Tony Blair has failed to convince councillors in almost
half of the UK’s local authorities of the value of
e-government.
The Society of IT Management’s IT Trends in Local Government
2003/2004 report revealed that in 40% of councils, elected members
felt e-government either distorted local priorities, could not be
justified in terms of cost, or was not a priority.
However, with the 2005 e-government deadline looming, council
chief officers and IT staff were more optimistic about the
potential of electronic services.
The report, which was based on responses from more than 230
councils in England, Scotland and Wales, found that more than 40%
of local government directors believed e-government could make
wide-ranging improvements to service delivery.
Local authority IT managers were equally positive and foresaw an
average 20% performance improvement.
However, the report highlighted a lack of performance management
within councils, with only 33% of IT departments formally measuring
and publishing performance information.
Socitm found that councils’ IT spending was rising dramatically
as they approached the deadline. Some 60% of councils planned to
increase their staff numbers in preparation for the 2005
deadline.
Spending this year will reach almost £2.5bn in 2003 - a 24%
increase on last year. Despite these increases, the report said,
"Lack of funding was seen as the biggest risk to e-government.
Managers are concerned about central government ceasing to support
the programme."
Socitm members fear that councils not meeting the deadline may
never be able to deliver e-enabled services if funding dries
up.
Despite these fears, John Serle, the report’s editor, said local
government was becoming an increasingly attractive place to work.
"Anybody looking for an IT job should be getting involved in local
government. There are some great projects."
These involve technologies such as customer relationship
management, ERP and supply chain management.
Serle expected recruitment to boost councils’ IT headcount by
between 5% and 6% of the 14,000 IT staff working in councils in
England, Scotland and Wales.
Councils’ attitudes to e-government:
Web services and customer relationship management are rated as
the most promising technologies.
More than half of councils are considering open source, and
almost one quarter are using it selectively. The remaining councils
have evaluated and rejected it.
Knowledge about the government’s standards and interoperability
framework appears to be poor - on average 60% of councils have
limited or no knowledge.
About 33% of councils have all their buildings linked by
broadband.
Use of wireless technology appears to be at an early stage, with
only about 10% of councils claiming extensive use.
Hewlett-Packard is the largest supplier to local government, and
also has the largest installed base of large servers.
Most councils are migrating to Windows XP and are reporting a
decline in older versions of Windows.
Source: Socitm Annual IT Trends in Local Government Report
2003/2004