School report on Govt ICT Strategy – a good start

Posted on 21/12/2011 | Leave a comment

By Tony Collins

In a review of progress on the Government’s ICT Strategy after six months, the National Audit Office says that the Cabinet Office has made a “positive and productive start to implementing the Strategy”.

The NAO says that at least 70 people from the public sector have worked on the Strategy in the first six months though the public sector will need “at least another 84 people to deliver projects in the Plan”.

The UK Government’s ICT Strategy is more ambitious than the strategies in the US, Australia, Netherlands and Denmark, because it sets out three main aims:

– reducing waste and project failure

– building a common ICT infrastructure

– using ICT to enable and deliver change

The US Government’s ICT Strategy, in contrast, encompasses plans for a common infrastructure only – and these plans have not produced the expected savings, says the NAO.

In a paragraph that may be little noticed in the report, the NAO says that senior managers in central government have plans to award new ICT contracts (perhaps along the pre-coalition lines) in case the common solutions developed for the ICT Strategy are “not available in time”.

The NAO report also says that “suppliers were cautious about investing in new products and services because of government’s poor progress in implementing previous strategies”.

Of 17 actions in the Strategy that were due by September 2011, seven were delivered on time. Work on most of the other actions is underway and a “small number” are still behind schedule says the NAO.

The NAO calls on government to “broaden the focus to driving business change”.

Some successes of the UK’s ICT Strategy as identified by the NAO:

* The Cabinet Office has set up a small CIO Delivery Board led by the Government CIO Joe Harley to implement the ICT Strategy. The Board’s members include the Corporate IT Director at the DWP, CIOs at the Home Office, MoD, HMRC, Ministry of Justice and Department for Health, together with key officials at the Cabinet Office. The departmental CIOs on the Board are responsible directly to Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, for implementing the ICT Strategy in their departments and are accountable to their own minister. No conflicts have arisen

* Senior managers in central government and the ICT industry are willing to align their strategies for ICT with new cross-government solutions and standards but need more detail.

*  Some suppliers have offered help to government to develop its thinking and help accelerate the pace of change in ICT in government.

* The Cabinet Office intended that delivering the Strategy would be resourced from existing budgets. Staff have been redirected from other tasks to work on implementing the Strategy. “We have found collaborative working across departmental boundaries. For example HMRC and the MoD have combined resources to develop a strategy for greener ICT. Teams producing the strategies for cloud computing and common desktops and mobile devices have worked together to reduce the risk of overlap and gaps.

* The BBC has shown the way in managing dozens of suppliers rather than relying on one big company. For BBC’s digital media initiative, the Corporation manages 47 separate suppliers, says the NAO.

* The Cabinet Office intends that departments will buy components of ICT infrastructure from a range of suppliers rather than signing a small number of long-term contracts; and to make sure different systems share data the Cabinet Office is agreeing a set of open technical standards.

* Some of the larger departments have already started to consolidate data centres, though the NAO said that the programme as a whole is moving slowly and no robust business case is yet in place.

* The Cabinet Office is starting to involve SMEs. It has established a baseline of current procurement spending with SMEs – 6.5% of total government spend – and hopes that the amount of work awarded to SMEs will increase to 25%. Government has started talking “directly to SMEs”, says the NAO.

Some problems identified in the NAO report:

* Cloud computing and agile skills are lacking. “Government also lacks key business skills. Although it has ouitsourced ICT systems development and services for many years, our reports have often stated that government is not good at managing commercial relationships and contracts or procurement.”

* Suppliers doubt real change will happen. The NAO says that suppliers doubted whether “government had the appropriate skills to move from using one major supplier to deliver ICT solutions and services, to managing many suppliers of different sizes providing different services”.

* The Government CIO Joe Harley, who promoted collaboration, is leaving in early 2012, as is his deputy Bill McCluggage. The NAO suggests their departures may “adversely affect” new ways of working.

* The NAO interviewed people from departments, agencies and ICT suppliers whose concern was that “short-term financial pressure conflicted with the need for the longer-term reform of public services”.

* The culture change required to implement the Strategy “may be a significant barrier”.

* The Cabinet Office acknowledges that the government does not have a definitive record of ICT spend in central government (which would make it difficult to have a baseline against which cuts could be shown).

* The Cabinet Office has not yet defined how reform and improved efficiency in public services will be measured across central government, as business outcomes against an agreed baseline.

**

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said today: ” ICT is going to play an increasingly important role in changing how government works and how services are provided.

“The Government’s ICT Strategy is in its early days and initial signs are good. However, new ways of working are as dependent on developing the skills of people in the public sector as they are on changes to technology and processes; the big challenge is to ensure that the Strategy delivers value in each of these areas.”

NAO report:  Implementing the Government ICT Strategy: six-month review of progress.

