Toot-toot gravy train to end

[DimPrawn]

http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/...9152664,00.htm

The government is set to reduce the budget for local e-government by more than 90 per cent.

As part of pre-planned cuts, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) is to cut funds from £150m to £7m at the end of this year, as most projects are supposed to be finished by then.

A spokeswoman for the ODPM said: "There is no cutback. This was announced at the last spending round. It was always planned to end by 2005."

Earlier this year, more than two-thirds of silicon.com readers said they had seen no change in the way their local council communicates with them, despite the December 2005 deadlines.

The drive towards e-government is linked to a spending review on the public sector published last year by ex-CEO of the Office of Government Commerce, Sir Peter Gershon.


I'd better cut back on the champagne.

[AtW]

150 mln, just how fast would that take you with Accentures of this world? A big fk off report justifying complete revamp of everything that worked so well until that point?

[voron]

This is nothing new. Government was given a target of March 2006 to have most of their IEG projects completed. In reality, very few of them will be completed, so I am sure funding will continue.

Earlier this year, more than two-thirds of silicon.com readers said they had seen no change in the way their local council communicates with them, despite the December 2005 deadlines.

That's because government doesn't understand that changing technology is only a small part of the change process. The business (both in terms of front and back office) needs to be re-engineered in order to realise the benefits and provide services in a new and more efficient manner.

[threaded]

voron: Good post, utter bollix like, but good post never-the-less. It gave me a good laugh on a Friday evening. I do hope it was meant to be sarcasm...

Remember gang re-engineering complex systems that are working is a surefire way of ensuring that contract extension at renewal time.

[voron]

Threaded, I was actually being serious. Technology is only ever a part of any IT development – there is also the business and people aspect to be considered. It is not enough to simply launch a new website, the processes around the website need to be managed.
For example, let’s say that we are going to offer users the ability to renew library books online, search the catalogue and make reservations. That’s all very well, but how does that interface with the back office library functions? What will be done to realise the savings? If don’t alter the way the librarians work then you haven’t created any efficiency or made any savings, in fact you have added to expenses.

The goal of IEG should be to create a single resource pool that can deliver services to customers, thereby reducing front office staffing and reducing back office staffing (plus allowing back office to concentrate on more specialist functions).