As Whitehall's IT fiascos grab the headlines, local
government is quietly becoming a hotbed of technology-driven
process improvement, writes Myles Hewitt
Public sector IT has received more than its share of adverse
publicity over the past few years. Troubles on big projects such as
the NHS national programme, Child Support Agency systems and tax
credits have grabbed the national headlines.
But there is also a lot of good news, with groundbreaking
systems and applications being developed across the country. Local
authorities responded with vigour to the challenge of the
e-government agenda and they are now getting to grips with the
demands of the next phase, the Transformational Government strategy
launched last November.
On the ground, the massive sums poured into e-government and the
demands for cost savings to be delivered through improved
efficiency have translated into a wealth of applications covering
such areas as mobile and wireless implementations, voice over IP
(VoIP) telephone systems and customer relationship management.
In addition, regulatory pressures around privacy, freedom of
information and the burgeoning requirement to store vast quantities
of information such as e-mails has given new urgency to more
established areas such as document management, data quality and
information storage and retrieval.
The case studies by Arif Mohamed give a flavour of how
implementations can produce substantial savings and introduce new
ways of working. The London Borough of Hounslow has halved the cost
of running its telephone system by switching to VoIP, but it is not
simply about saving money, as the council has also benefited by the
opportunity to add applications via the new system.
For Lewisham Primary Care Trust a biometric log-on application
provides the twin benefits of increased security and a reduction in
systems administration through cutting back on multifarious
password log-ons.
At Leeds a digital pen and paper pilot promises to pave the way
for a dramatic cut in paperwork and admin for home care workers as
well as allowing them to spend more time out working in the
field.
Applications such as these will always pay dividends so long as
non-IT staff find them easy to use and see that they genuinely help
them do their jobs better. The need for user buy-in is amply
demonstrated by the problems associated with the NHS Choose and
Book system, which has so far failed to generate much enthusiasm
for its key user base – the GPs.
Now the government is betting the business on shared services.
As Will Hadfield makes clear in his article on page 50, central
government rhetoric has moved from general sounds of encouragement
to detailed plans of how local authorities and other public sector
bodies will be expected to share their back-¬office IT systems to
save cash.
The effectiveness of shared services is absolutely dependent on
councils buying in to the idea that there are clear benefits from
linking up with others. Whatever encouragement and coercion the
government may have in mind, it should remember that “you can lead
a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”.
Or as one local authority IT chief put it, “Why on earth should
we do anything with a two-star authority when we are already a
four-star authority?”
Read article:
How public sector staff are plugging
into an array of new tecnology to boost efficiency and cut
costs
Read article:
The challenges of delivering cost savings
through shared services