Public sector needs to spend more in transformational IT, says Socitm

Budget cuts in IT will not serve to reduce overall costs, warns body

Socitm says CIOs should be soending more, not less, on IT

Socitm has advised local authorities to maintain or even increase their IT expenditure at the current time in order to achieve larger savings throughout the organisation. The body said that " draconian cuts in support services" will inevitably lead to deterioration in service, which can be avoided if CIOs spend wisely.

While Socitm - the association for IT professionals in the public sector - recognised that political pressures dictates that IT must take its share of the current budget cuts, it said that the best way for CIOs to make savings in an environment where they are facing budget constraints is by spending more in IT that improves business efficiency.

In its Benchmarking Services Summary for 2009 report (.pdf), Socitm said that IT facilitated developments such as flexible working, shared services, application of lean thinking, and e-procurement will reduceoverall costs.

IT spend per user in local authorities has dropped by 15.75 per cent in real terms since 2008 and by 19.3 per cent since 2006.

“Increasing costs can mean two things, one is that you’re spending more in the things you were doing in the past, which is not good, or you’re spending more because you want to invest to make improvements elsewhere, which is good,” said Martin Greenwood, programme manager at Socitm.

He urged CIOs to separate expenditure that is classified as ‘business as usual’ from expenditure which might have potential transformational capability.

“For the business as usual things, I would look as creatively as possible at reducing those costs. However, for expenditure in IT with transformational capabilities, it’s really important for CIOs to be vey close to the senior decision makers in the organisation to understand the way they’re thinking and the pressures they’re under so that they can look for the simplest solutions as possible to solve their problems.”

Greenwood explained that public sector organisations are often reluctant to invest in IT because their track record is sometimes “very patchy”.

“People have had their fingers burned in the past, but usually when that happens, it’s the fault of the organisation as a whole, rather than the IT department. As a result senior management, particularly in the public sector, are very risk averse and tend to play safe.”