Leave a comment

Posted in Campaign4Change, capacity building, change, change management, Cloud, Cloud Computing, collaboration, compliance with spending review, EU procurement, G-Cloud, government, Government IT, Green IT, improving communications, innovation, Lean, managing change, managing outsourced services, open source, operational issues, outsourcing, procurement, project management, public sector, public services, recruitment freeze, reducing cost strategically, reforms, SME, supplier relationships

Tagged , , , , , , ,

8 ways to make your software more energy-efficient

Posted on 21/12/2011 | 1 comment

By David Bicknell

I recently came across the Software Improvement Group, a Dutch company specialising in corporate software quality, which has produced some advice on how to make your software applications more energy-efficient. 

Its ‘quick wins’ include the following:

  • Reduce resolution of images and/or send them less frequently
  • Run multiple applications on shared servers
  • Reduce data translation between components
  • Log less
  • Delete historic data
  • Compile interpreted languages
  • Refrain from frivolous features
  • Avoid chatty protocols

The group points out that quick wins do not always apply and are only a first step towards energy efficiency. To create truly energy-efficient software applications requires attention during all phases of the development lifecycle, starting from requirements and design, through coding and testing, and finally on to deployment and operation.

Users do want efficient software

1 Comment

Posted in Green IT

Tagged , ,

Consumerisation shift creates change dilemma for IT departments

Posted on 21/12/2011 | 1 comment

By David Bicknell

Looking ahead into 2012, one of the biggest instances of change will continue to be consumerisation. A recent survey from Accenture has summed up the trend towards employees using their own devices which IT departments can either embrace, or fight a rearguard action against. Perhaps there is the opportunity for IT to be the good guy – for once – and rebuild its relationship with its end user ‘customers’.

Whatever IT decides, consumerisation is here to stay. Accenture found that a large proportion of employees already make their own technology decisions, and a quarter bring their own devices or access their own applications from the Internet.

The move reinforces the problems that consumerisation is causing IT departments. Trends allied to consumerisation, including use of social media and the business’s desire to spin up a Cloud facility, say for a marketing campaign, are now turning the focus squarely on what IT does now and what it should do in the future.

So-called  “Bring your own device” (BYOD) programmes are already turning many business end users into accidental IT managers.

The Accenture survey of 4000 employees found that despite employers’ concerns around data security and IT protocol, one in four (23 percent) employees worldwide regularly use personal consumer devices and applications for work related activities. Employees claim that such technologies enhance innovation, productivity and job satisfaction, and more than a quarter (27 percent) said that they would be happy to pay for their own devices and applications to use at work.

Other key findings from the research include:
 
Rising Employee Technology Expectations
  • Over a quarter (27 percent) of employees routinely use non-corporate applications downloaded from the Web in the workplace as they search for applications tohelp them to work better
  • The first step toward IT consumerisation often involves accessing corporate email in non-corporate settings, largely as a result of increasing smartphone penetration, with 30 percent saying they routinely check email before they go to bed
  • Employees also revealed a desire to access Web-based corporate applications and databases, as 14 percent reported accessing corporate apps and databases from their consumer devices on a regular basis
Employees Solving Their Own Technology Challenges
  • There is an increasing trend for employee driven technological innovation, as 24 percent of employees admitted to coming up with their own consumer technology solution to help solve a business problem
Management is Struggling to Embrace Consumer Technology
  • The use of personal devices in the enterprise increases dramatically amongst IT executives (54 percent) and other management executives (49 percent) when compared to employee adoption rates
  • Management and IT executives know that using the latest technology is a big priority for their employees, with 88 percent of executives collectively saying that consumer technology used by their employees can improve job satisfaction

Corporate IT Forum Consumerisation Summit

1 Comment

Posted in Campaign4Change, Consumerisation

Tagged , , ,

Public sector procurement change likely to spur outlook for social enterprises and mutuals

Posted on 20/12/2011 | Leave a comment

There is a good piece by Colin Cram on the Guardian Public Leaders Network which sums up a mood of change in public sector procurement towards social enterprise and the future of mutuals.

Cram argues that  “the public sector procurement spend of £236bn is the biggest lever the government has to generate economic growth. It could be argued that the focus on price or an overly narrow interpretation of cost has damaged UK businesses and UK economic growth. This, more than anything else, might explain the relative success of German industry and business compared to that of the UK.”

He suggests that MP Chris White’s public services social value bill, which has passed its third reading and report stage in the House of Commons,  seeks to strengthen the social enterprise business sector and make the concept of ‘social value’ more relevant and important in the procurement and provision of public services.

Its key elements, says Cram, include:

• A duty on the secretary of state for communities and local government to publish a national social enterprise strategy to encourage engagement in social enterprise.

• Local authorities, when entering into public procurement contracts, to give greater consideration to economic, social or environmental wellbeing.

