§ The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. Andrew Smith)As part of the Department's work to strengthen the management of its modernisation programme, the Department has updated its Information Systems and Information Technology Strategies. The update has drawn on best practice from change programmes across both public and private sectors which has shown the advantages of focusing our approach on
more frequent, smaller incremental improvements to our IT;greater use of off-the-shelf commercial packages;reducing the scope, duration and complexity of individual projects;integration of existing systems with new technologies to improve the availability of reliable data; and,applying these principles to cross-cutting programmes such as data sharing and data management requirements.This approach will strengthen the Department's ability to deliver key modernisation outcomes as part of the government's Welfare Reform agenda.