deliver business transformation and operational advantage. The establishment of a new Digital & Information Technology (D&IT) function, led by the MOD's Chief Information Officer, will work across all functions in the department to act as a central enabler to change for both the business and for frontline operations.

The establishment of the D&IT function is intented to:

'create transformative Digital and Information capability that enables sustainable military and business advantage, that is secure, integrated, easy to use and delivered at scale and pace to the front line'

To realise this ambition, the function is based around three core principles:

  1. Cohesion - ensuring there are consistent architectures, standards and management processes across the Defence enterprise
  2. Integration - ensuring that digital services and products connect and share data by default, allowing information to move seamlessly
  3. Speed & Adaptability - ensuring users needs are met rapidly, improving services wherever possible  

Through the D&IT function, the MOD expects to deliver benefit in five strategic priority areas:

  1. Digitise the battlespace – integrating existing and new information capabilities to achieve better interoperability, ensuring operational advantage through timely, data-led decision making. A critical enabler for this plan is that MOD continues to move towards a single integrated D&IT system with strong cyber protection and ‘open architecture’ design, moving away from platform centric to information centric capabilities
  2. Responsive cyber defence – providing robust, and responsive cyber defence against an everevolving threat to ensure that the department's operational and business systems can perform resiliently, efficiently and reliably
  3. Promote information led wider business transformation – working with other MOD function owners to simplify and automate their processes; leading the technology contribution to the modernisation of effective Defence business. Simpler, more effective and cheaper processes will allow staff to be employed more efficiently and allow savings to be reinvested towards the front-line
  4. More effective and efficient IT services – providing better and more relevant services that are intuitive and easy to use. Fundamentally reconfiguring the department's D&IT processes to design and deliver information systems and services faster, and making better use of industry partners 
  5. Set up a capable and cohesive function – building a single, connected function with the right skills and work environment, changing how MOD is organised and how it can work more closely with users to design, build and operate required capabilities

To ensure the D&IT function delivers on its ambitions, the MOD CIO will direct future design, investment and operation across the MOD, including authority over technical architecture, policies and standards, IT operating processes and material D&IT investment proposals. Supporting this effort, the MOD is building a more capable and professional D&IT resource, with the CIO involved in senior D&IT appointments across MOD. 

To support, inform and guide the exercise of these authorities, the MOD is establishing a D&IT Coherence Board, comprising Top Level Budget (TLB) CIOs, the D&IT Function COO, Directors of Cyber Defence and Digital Enablement, and the CEO of MOD Information Systems & Services (ISS). 

You can read the full strategy online here.

 

Channel website: http://www.techuk.org/

Original article link: https://www.techuk.org/insights/news/item/15459-mod-digital-information-technology-functional-strategy

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