According to Andres Sutt, Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, it’s one of the largest IT reforms in the country, which has been prepared for a long time. "One of the biggest challenges for the digital society is to ensure the sustainability of digital services. One very necessary step in this process is to bring the organization of standard ICT basic services together in a central competence centre. This will help to improve the quality of basic ICT services, increase the security of the digital society and reduce the technological gap and costs," said Sutt.
According to the Minister, the new institution and its head have a responsible task to build a new level of basic ICT services throughout the country. “Its impact is directly felt by more than 25, 000 civil servants in their daily work, and through the higher quality of service, by all users of Estonian public digital services. Ergo has already done a lot of work in planning this reform, and now he has the opportunity to implement it as well," the Minister added.
According to Ergo Tars, who will start as the head of RIT in January, the first year’s focus will be on launching the services on a new level. “In the first place, we will develop the architecture of the new computer workplace, bring the Estonian Government Cloud to the administration of RIT and start transferring the basic ICT services from the existing service providers. As a first step, experts in the field from the Centre of Registers and Information Systems will join RIT. In the coming years, other IT units will join too. The private sector also plays an important role in the work of RIT, together we can provide higher-quality and modern basic ICT services faster than usual,” Tars noted.
Last year, Tars worked at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications as the head of IT consolidation, before that as director general of the IT department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ergo has a long experience in IT management and service development in business, including telecommunications. Tars will start as the head of RIT on January 1, 2022.
The main tasks of the Estonian ICT Centre will be the central organization of the provision of basic ICT services to the state: management, procurement and development of necessary services, solutions and systems, management of the corresponding budget and ICT assets, as well as the provision of guidance, training related services and information security. RIT will provide basic ICT services to all government agencies, i.e. ministries and boards, but also, by agreement, to local governments and foundations.
