Future readiness can only be developed through digitising, simplifying, reconfiguring procedures, informing decisions, and pursuing new ways of working.

Procedural modularity is essential for agility, but 51% of Digital leaders, 62% of CIOs, and 64% of CFOs indicate their operations are beset by friction and complexity.

Steve Hodgkinson, Victoria Police’s Chief Digital Officer, says executive leaders can overcome frictions by compounding organisational learning and developing digital fitness across the organisation.

This way, each part of the business will be enabled to offer digital solutions to incrementally deliver innovation across experiences and operations.

Steve warns against large digital transformation projects and says it’s better to secure dynamic funding for smaller initiatives across the organisation.

“I’ve worked in making big bets, which take a long time to deliver and cost a lot of money. It’s a very high risk because the environment is too dynamic. You’ve got to be able to get money in relatively small amounts and think of it as part of a dynamic investment portfolio.

You’ve got to mobilise projects quickly without going through onerous procurement processes.

Invest in platform capabilities and reusable assets so that as the journey goes on, more and more and more of what you need is pre-existing and reusable.”

Contributors
Steve Hodgkinson Chief Digital Officer at Victoria Police
Steve has been the CIO of the Victorian Department of Health & Human Services since 2014. He leads a team of 220... More

Steve has been the CIO of the Victorian Department of Health & Human Services since 2014. He leads a team of 220 staff and delivers projects totalling $60-80M p.a. He is a member of the Victorian Governement’s Cybersecurity Strategy Group.

In 2018, Steve was ranked #2 in Australia’s CIO50 list, made a Fellow by IPAA Victoria and Overall Champion in the #TechDiversity Awards (for the Rise at DHHS program).

In 2017, Steve was ranked #7 in Australia’s CIO50 list and State & Local Government CIO of the Year in the ITNews Benchmark Awards.

He was previously the global Chief Analyst Public Sector for the UK-based research and advisory services firm Ovum for 8 years.

Before that he was the Director eGovernment Strategy & Policy and Deputy CIO for the Victorian State government in Melbourne.

Steve had earlier founded and sold an e-commerce company, movinghome.com.au, and worked in a range of executive and consulting roles in the government and utility sectors in Europe and Australasia.

He is a graduate of the ANZSOG Executive Fellows program and the AICD Company Directors course, has a doctorate in Management Studies from the University of Oxford and also a first class honours degree in Commerce from the University of Otago in New Zealand.

Specialties: Steve is a strategy professional, with skills in “seeing the wood from the trees” in the technology landscape. He is an excellent communicator who can engage business and IT audiences. He is insightful, and able to “join the dots” in practical and meaningful ways to reveal trends and define practical strategic choices and directions. In executive roles he has a demonstrated track record in leading digital transformation in large scale complex organisations.

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Shane Hill Principal Research Analyst
Shane Hill is part of ADAPT’s Strategic Research and Advisory team. As Principal Research Analyst, he produces pragmatic insights tailored to the... More

Shane Hill is part of ADAPT’s Strategic Research and Advisory team. As Principal Research Analyst, he produces pragmatic insights tailored to the specific needs of technology leaders in Australia and New Zealand.

Hill has worked in technology delivery and market intelligence roles for the past 15 years. His expertise encompasses automation, data science, and machine learning domains. He focuses on how emerging technologies will impact the business models, frameworks, and operations of end-user and vendor organisations.

Formerly of Gartner and with IT services experience across multiple jurisdictions, Shane has led business transformation, technology modernisation, vendor management, and advisory programs for leading consultancies, major corporates, government agencies, and boutique firms.

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