Shared services on the rise in local government

Budget cuts and the push towards the 'Big Society' are focusing local government attention on how to use ICT  to deliver services on a self-service basis.

"Now IT matters. It is no longer just about keeping the lights on," said Roger Marshall, chairman of the Socitm IT Trends board, at the launch of this year's  IT Trends report, based on a survey of 520 local service organisations.

Budgets made available for ICT functions shrank by 2.6% in 2010 compare to the previous year, while borrowing to invest in ICT doubled. In 2009 budgets shrank by 11%.

Despite the climate of cutbacks, report editor John Serle that ICT has actually emerged stronger and fitter, and is enabling organisations to achieve transformation. "ICT functions are now becoming involved in service planning and are seen as fundamental in service development rather than just focusing on the utility end," he said.

Socitm's report said the top three priorities for CIOs ought to be services sharing, getting rid of expensive equipment and moving to a self service model.

"Businesses  are actually now interested in getting ICT involved in decisions, " said Serle. "They realise it's the only way they can provide self-services. For the first time things have changed and local services are considering new ways of sourcing their ICT. Sharing services always used to be difficult because of the politics. But now the financial pressures are so great now, [councils] are putting those issues to one side."

Some 10% of local councils are actively sharing services and the rest are "thinking about it", according to Serle who added:  "People are looking at more providers because they want to change what they do. HP and Dell became very monopolistic in our market, but this trend is being broken."

Marshall commented: We actually see more activity in this area than shared services because the politics of the latter can get in the way. For example, where should a shared data centre be housed? All parties will want it located nearest themselves."