View from the public sector

Alignment between an organisation’s IT and business strategy is vital

If any organisation understands what innovation with IT requires, it is the Met Office.

Every day, the Met Office acquires and processes 10 million pieces of weather-related information and issues 3,000 forecasts to industries and institutions around the world.

“We’re a strongly IT-based organisation because we rely on robust, operationally sound technology capable of working 24/7, 365 days a year,” says Nigel Reed, the Met Office’s head of technology development.

A close alignment between the Met Office’s IT and business strategy is crucial and it is an area that has become increasingly important, as its customers continue to rely on weather information to adapt, capitalise on or mitigate the impact of climate change.

To provide more accurate forecasts, the Met Office embarked on a recently completed IT change programme alongside technology partners such as Borland. “Over the past two to three years, we’ve put a lot of effort into delivering projects right,” says Reed.

By “right” he means on time, to budget and to specification. “It hasn’t always been this way and is something we have been actively working on,” says Reed.

To innovate with new technology, the Met Office has structured its IT function to face core businesses - commercial, government and infrastructure development.

As part of the process, the Met Office has embarked on a “transform and build” programme to simplify the IT infrastructure and ensure the delivery of business requirements.

Key to the process has been accepting the fact that technology needs will change during the life of a project. “What the business needed at the time of inception may be significantly different when the project concludes,” says Reed.

To ensure that there are no surprises, the business should be involved throughout the project. “This requires a change to the traditional waterfall approach to managing IT projects,” he says. “You have to deliver functionality early and to do this communication with all stakeholders is essential.”