Interview with Tony Dawson

Tony Dawson is the Local Government Lead for the Innovation & Delivery Team at Methods.

Summarise your CV to date?

I’ve worked in IT for a total of 31 years – and I still look good. 18 years were at Essex County Council, where I held a number of senior IT roles including Deputy Head of IT and Head of Strategic Programmes. Before that, I was at London Borough of Redbridge and British Telecom, where I worked on the first digital exchanges.

What attracted you to Methods?

I’d been sold on the company before I joined, as I worked with Methods at Essex. Methods’ bid submissions looked different from anything else we had seen. Methods understood what we were trying to achieve. This is impressive when you consider that previously our prime suppliers were international consulting companies.

What type of work do you do?

I’m trying to get organisations to work towards a different type of technology model, often by recognising the limitations of their current systems. One of Methods’ key themes is around service aggregation, so clients build their technology around the customer and not the other way around. It is only then that we can start joining up processes and making things more efficient.

What makes Methods different?

I contribute to Methods’ understanding of local government. I see the enormous number of systems that most organisations are using, but I understand how that’s come about. There’s a rationale behind it even if it sounds crazy – councils are dynamic, political organisations. And this understanding is a rare commodity. Methods appreciates the constraints of trying to change these types of systems, and, where necessary, we work within their confines.