Report: Government has saved £159.6m on ICT contracts in the past year

Positive start for new ICT strategy but challenges still to be met

The government says its ICT strategy has saved it £159.6m on contracts in the past year, but it still faces a challenge to meet all of its targets.

A report on the first year of the ICT strategy stated the government has saved £159.6m by "demanding a rigorous business case for any significant spend".

It added that £140m of £490m overall savings came through centralising procurement of common goods and services and £64.2m was saved from telecommunication network budgets by applying "better, common standards for the public services network (PSN)".

It also projected further savings of £150m in 2012/13 by creating an environment for a common infrastructure.

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude singled out the establishment of a CIO Delivery Board to implement the strategy, the creation of the CloudStore, and the launch of the Government Digital Service as highlights of the government's strategy so far.

The report said that the government has looked to deliver value from suppliers in new ways such as software licensing optimisation, which it said has brought over £7m in savings, and the use of e-auctions, which was used by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to procure 16,000 desktop machines at a saving of £2m.

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Report: Government has saved £159.6m on ICT contracts in the past year

Positive start for new ICT strategy but challenges still to be met

The progress report found that average server utilisation in Whitehall stands at 24.75 per cent, with only 17 per cent of the servers virtualised.

In the section on procurement, the report said the total spend under management on ICT common goods and services is £704m, and the number of ICT contracts with a lifetime value greater than £100m is 17.

The report also acknowledged the National Audit Office's report in December that praised the government's progress on its ICT strategy but also found several areas that it needed to improve on.

These included the need to develop a system to measure the strategy's impact and a resource plan as "short-term capacity and capability gaps may start to hinder progress".

The report said that government CIO Andy Nelson and the CIO Delivery Board are taking these challenges with implementation on board.

"For example, by established new approaches to resourcing projects; and by putting in place stronger programme and project management. This will ensure that progress continues to be made and that, collectively, government implements its ICT strategy, enabling efficient, cost-effective public services that are responsive to the needs of citizens and businesses," the report reads.

The government yesterday released a series of metrics for people to track the government's success in achieving its objectives, which can be found at data.gov.uk.

Speaking about the metrics, Maude said: "We also demonstrate this government's commitment to transparency and openness by the publication for the first time of a range of metrics relating to ICT in government. These will be developed to provide a more consistent benchmark for future years, demonstrating how uptake of the strategy is progressing."