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Ellen Mok (Digitale Doetank) on digital autonomy
“It doesn’t have to be a big deal, just get started”
Ellen Mok (34) is the founder of Digitale Doetank, which helps organisations and public authorities to become digitally autonomous. On 27 October, she will deliver the opening keynote at the SURF conference ‘Inkoop Connect’. “IT is often tucked away in the operations department, but it’s a hyper-strategic issue. The technology you procure isn’t neutral.”
Whilst studying Technical Public Administration in Delft, Ellen Mok learnt to act as an ‘interpreter’ between tech experts and the boardroom. “I’ve always found that combination of technology, people and society fascinating,” she says. She specialised in cyber threats and went on to work for the AIVD intelligence service.
After more than 3 years with the intelligence service, Ellen moved to the consultancy firm KPMG, where she set up services for the business community to protect itself against state-sponsored cyber threats (hackers) from countries such as China and Russia. In 2024, she stood for election to the European Parliament, fourth on the D66 list.
Ellen Mok
“The common thread running through my career is that I focus on the geopolitical side of technology. On the one hand, you have Russia, China and the US, which are using technology to become ‘masters of the world’. On the other hand, there is Europe, where technology and IT are often not seen as strategic issues. There are very few people with a technical background in the European Parliament. I thought: that needs to change, I’m going to make it happen.” Unfortunately, Ellen just missed out: D66 won 3 seats.
To continue her mission, Ellen founded the Digitale Doetank. This is a strategic consultancy that helps organisations turn digital autonomy into a practical and tangible reality. Clients from the public sector mainly seek her strategic advice on identifying European alternatives. She helps tech companies reposition themselves, often with a view to those very same governments: “Because they struggle to find European tech companies. In the Netherlands, we’re so used to relying on a handful of American companies that we don’t even think about the alternatives anymore.”
Ellen has noticed just how risk-averse the government is. “They’re happy to hire top-tier companies, but they’re not willing to invest in European companies to help them reach that level. In China and the US, however, the government and the private sector do work shoulder to shoulder, for example by awarding framework contracts for public services worth billions. Another issue is that European scale-ups are being snapped up by big tech. Why shouldn’t these companies be good enough for us?”
“European scale-ups are being bought out by big tech. Why wouldn’t these companies be good enough for us?”
You need a few risk-takers
According to Ellen, the SURF cooperative is extremely well-placed to play a pioneering role by continuing to pool the resources of institutions and investing in European organisations.
“Suppliers are often required to prove in advance that they can handle the scale of a sector, making major investments to do so, and even then the chance of securing a contract is still only 10 per cent. In my view, it’s wiser not to say, ‘Prove you can handle it’, but rather, ‘Let’s do it in a year’s time’. At the moment, it’s often a chicken-and-egg situation: customers don’t want to invest until a supplier meets a certain standard, but that means they’ll never be able to meet that standard. You need a few risk-takers who say, ‘Let’s do this together.’”
“The more you spend on licences, the less you can spend on research and education”
Freedom of choice is dangerously restricted
“We are dealing with a handful of monopolists. For some reason, we seem to think that’s perfectly fine in the digital world, even though licence fees are rising and the systems are designed in such a way that you can no longer opt out. Our freedom of choice in the digital world is dangerously restricted. Social media, communication with the government and the functioning of the government are all dependent on American platforms.”
According to Ellen, if we do nothing, these monopolistic positions will mean that the IT bill becomes an ever-larger part of the budget. “And the more you spend on licences, the less you can spend on research and education. Furthermore, we’ll have less freedom in what we research. Just look at the pressure in the US on everything they label as ‘woke’, researchers fleeing to Europe, and data from environmental studies disappearing. It’s actually inconceivable that we’re fuelling that trend through the products we purchase.”
“We’re perfectly happy with monopolies in the digital world, even though licence costs are rising and the systems are designed in such a way that you can’t get out of them”
Where can you start tomorrow?
Leaders of social institutions have a responsibility, says Ellen: “To invest in society. IT is often tucked away in the operations department, but it’s a hyper-strategic issue. The technology you procure isn’t neutral.”
But the play on words in the name ‘Digitale Doetank’ calls on everyone: get to work! “Anyone who sits down with me gets a to-do list: what can you start doing as early as tomorrow? What expertise do you already have in-house, and what needs to be built up? At the City of Amsterdam, our launch client, the focus was on: what do we want to have achieved in one year, five years and ten years, and what do we need to do to get there?”
“We’ve drafted the cloud and sourcing strategy in such a way that autonomy is the first choice you make in your decision tree. That way, the whole organisation can follow the assessment framework: if data is business-critical or sensitive, I must look for a European alternative. Underpinning this is an action list for each department. How do you make the issue concrete and measurable? Who should you contact if you have any questions? That’s the digital autonomy project manager, who helps the teams with these questions.”
Positive change
“I think it’s important to be part of positive change. Bringing European standards and values back into the digital world whilst strengthening our digital economy is a change I’m keen to be part of.” She has discovered that entrepreneurship suits her well. “I really enjoy it: you do what you want, how you want, with whoever you want. I’m incredibly inspired by my team, and that’s truly wonderful. I’ve never felt so free.”
Photos: Sicco van Grieken
Keynote at Inkoop Connect on 27 October
On 27 October, Ellen Mok will open Inkoop Connect, the annual event where professionals from education and research come together to find inspiration and share knowledge on the themes of procurement, contract and vendor management, and compliance. How does she hope visitors will feel when they go home? “It doesn’t have to be a big deal, just get started. As for procurement: think European.”