At the same time, being part of the wider CIHT family provides members with access to different perspectives and experiences.
It’s a beneficial two-way partnership and one that CIHT is looking to strengthen moving forward.

One of the opportunities it creates is for joint work around a particular topic or theme. Today I chaired a roundtable discussion that focused on the theme of digitalisation. Members will see a write up of what was a fascinating discussion in Transportation Professional in due course.

One of the issues of particular interest to me is that of the extent to which we use digitalisation as a catalyst for reform of the way we deliver services. Using digital services as a substitute for analogue services will realise some benefits, but the more exciting opportunities come from using digitalisation as the opportunity to transform services.

And in this regard we need to be open to the fact that some of the greatest opportunities exist as second or third order effects: foregoing the realisation of value by making data available may enable innovators to develop new business models for service delivery that realise much greater savings to the public purse.

Embracing such an approach can be quite challenging, particularly for public sector bodies but in a world of user centred solutions it’s one that merits consideration.

Of course what this does is shine a light on the need for us to consider whether we have access to the skills we require in order to realise the potential of digitalisation as a transformer of services. What is the best way of accessing the data analysts and service transformation skills that we need moving forward? What is the role of the CIHT in helping nurture and encourage those skills?

Whilst we might not have answered all the questions in the 2 hours we had – 2 hours that flew by without a break – it certainly generated a lot of ideas on which we can build moving forward.