There is already work in this area being done by Coventry City Council, which is helping social enterprises secure more business by supporting the creation of a consortium, which will be in a much better position to win business, and by the London Borough of Lambeth.

These procurement developments are likely to be  important for the take-off and future well-being of public service mutuals. It will be interesting to see whether further mutuals can take off inspired by the example set by the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham which is set to launch in early 2012.

Leave a comment

Posted in Campaign4Change, mutualisation, mutuals, procurement, public sector, public services

Tagged , , , , ,

HM Courts Service hides “Libra” IT’s new shortcomings

Posted on 15/12/2011 | 1 comment

By Tony Collins

A report published today by the National Audit Office highlights how limitations in Libra, a case management IT system in use across magistrates’ courts, has contributed towards  HM Courts Service’s inability to provide basic financial information to support the accounts.

HM Courts Service claimed a success for the troubled Libra system in 2008 – but the failure of the system was more enduring and deep-rooted than thought. The problems were kept hidden until today’s NAO report because the present and past governments have kept “Gateway” progress reports on IT-based projects confidential.

In an unusual step, the head of the NAO, Amyas Morse, has “disclaimed” his audit opinion on the accounts of the HM Courts Service, largely because of a lack of financial information.

Disclaiming an audit opinion is more serious than qualifying the accounts of a government department or agency. Qualifying the accounts means that Morse has reservations on whether figures presented to the NAO are accurate. Disclaiming an audit opinion means that Morse lacks the basic information on which to give any opinion on the accounts.

MP Richard Bacon, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, says that disclaiming an audit opinion is the “auditor’s nuclear button”.

The NAO report today puts the focus on inadequacies in the “Libra” system which is supplied by Fujitsu and STL, with integration work by Accenture.

Fujitsu originally estimated the cost of Libra, a case management system for magistrates’ courts, at £146m. By March the estimated costs were £447m and were expected to rise further. The Libra project took 16 years to complete.

Problems and cost increases on the Libra system were well known in 2003 when the NAO criticised the management of the project. After that all went quiet until in 2008 when HM Courts Service declared Libra a success.

Now the NAO’s Morse says:

“Because of limitations in the underlying systems, HM Courts Service has not been able to provide me with proper accounting records relating to the collection of fines, confiscation orders and penalties. I have therefore disclaimed my audit opinion on its Trust Statement accounts.”

In a statement the NAO criticises the Libra system directly:

“Today’s report highlights how limitations in Libra, the case management IT system in use across magistrates’ courts, and similar systems have contributed towards  HM Courts Service’s inability to provide information at an individual transactions level to support the accounts.”

The NAO says that the Ministry of Justice plans to investigate further the functionality of Libra to determine whether it is possible to provide evidence to support accruals-based financial reporting.

Says the NAO:

“In particular, the Ministry and HMCTS [HM Courts and Tribunals Service] believe that it may be possible to obtain evidence over fines and confiscation orders if a suitable report is run shortly after the month end.

“ However, the Ministry and HMCTS have informed me that they may not be able to address these fundamental issues until Libra is significantly enhanced or replaced with a new case management and accounting system. The timing of this enhancement or replacement is currently uncertain. However, the Ministry have committed to ensuring that any replacement for Libra includes accounting functionality to enable financial reporting.”

MP Richard Bacon, who has followed the Libra project for many years, says:

“This is a disgraceful position for the Courts Service to have reached.  It is true that the Libra computer system is both expensive and useless but we have known this for many years (Cost of Courts’ IT system triples) and public bodies still have a duty to keep proper records.

“We are now looking at a possible £1.4 billion loss in uncollected fines and penalties partly because of the longstanding shambles that passes for record-keeping in the courts service.

“For centuries, people have kept accurate records and accounts using pen and paper. This could still be done now if needed and if there were sufficient will to do it.”

Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said:

“It is really worrying that HM Courts and Tribunals Service can’t produce basic financial records.  HM Courts Service is responsible for collecting fines and penalties, but we can’t tell if this money is accounted for properly.

“The Comptroller and Auditor General has taken the rare step of disclaiming his audit opinion – the Committee will be looking for HM Courts and Tribunals Service to improve.”

Comment:

It is astonishing that HM Courts Service has been able to continue in operation without MPs having idea until today that the costly Libra computer system was unable to provide basic financial information.

Parliament was kept in the dark about Libra’s new shortcomings because “Gateway” review reports in IT-based projects and programmes are kept confidential. It is a pity for taxpayers and accountability on major projects that ministers are surrendering to the wishes of civil servants who want Gateway reports kept confidential.

NAO report on Courts Service.

