Forced Innovation in the Public Sector

Forced Innovation and the Transition to the Cloud: Implications for the Israeli Public Sector and Opportunities for Smaller Businesses.

The concept of “forced innovation” refers to the idea that external constraints can drive innovation within an organization. Lior Kesos, the CTO of Linnovate and one of the most prominent technologists I know, coined the term. An example of forced innovation is the Nimbus project, which involved the transition of government ministries to the cloud.

Many people initially thought moving to the cloud meant renting a server from a cloud provider instead of buying one outright. However, the move to the cloud has had a much more profound impact on organizations and industries.

For years, the Israeli public sector has had a close relationship with Microsoft, using their products for everything from operating systems and office software to data servers and identification systems. However, the government ICT Authority and the procurement manager recently released the Nimbus tender, which could disrupt the status quo by forcing government organizations to innovate whether they want to or not.

The winners of the Nimbus tender were Google and Amazon, and attempts to appeal the results were unsuccessful. This means that many organizations now face the challenge of transitioning away from Microsoft technologies, which have been deeply ingrained in their computing infrastructure, development languages, and personnel.

For instance, many public sector organizations have adopted SharePoint, a software for managing content, documents, and processes using Microsoft’s Active Directory. The dominance of Microsoft’s corporate identity has influenced the adoption of technologies within these organizations.

The forced innovation process and Microsoft’s failure to win the Nimbus tender create an opportunity for significant changes in the public sector. Forced innovation could involve the adoption of innovative technologies from medium-sized manufacturers and the adoption of open-source systems, enabling greater technological independence and control over architecture for the next decade.

The transition to the cloud also provides an excellent opportunity for companies like Linnovate, which offers Blocktree, an open-source software alternative to SharePoint. Blocktree offers superior architecture, functionality, and value for organizations in transition. Its microservices architecture allows for greater scalability and complete control of the technology, and it can provide cost savings compared to other solutions.

The transition to the cloud presents a unique opportunity for governments to level the playing field and support smaller businesses that drive economic growth and wealth distribution more equitably. By adopting open-source solutions like Blocktree, governments can help to foster innovation and competition within the technology sector.