IT suppliers have offered to cut the cost of IT
programmes by 20% over the next four years, in return for the
government speeding up procurement times and agreeing to more
standardisation.
The deal has been brokered by board of government chief
information officers, chaired by Joe Harley chief information
officer at the Department of Work and Pensions.
The signatories include Accenture, Atos Orgin, BT, Cap Gemini,
Capita, Cable & Wireless, CSC, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM, Logica and
Siemens Business Services, the Financial Times reported.
Harley said that government departments over specified systems,
asked for too much customisation, took too long to procure
systems, and failed to learn from the experience of other
government departments.
At the same time, the operational performance of suppliers
needed to improve, and suppliers need to agree a standard
methodology, to allow their performance to be measured across
different government departments, he said.
The agreement could cut billions of pounds from the £14bn that
central government spends on IT each year.
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