Mention the letters ‘IT' to council chief executives and leaders and they are likely to stare into the middle distance or refer the query to the computer department on the third floor. For most senior executives, IT is definitely the ‘IT crowd'. Glyn Evans, Birmingham's business change chief and newly-elected president of the local authority IT managers' society SOCITM, tells Michael Burton why such a view is not only incorrect but damaging to councils' transformation agendas.

There are few computer geeks who can boast a degree in religious studies and an interest in 14th century Scottish history – but then Glyn Evans is anything but a computer geek.