27 Jan 2009
Local government IT departments will be expected to deliver further efficiencies to their councils throughout 2009, despite extensive programmes already in place to cut costs, according to a report on IT trends in local government from public sector user group Socitm.
With the recession likely to increase the demands on public services, and with IT budgets remaining largely static, local government IT departments face having to do more with less, the report warned.
"Government expects councils to deliver a further £4.9bn in cash-releasing efficiencies by 2010/11 and this represents a challenging target that will demand transformational efficiency programmes by councils incorporating bold ICT initiatives to achieve them," says the report.
As local councils have already been through the efficiency process twice in the past four years, the easier pickings will already have been taken and more radical approaches will be needed, according to Socitm.
Councils should look at virtualisation, hosted infrastructures, shared service schemes and software-as-a-service to drive innovation and efficiency.
"The case for investment in these tools is compelling and it has to be considered and yet balanced by an increased focus on information governance and secure data handling," the report argues.
But the report also found evidence that IT departments and their managers are not sufficiently involved at top-level discussions of service delivery, which may further inhibit innovative developments.
Council should also engage with the Government Connect scheme and be prepared for increased data security costs in the future, the report concluded.
Though it is certainly facing tough questions on how to fund future ICT development programmes, local government IT is more innovative than you suggest, even if it is not as radical as some are calling for.
Several examples make the point. First quite a few larger councils are using managed services to transform capabilities of existing ICT assets - councils have after all spent heavily here in recent years. The provider takes the risk and supplies not only technology upgrades, but increasingly importantly, the expert personnel where council's own team is stretched or lacks the ICT and change management know-how.
Second, the report noted a failure of shared services adoption. This is true, but we believe there is widespread rise of collaboration platforms, particularly with far more effective front end customer service - to the extent of staffed 24/7 bill payments that private sector firms could only envy - and scope for future sharing of services, whether within councils or beyond. Not seismic change admittedly, but putting in the foundations for a more radical approach in the future.
David Hopkins, Siemens Enterprise Communcations
Posted by: David Hopkins 29 Jan 2009
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