When an organisation exists for the betterment of people and the environment, it needs good technology and, more importantly, a good strategy for that technology behind it. Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine has a mission to serve and support the people of Ireland through policy, schemes for farmers, research funding, and development of the sector. The Department plays a vital role in supporting, developing, and regulating Ireland’s agriculture, food, forestry, fisheries, and marine sectors. Its purpose is to help these sectors remain competitive, sustainable, and trusted at home and in international markets.
When the Department of Agriculture realised it needed to build out its technology capability, Louise McKeever, former Chief Information Officer and Head of Operations, stepped in to drive that agenda. She is responsible for IMT (the Information Management and Technology Group) of seven divisions, providing leadership, vision, and direction in exploiting ICT in the development and implementation of the Department’s strategy, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and setting a strategic direction across all areas of ICT.
“When I joined the Department in 1995, I would never have imagined that nearly 30 years on, I would be still working in the civil service,” says McKeever. “But it is easy to explain now why, because of what these Departments deliver and how they support the people of Ireland. It is a privilege for me to be part of that.”
Modernisation, Agility, and Innovation
When she joined the Department of Agriculture, McKeever found a technology landscape that was highly fragmented and legacy-driven. “The Department’s technical architecture had served it well, but it was 20 years old,” she explains. “There were multiple core systems performing similar functions across different business units, and overly complex integrations. The heavy reliance on manual processes created inefficiencies and increased certain operational risks. This brought about a slower pace of delivery, inconsistent user experience, and limited ability to scale.”
While the existing systems were functional and served the Department well for a long time, it was weighed down by a lack of automation. And as CIO, it is critical that McKeever is focused on modernisation, agility, and innovation. A continuous modernisation approach allows her IT team to maximise delivery to support business needs, and balance that with the continual improvement of its IT capability.
“Now, I have a comprehensive IT modernisation and digital transformation programme in place,” says McKeever.
Prioritising focus areas
McKeever quickly introduced some major changes across four areas: structural, technology, investment in skills, and sustainability. The first step was to restructure the IMT Group and set out its priorities. There were four divisions and the Enterprise Architect was trying to do their job as EA as well as managing the piloting of our new strategic platform. “That wasn’t a good approach. I needed to separate them out as they are two critical strategic roles,” says McKeever.
“That was a driver towards establishing what I called the Service Delivery Division. That enabled me to establish a program of work to operationalise our new platform and put a team in place to support it.”
McKeever then created an Information Security Division, which is critical in a world of increased threat landscape. This enabled her to invest in cybersecurity skills and resources and reorganise the Infrastructure Division while investing in technology solutions appropriate to the growing threat landscape.