The government's plan to increasesharing of servicesbetween
departments means a return to a mainframe model of information
processing,John Suffolk, the government's chief
information officer, said today.
In doing so, the government hopes to save 20% of the cost of
providing desktop processing, and for shared services to cut
another 20% from the government's £14bn annual information
technology bill from savings in others areas such as staff and
software licences.
"(Research firm) AT Kearney published some figures on shared
services recently that suggest our goals are quite realistic,"
Suffolk said.
Reporting today on the plan's progress, Suffolk said all major
central government departments have at least one shared service
scheme under way. The next step is to negotiate details and service
levels with potential clients.
Suffolk said departments will find money for IT projects scarcer
in future. He said the total savings expected from shared services
had not yet been calculated, and might not lead to less cash being
spent. "It depends on what government objectives must be
delivered," he said.
The overall plan is to have large central government
departments, such as the ministries of Defence, Agriculture or the
Environment, Forestry and Agriculture consolidate the number of
applications they run for business processes such as finance and
human resources, and then to offer to do the same processing on
behalf of its "agents". These are "family-related" client
departments that have a natural affinity with the host department
because of their nature of business or location.
The
Transformational Government implementation plan published in March
2006 committed the government to publishing nine shared service
sector plans. These plans guide the development and implementation
of shared services within each sector over the next three to seven
years.
Suffolk hopes other departments will piggyback on or copy the
seven-year Flex contract for "greener" thin client hardware and
software the Cabinet Office negotiated with Fujitsu, and a shared
services arrangement with the
Department for Works & Pensions.
"We are not holding anyone to it, but we are saying (to other
departments) if you can do better then we want to copy your
contract," he said.
Suffolk said more departments are turning to a computing model
that involved a "thin client" enabled through a web browser. This
was to reduce complexity and risk, improve security and save costs
at the desktop.
"Complexity adds cost. We are also paying for a lot of stuff on
the desktop that we do not need. Thin client and browser is a way
for many of us to go because anything else is too complex," said
Suffolk.
Asked if this meant a return to mainframe style computing,
Suffolk said it looked like it. "And if you look at mainframes
sales, they are not dropping," he said.
While Suffolk is concentrating on central government
departments, local government is also expected to do more to share
services.
Suffolk said in some respects local government bodies are
further ahead than their central peers. This was because many are
already outsourcing services to third parties, and are thus
familiar with their dangers and opportunities.