North London Boroughs Choose Ed Garcez As CDIO

The North London boroughs of Camden, Haringey and Islington have chosen Ed Garcez, currently chief information officer for the London tri-borough’s shared ICT service, as chief digital and information officer (CDIO) to head a new combined ICT and digital service.

The boroughs announced their choice following a three-month recruitment process that attracted nearly 100 applicants for the £120,000-per-year post.

Shared services background

Prior to his current role, Garcez served as ICT services divisional director at Lambeth, where he was credited with reducing IT costs and improving user satisfaction.

He was in the spotlight in June when the London tri-borough, comprising Westminster City Council, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea, announced that BT would be the sole supplier of a range of ICT services under a pan-London public sector procurement framework worth up to £200m.

Garcez and BT’s Tom Baker said at the time that the framework was intended to help share best practices and to provide the benefits of large scale.

Garcez has served as chief information officer at the tri-borough since December 2013, giving him significant shared services experience.

“I am looking forward to being part of the new shared Digital and ICT service and the exciting journey of service transformation, to make connecting with the councils easier for residents,” Garcez stated.

Digital programmes

The three councils said they expect Garcez to be instrumental in digital transformation projects intended to make information and services available online.

“Our digital capability is increasingly important in underpinning many of the services we provide to our residents and Ed Garcez’s experience of leading a tri-borough shared ICT and Digital Service in his previous role will give us a great platform to continue to improve this,” said councillor Theo Blackwell, cabinet member for finance, technology and growth at Camden Council, in a statement.

The three councils already operate digital services including websites, mobile applications, assistive technology and platforms that allow staff to work outside the office.

The councils said they plan to agree a start date shortly.

Government bodies are under pressure to reduce costs through programmes such as shared services arrangements, some of which, such as those deployed by central government, have attracted criticism for problematic implementations and rising costs.

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