ICT in the public sector has the potential to revolutionise delivery. A clear example is the South African Revenue Service`s electronic tax filing system (see sidebar on p.62), which has cut costs, improved efficiency and brought in more revenue for the government. Other departments range from good to totally dysfunctional. What`s needed to get them to the SARS` level? More training? More experience? More co-operation with the private sector? Brainstorm invited a panel of experts to give their views.

Present were Andrew Holden, managing director of outsource services at Bytes Technology Group; Muggie van Staden, managing director of Obsidian Systems; Dr Pete Janse van Vuuren, executive partner at Gartner SA; Desan Naidoo, general manager of public sector at SAS Institute SA; Justin Thorpe, business development manager at MTN Network Solutions; Inana Nkanza, managing director at Sun Microsystems SA; Lee Naik, head of public sector consulting at Accenture; Amir Lubashevsky, director of Magix Integration; Alf Kale, executive director of public services at SAP Africa; Hamilton Ratshefola, CEO of Cornastone Consulting Group; Reshaad Ahmed, senior manager of internet business solutions group at Cisco SA; Linos Siwedi, government account manager at Printacom Technologies; and Patrick Makhubedu, sales director at TSSMS.