A coffee with…Tom O’Connor, CEO, Version 1

Tom O’Connor has worked at digital transformation consultancy Version 1 for more than twenty years, with the last seven spent as its CEO.

During this time, the consultancy has grown a team of over 3,000 talented specialists globally and acquired over sixteen businesses in the UK and Ireland. The firm employs around 500 people in its Dublin base.

Version 1 has worked on a range of digital transformation projects, improving efficiencies in areas such as the motor tax system in Ireland, the courts system and for farmers to help with crop classification.

Speaking with TI, O’Connor discusses how the consultancy has seen the public sector grow and why tech innovations in this area are more common than people think.

Digital transformation means something different to everyone. What does it mean for you and the public sector?

I would describe it as citizen-first redesign of public-facing services. So, putting the citizen at the centre of how you translate what can sometimes be knotty government policy decisions and deliver an efficient and effective solution.

That means translating statutory legislation or an instrument into something citizens can use.

It is also not just about the citizen, but also government and public sector employees involved in delivering the services in a way that makes lives simpler, easier, more efficient and the government overall, more effective.

Would you say that one of the greatest challenges facing the public sector is legacy IT systems?

I don’t think that’s true. The public sector is massive, so there are obviously going to be parts that are a little bit behind, but I think on the whole, the UK public sector, in particular, has shown great innovation and leadership around things like digital-first, cloud-first, design-led thinking.

If you compare it to the financial services sector, for example, you will walk into any large financial services institution or bank and find significant “legacy systems” still running massive parts of their business.

So, the legacy IT perception is one that I understand because we’re all so used to interactions with parts of governments that maybe aren’t as efficient, but that experience is becoming more outdated based on the investment that’s been made over the last five years.

Where would you say the public sector is truly innovating?

We’ve done a lot of work with HM Courts & Tribunals on essentially revolutionising how justice is delivered in areas like family courts and tribunals.

We worked to transform everything from video hearings to how cases are scheduled, making sure there’s efficiency around the recording of judgements, the issuing of penalties and fines, and the recording of the collection of fines.

That was an area that was ripe for transformation, and through investment and insight, they had to do it and put citizens first, then also involved listening to every stakeholder from jurors to judges to court staff.

Another area is the whole area of vehicle licencing and transport in Ireland. It used to be the case that to tax your car, you had to go into an office. The issue with this is – the office closes at lunchtime, you had to bring in a bunch of papers, and there was a queue. Now, we’ve taken it 100% online. It’s completely streamlined the entire process.

I will say it did come back to bite me once because one piece of work we did was enable policemen to automatically check whether a vehicle was appropriately taxed based on car licences at the start of COVID.

When I was getting thousands of emails a day, I missed the renewal notice and my wife was driving down the road one day, and she was stopped by a cop, and when they checked the licence plate the car hadn’t been taxed. I said “that’s our system working…” but she didn’t see the bright side!

How have you seen different sectors innovate with technology? 

Commercial businesses look to technology to improve workflow and save costs. We recently partnered with Reach PLC, the UK and Ireland’s largest commercial publisher, to drive digital transformation within the business.

Society has moved on from print magazines and newspapers that we use to read our daily news from, and we now find ourselves in this digital world where everything we consume is online. Because of this consumer change, traditional publications such as Reach are having to digitise to adapt to customer preferences. We are helping Reach become a more data-led and digital business by streamlining its IT support model and services through our ASPIRE framework which involves reducing costs, risks, and time by improving technology estates.

Another industry I have seen embrace innovation is the retail sector. Many companies today are managing a growth in e-commerce and increased consumer demand for online shopping. We partnered with a leading international clothing retailer employing more than 80,000 colleagues across 17 countries in the UK, Europe and the US to provide a future-proof financial system that could handle the expanding global footprint of the company to meet growing consumer demands.

We implemented a new financial system that helped transform the company’s operations and allow them to monitor real-time financial insights. This new system ensured the management team could make informed strategic decisions to support continued growth, opening new stores and entering new markets worldwide

Where do you think tech improvements are needed in the public sector?

There are many areas that need to catch up, but it’s more a case of continuously evolving how you deliver and what you deliver to citizens in line with their expectations.

People who work in public sector organisations are used to using very simple, straightforward apps. How they bill their taxes, how they do their shopping, banking, everything.

So, I wouldn’t point to a huge body of work that needs transforming and say there is simply a need to evolve on how to deliver services to keep up with the expectations of citizens as they continuously evolve.