The latest survey into local authority IT spending shows the age of
e-government is on the way. But the Society of ITManagement warns
that there is still resistance and difficulty in meeting government
targets.
Local government spending on IT has risen for the first time in
a decade, according to the annual IT Trends survey produced by the
Society of IT Management (Socitm).
This increase is a result of prime minister Tony Blair's drive
to e-government. But the survey reveals many local authority IT
chiefs still face resource and skills problems in providing
applications to make e-government work.
There is a growth in outsourcing, partnership with the private
sector and use of consultants. The latter has risen for the sixth
year.
Local authorities are still not bound to deliver all services
electronically by 2005. Yet it has become the de facto deadline and
is likely to be a mandatory part of the Best Value regime.
Socitm questioned 400 local authority heads of information and
communications technology (ICT) and chief executives in England,
Wales and Scotland. It produced the UK's most authoritative
analysis of public sector IT.
The survey found understanding of Blair's e-government proposals
among chief officers and councillors was patchy or poor in 75% of
authorities.
Many heads of IT also reported it was increasingly difficult to
provide services to their authorities. E-government requires new
applications and councils do not have the resources.
In accordance with government guidelines, more than
three-quarters of authorities have prepared an e-government
strategy. Similarly, a third of authorities have followed
Whitehall's lead and appointed e-champions to oversee the
strategy's implementation.
Some 55% of e-champions are on the council management team. The
chief executive takes the role in 13% of authorities and the head
of IT in 30%.The role is full-time in only 10% of councils. In 42%
of cases, it occupies less than than 10% of time.
Brian Westcott, who compiled the report, told Computer
Weekly, "Each authority has to work out arrangements best
suited to itself. Socitm believes the job is 'leading', with the
'doing' by others."
He also suggested many appointments remain to be formalised.
This is because there was disagreement bet-ween chief executives
and heads of IT as to whether an appointment had been made in more
than 50 authorities.
Joined-up government
Government efforts to develop seamless public services have won
enthusiastic support from local authorities - 84% have initiatives
to improve integration of services within the council, and 70% with
other organisations.
Again, the survey raised key questions. "Much information
exchanged between organisations must be ad-hoc, because there is
little evidence of shared information systems," said Westcott.
He also warned some IT directors and chief executives were wary
about the Government's targets.
"The survey reveals Socitm members are generally happy with the
e-government targets," said Westcott, "but many feel there is a
danger of providing electronic services for the sake of it,
regardless of what the public wants.
"Each local authority should think what is best for themselves,
rather than doing everything electronically to satisfy
targets."
Which technologies?
The survey looked at technologies used to deliver electronic
services and contained few surprises - Internet and e-mail
dominate. There is growing interest in call centres and customer
relationship management. Only 17% of authorities have a call
centre. But 63% said they expect to introduce one over the next
year.
Document management technologies are now used by 50% of
authorities, mainly in revenues. Benefits and significant growth in
use is predicted.
Some authorities have developed smartcard applications for
accessing, or paying for, council services. These have proved
expensive, difficult to implement and growth is too slow.
ICT staff resources
Socitm estimates local authorities employ about 18,300 ICT
staff, a figure that has remained constant since the mid-1990s. As
a result of outsourcing, it estimates there are a further 2,000
"virtual staff".
Staff turnover, which rose in 1998 and 1999, dropped in the last
year to 8%. Recruitment problems have eased, but more than 70% of
leavers went to new jobs outside the public sector. This has left
IT directors reporting difficulty in attracting qualified staff
with particular skills.
For the first time, Socitm profiled heads of IT and found a
"disappointingly predictable" 86% were male. The median age was 48,
"a very high age for a supposedly young profession," the survey
noted.
Best value
The Best Value legislation requires authorities to review all
services every five years. However, the Government has set no
performance indicators for IT.
Socitm devised its own key performance indicators. The survey
reveals disparities in total cost of ownership, user satisfaction
and costs per connection and the percentage of successfully
completed projects.
