If you're looking for a challenge in the new year, keep an eye on the sits vac columns. Advertisements for a high-flying new job - head of e-government, UK - are to appear just after Christmas.
The job, starting in April, replaces part of the current role of the e-envoy. It's no sinecure. The incumbent will be in charge of putting online the remaining one third of government services that have yet to be e-enabled. He (or she) will also be responsible for putting in place new IT systems designed to cut the cost of government. Another item on the agenda is the introduction of identity cards.
Andrew Pinder, the current e-envoy, said the new post would be "analogous but not equivalent" to a corporate chief information officer. However, the head will not have the power to tell government departments to adopt a specific technology.
Needless to say, the successful candidate will have a track record in getting big IT systems running to time and budget. The salary will be one of the highest in the civil service.
There is one other essential qualification: for security purposes, the successful candidate will have to be a UK citizen.
Ministers announced the new post on Monday, ending months of speculation about the future of the Office of the e-Envoy, the government agency set up to create UK Online.
The e-envoy has a dual responsibility. One is to evangelise about the internet and e-commerce and remove barriers to their use. The other is to put government agencies online by the end of 2005. This responsibility includes designing and managing central IT systems for use by government agencies.
Pinder is thus accountable to two ministers: Patricia Hewitt, secretary of state for trade and cabinet e-minister, and Douglas Alexander, minister for the Cabinet Office.
Launching the fourth UK Online annual report this week, Hewitt said that much of Pinder's evangelical work had been done. Although only half the population uses the internet, 96% of people know a place where it is available locally, usually the public library. After a slow start, broadband use is taking off.
Efforts to promote e-technologies will continue, Hewitt said, but will be "mainstreamed" into other government departments such as industry, education and culture. She even announced a new "aspiration" - internet access at home for everyone who wants it, by 2008. This will be led by a digital inclusion panel run by private industry.
Finally, more than two thirds of government's 400-odd services are available online. People are even starting to use them: official surveys show that 50% of internet users have been to a government site, Pinder said, and the real proportion may be higher.
But now the difficult bit begins. Up to now, e-government has been about adding a telephone, web or digital TV channel to government processes. This is relatively painless, especially if it comes with new funding. The next stage involves redesigning the government machinery to do things more cheaply.
The new head of e-government will report to Sir Andrew Turnbull, head of the civil service, and Douglas Alexander, who said: "The head of e-government will play a pivotal role in supporting the prime minister's vision for public transformation of government so that we can provide better, more efficient, public services."
The Cabinet Office talks of "driving cost out from service delivery". One idea is to rationalise government departments in a similar way to private companies where "shared services centres" generally handle processes such as recruitment and paying bills for all departments. Such possibilities are being examined in a wide-ranging review of Whitehall that is likely to recommend job cuts.
It is unclear what power the head of e-government will have to enforce such changes. Pinder quashed one rumour about the appointment by saying the Treasury's Office of Gov ernment Commerce will continue to have a role in procuring systems. It is also unlikely the new head will have any direct say over local authorities, which provide the most regularly used e-services. Phil Hope, local government minister, said this week they are making "good progress", with two thirds of services expected to be online by March.
Who will get the job? Pinder wanted an international competition, but said this week that the first criterion was "a Brit" because of the security clearance necessary. He said the required skills would almost certainly not be found in the public sector - though he wouldn't rule that out. The most likely appointee is someone who is currently a "senior partner in a consultancy firm".
Presumably, with a good parachute.
