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Tony Blair describes the role as "pivotal" to the modernisation of public services. But to many others, it would be a poisoned chalice, a thankless task. Which might explain the choice of the country's first head of electronic government. Senior IT executives at GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever and ICI were all linked with the role, and Richard Granger, the health service's head of IT, was strongly tipped. But the man named last month was the lower-profile UK MD of Accenture, Ian Watmore.

To be sure, Watmore, a former president of the Management Consultancies Association, is a solid choice. The father-of-four, who takes up the position in September 2004, is a career consultant. He went straight from studying management theory at Cambridge to joining a graduate course with Arthur Andersen's professional services arm, now known as Accenture. It was, he says, the only post he ever applied for.

Until now.

When the job was first advertised, a salary range of £91,000 to £192,000 was given. Assuming Watmore's eventual pay is within that range, it would be lower than the £250,000 a year Granger earns.

That suggests Granger may not even have applied. Analysts at Ovum have another theory: "While the role is clearly influential, it is, when all said and done, advisory rather than executive, which is why we suspect that Richard Granger did not warm to the job."

Watmore will report to Cabinet Secretary Sir Andrew Turnbull. The job will have more in common with the now-defunct position of 'e-envoy' - until recently, a strictly advisory role performed by Andrew Pinder - than the truly executive 'UK CIO' many experts had called for.

One of the few genuine state CIOs anywhere in the world is Michelle d'Auray of Canada. Many analysts - Accenture among them - say it is no coincidence that the Canadian government is a world leader in 'joined-up government' and the online delivery of many key public services. Indeed, Accenture has emerged as one of the more vocal proponents of the e-government concept in recent years, and its regular surveys, which tend to position the UK behind Canada, Singapore and other leaders, are probably closely followed in Whitehall.

The fact that Watmore has such a long career in the private sector would have made him an ideal candidate. Although it is not clear that the application process was shut off to people already working in government, some civil servants indicated that they favoured an outsider. But Watmore is by no means the first senior government IT figure to make the switch: Granger was a partner with Deloitte Consulting before he joined the health service, Pinder had carried out senior IT roles within Citibank and Prudential before becoming e-envoy, while Robert Westcott, CIO and group director of programme and systems delivery for the Department of Work and Pensions, was a former CIO at General Motors. Recruitment experts say the public sector has become much more competitive in recent years, thanks to rising salaries and bigger budgets. Headhunters also report that they are coming across growing numbers of private sector IT executives who feel they want to 'give something back' before entering retirement.

Another possible factor in his appointment is the continued success that Accenture has had in government contracts. There have been exceptions - Watmore himself had to face awkward questions from members of the Public Accounts Committee a few years ago over a computer problem with National Insurance records - but generally his UK unit has outperformed the competition.

Accenture has been a big winner in the recent round of regional IT contracts with the NHS. Its share of the £6 billion programme to modernise the heath service's IT systems, applications and business processes is reputed to be worth £2 billion, making it the big winner along with BT.

Not that Watmore would necessarily want to take the credit. He is known to describe himself as a reluctant high-flier. "I've always been quite surprised when I've been successful," he once said. "The reason for that is, almost from day one [with Accenture], I had no idea what I was going to do and I was very naïve about business. I've never stopped feeling that there's a huge amount to learn." In his new role, Watmore will be under pressure to learn fast.