Local authorities have seen more IT innovation in the
last five years than ever before. The drive to meet e-government
targets has seen record investment and the introduction of new
technologies.
The next target, the transformational government agenda, will
require just as much innovation. It will pose a particular
challenge to IT departments as they strive to overhaul back-office
systems while, because of their public service function, not taking
risks that could damage delivery to clients.
Analysts say this means local authorities will look to gain
efficiencies and cost reductions by deploying technologies that
have already proved their worth in other sectors.
Among the technologies identified by analyst firm Gartner are
voice over IP, open source development models and enterprise
content management systems. It said these are proven technologies
that can be implemented with little disruption to existing business
processes.
Andrea Di Maio, a research vice-president at Gartner, said,
"VoIP provides a quick win so we expect quick and significant
investments. Open source provides cost advantages in some areas.
And councils need a process in place to find public records for
compliance with the Freedom of Information Act."
Herefordshire County Council will be one of the first large
authorities to go live with a VoIP network when it lays cables to
the last of its 200-plus sites next month. It began work on its
network last November.
Julie Holmes, Herefordshire's head of ICT, said last autumn that
she expected savings of "multiple millions over the next three to
four years".
Some 2,100 council officers and other public sector employees
will use the new network. The VoIP system will run on Cisco
hardware and Siemens' Hipath DX and Hipath 4000 communications
servers.
The service will be monitored from supplier Siemens
Communications' network operations centre based in Wellingborough.
Herefordshire's call centre runs on Siemens' Hipath Procenter
system.
Di Maio said, "The first step of a VoIP implementation is to
deliver efficiency. After that it will enable additional services
and additional efficiency gains."
Local authorities may adopt uses of VoIP that have already led
to productivity or efficiency gains in the private sector. For
example, they could integrate their voicemail with their e-mail
client to create a single mailbox, or integrate voice and data in
Microsoft Outlook.
Being able to continue using Microsoft applications is important
for local authorities because many have standardised on Windows XP
as their operating system. Councils will also look to integrate
their choice of mobile e-mail system into the single voice and data
mailbox.
Gartner also sees councils making greater use of open source,
but as a model for developing applications rather than as a
replacement for Microsoft Windows or the Office desktop
productivity suite.
Di Maio said, "If you think about open source as a replacement
for Windows, it has never had momentum in the UK, but thinking
about the other elements of open source is different."
UK councils could form alliances to develop open source
applications in the same way as authorities in other countries. For
example, eight French councils are cooperating to develop open
source applications through a forum called Adullact. A group of
local government bodies in the US also cooperates on open source
application development.
In the UK, open source uptake in the public sector is less
advanced. According to the Society of IT Management's annual survey
of local authorities' technology priorities, few councils expect to
work on open source in any area of their business.
The last Socitm survey in December found that fewer than 20% of
councils would consider using open source for business critical
systems, desktop applications or remote access.
However, more than 70% of authorities were considering using
open source for web-based applications. Some 20% of councils were
"very likely" to use open source for web applications.
Socitm, whose members are senior IT practitioners in local
authorities and public sector organisations, surveyed 126 of the
UK's 475 local authorities for its IT Trends survey.
Di Maio pointed to the customer relationship management national
project, which is led by the London Borough of Newham, as an
example of open source development. Although Newham leads the
project, other councils contribute their ideas.
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, for example, has
contributed the processes behind an intranet-based application for
monitoring progress to central government-imposed targets.
The council's E-pro system produces all the information needed
to populate the Implementing Electronic Government form and the
Annual Efficiency Statement. Every council has to complete both
returns to comply with central government regulations.
Di Maio said that although UK local government tends not to use
traditional open source licences for its collaborative projects,
there is still scope to "expand the development community".
One increasingly important technology is enterprise content
management systems, where suppliers have begun to offer cut-down
versions of applications to meet the specific needs of local
councils.
Di Maio said, "You now see stripped-down versions that offer
clients a more palatable proposition. "
Adobe, Documentum and Hummingbird are all targeting local
authorities with appropriately sized enterprise content management
systems.
Some authorities are also using Adobe Intelligent Document for
record management and then building a document management strategy
around that.
In the Socitm IT Trends survey, content management was
identified as the fourth most important technology behind CRM,
electronic forms and workflow.
The joy of sharing
Local authorities are increasingly expected to share services
with other councils and public sector bodies, such as the police
and fire services.
Last autumn's Transformational Government consultation paper
said that "bodies awarding funding should presume that public
service organisations only deliver good value for money when they
standardise and share services with others". This is likely to see
demand for customer service centres with the capacity to run
services for multiple councils.
The core back-office services - finance and human resources -
will need to use standard systems and processes if they are to be
shared between different public sector bodies. Public bodies will
also have to share data without losing public trust.
Common standards for managing information, including customer
records, will also need to be agreed.
Central government is encouraging several emerging identity
management systems that will allow both public and private sectors
to access services.