IT will drive civil service reforms

Technology is at the heart of Gordon Brown's plans to cut Whitehall costs. The Chancellor wants back office efficiency savings of 2.5 per cent by 2008, boosting front line service delivery funding by £20bn.

According to last week's Budget, the Department of Work and Pensions is to cut staffing levels by 30,000 over the next four years. The Department for Education and Skills will cut jobs by 31 per cent.

And the merger between the Inland Revenue (IR) and Customs & Excise (HMCE) will also cut staff by 40,500 by 2008.

The Chancellor was explicit that IT is crucial to these plans.

'We are investing over £6bn in modern technology - creating the potential for greater economies in back office and transactional services,' said Brown in his Budget speech in the Commons.

There is potential for efficiency improvements, but not just by putting in IT, says government technology expert Jim Norton.

'It is crucial to get staff on side because if they are universally opposed to a technology programme it will go nowhere,' he said.

'Simply putting IT in to replicate old job roles will be disastrous - first we need to look very carefully at what is being achieved in these roles, then re-engineer the business processes and have a constructive dialogue with trade unions. The IT is not the place to start,' he said.

Technology is now at the heart of government policy, says Eric Woods, government practice director at analyst Ovum.

'The gloomy side is that government doesn't have great track record with technology and there will need to be a quantum change in the way government approaches IT management,' he said.

'But the positive view is that this puts IT much more at the forefront of central government policy. It is not a question of throwing the problem to IT to deliver, government is saying this is core to how it is going to invest in public services over next five years.'

Plans to merge IR and HMCE were not included in the £3bn Aspire deal for the Revenue's IT systems, won by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young from incumbent EDS in December.

The merger will mean even greater care needs to be taken over the transition, says Woods.

'Going forward, government IT will increasingly be about linking multiple systems and multiple suppliers. These kinds of departmental changes have to be built into how contracts are negotiated and how systems are built in terms of flexibility. Our existing infrastructure is not in a state to do that,' he said.