Council IT leaders urged to embrace innovation

Increasing pressure on resources will mean departments must do more with less, warns Socitm report

Council IT departments are under pressure

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.