Westcott said he hoped the Government would adopt Socitm's
inducators and told Computer Weekly of plans to create benchmarking
clubs across the UK.
Socitm IT trends 2000/1 Toward E-government: Society of
Information Technology Management, PO Box 121, Northampton, NN4
6TG. To obtain a copy e-mail: bw@chester-uk.demon.co.uk
Obstacles to delivering e-government
| | Average
rating | |
| Issue | Heads of
ICT | Chief
executives |
| Funding | 4.1 | 4.1 |
| Too many initiatives
to cope with | 3.8 | 3.7 |
| Conflicting priorities
of organisations with | 3.7 | 3.5 |
| respect to developing
joined up service | | |
| Poor management and
co-ordination | 3.5 | 3.2 |
| between
organisations | | |
| Lack of integration
between internal services | 3.5 | 2.9 |
| Skill
shortages | 3.4 | 3.3 |
| Security and
confidentiality concerns | 3.3 | 3.1 |
| Political support
within council | 2.7 | 2.4 |
| The Government's
approach | 2.3 | 2.1 |
Scale: 1= no problem; 5= major problem
Key performance indicator - measurement data
| Measurement | No of
responses | Lower | Median
Quartile | Upper
Quartile |
| Average user
satisfaction | 99 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.8 |
| % calls resolved in
agreed time | 98% | 72% | 85% | 93% |
| % of successful
projects | | | | |
| - on time | 52 | 75% | 85% | 93% |
| - within
budget | 49 | 80% | 90% | 100% |
| - achieving
benefits | 38 | 85% | 96% | 100% |
| Total cost of
ownership per workstation | 51 | £785 | £1053 | £1265 |
| Cost per connection -
voice network | 79 | £119 | £165 | £218 |
| Cost per connection -
data network | 88 | £119 | £206 | £328 |
| Support costs per
workstation | 90 | £169 | 260 | £374 |
| No of workstations
supported per specialist | 103 | 85 | 125 | 181 |
| Ratio of workstations
to employees | 101 | 33 | 54 | 84 |
Technology trends
Compaq, Sun, Dell, ICL and IBM are the main suppliers of
processing capacity used by local authorities. Half of all councils
still have a mainframe, but use is declining. Ninety per cent now
use Unix systems.
Most authorities use Microsoft Windows and NT. Many will phase
out earlier operating systems and replace them with Windows 2000
over the next two years. Linux use is expected to grow. Novell,
used by two-thirds of authorities, is predicted to decline.
Authorities were asked about data storage, with just 10 saying
they had a storage area network (San) and 77 considering one. Most
had no plans to install Sans.
The survey reported slow development of thin-client computing
with 32% of authorities using technology, up from 17% last year.
The installed base was just 5,300 devices, a 6% increase on last
year.
"This is a modest growth in a technology needing to prove itself
to gain acceptability," said Socitm. "Only 14 authorities have more
than 100 users. One county has 400."
Key benefits of thin-client technology were listed as easier
support to remote users, improved management of the desktop and
reduced total cost of ownership.
The disadvantages cited were high start-up costs, inadequate
supplier support, configuration problems and patchy
performance.
Spending on ICT
Budgeted expenditure on ICT in 2000/1 is estimated at £1.11bn
for all local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland.
This includes central and departmental budgets for ICT and
telephones (excluding call charges). ICT budgets have risen by 7.6%
compared to 1999/2000, or 6.1% in real terms.
This is the first increase since 1993. Telephone equipment
budgets have also risen, by 4%.
Many authorities continue to obtain external funding for IT
projects from sources such as National Grid for Learning, European
Union, the Lottery and the Government's Invest to Save programme.
Socitm estimate these account for a further £205m of ICT
spending.
It also carried out a post mortem on the Y2K expenditure. It
appears to have cost local government about £313m in total. But ICT
chiefs claimed only half the total was spent on remedial work. The
rest went on replacing obsolete software and equipment.