1 Comment

Posted in Campaign4Change, change management, Gateway reviews, Government IT, IT projects, managing outsourced services, openness and transparency, private sector lessons for the public sector, project management, public sector, public services, supplier relationships

Tagged , ,

Make a clean break with NPfIT fiasco says MP

Posted on 14/12/2011 | 2 comments

By Tony Collins

The cost to taxpayers of systems under the National Programme for IT may be up to three times the market price, says Richard Bacon, a Conservative  MP on the Public Accounts Committee.

While NPfIT was supposed to deliver complex but standardised systems at an affordable price, hospitals are spending much more with suppliers BT and CSC than by buying elsewhere, says Bacon.

“It is clear from the Department of Health’s latest answers to me that the true cost of IT systems bought under the National Programme are far higher than those of systems bought outside the Programme, quite apart from the repeated delays and quality issues that have plagued the Programme from the beginning.

 “If we are to have a genuinely open market for NHS IT systems, which is quite rightly the Government’s intention, then we must have absolute openness about their true costs. Trusts must understand, discuss and record these costs before making any future procurement decisions.

“And the Department of Health must not tie itself to buying a minimum number of systems from CSC in any new Memorandum of Understanding with the company.

 “Effective, affordable and robust IT systems are vital to the future of the NHS. We must make a clean break with the fiasco that is the National Programme if the needs of patients and clinicians and the interests of taxpayers are to be protected,” says Bacon.

More at ComputerworldUK.com

2 Comments

Posted in Campaign4Change

iESE efficiency mutual set up to help English councils save money

Posted on 14/12/2011 | Leave a comment

By David Bicknell

An improvement and efficiency local authority-owned  mutual has been set up to help England’s councils save money.

Created from the South East region’s improvement and efficiency partnership, iESE is now setting out to help councils and other local public services that are struggling to cope with the public sector financial squeeze.

Although some services will be free, the bulk of the new company’s income will be generated by fees charged to councils levied from efficiency savings. Surpluses generated will be reinvested back into iESE ‘to further improve the sector’.

Neil Blake, who is Aylesbury Vale District Council’s representative on iESE’s board, said: “Councils can no longer rely on existing ways to meet their tough savings targets. That’s why we were the first council to sign up to iESE Limited’s shared procurement service as a fresh way of helping to deliver our savings. Only by exploring new avenues like those offered by iESE Limited will councils achieve the scale of savings required.”

iESE, which works with local authorities and other public sector organisations in the South East and beyond, believes it has built knowledge and expertise in complex service areas such as Waste and Resource Management; Social Care; Procurement and Construction. It argues that rather than creating unnecessary additional bureaucracy or process, it provides a fresh perspective to challenges to release savings and improve services for citizens.

Leave a comment

Posted in mutualisation, mutuals, procurement, social enterprise

Tagged , , , ,

Joint-venture mutuals again mooted as solution to local authority procurement hurdle

Posted on 14/12/2011 | Leave a comment

By David Bicknell

Stepping Out  managing director Craig Dearden-Philips has again  mooted the possibility of joint-venture mutuals i.e. new ventures which bring together public sector staff with an external partner to set up a new company on a 50/50 basis.

This, he suggests, can run a procurement – though not the contract to provide – as an external partner for the staff-led mutual, which will itself become the provider.

In an article for the Guardian Policy Hub, he suggests this gets round the procurement problem where in public services a tender process is run for virtually any service. For the nascent mutual, he argues, ‘this can feel like climbing Everest. With no trading history or commercial skills, being pitted against experienced competition is a deterrent. Why go to all the trouble of forming a mutual only to get knocked out in round one?’

Leave a comment

Posted in Campaign4Change, mutualisation, mutuals, procurement, public sector, public services

Tagged , , , , , ,

Mutuals Briefing updated

Posted on 13/12/2011 | 2 comments

By David Bicknell

One of the most popular areas of Campaign4Change is Mutuals Briefing, a digest of useful information and links around mutuals and mutualisation.

Mutuals Briefing has now been updated to reflect recent announcements by the Cabinet Office covering a report on Mutual Pathfinders, the Mutuals Taskforce Evidence Paper, and the launch of the Mutuals Information Service.  You can also find links to stories covering mutuals issues at the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, and at the Defence Equipment & Support ( DE&S) arm of the Ministry of Defence.

2 Comments

Posted in Campaign4Change, mutualisation, mutuals, public sector, public services

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

FAST Ltd link up with Civica offers prospect of public sector software licence savings

Posted on 13/12/2011 | Leave a comment

By David Bicknell

Managing software assets effectively is one way of reining in the public sector’s IT costs, which is why a newly created partnership between software asset management (SAM) and IT compliance specialist FAST Ltd and Civica Services looks like an interesting tie-up.

The new partnership will give FAST customers access to Civica’s specialist advice and guidance across a broad scope of software licensing and fulfilment services, offering users the ability to mitigate future compliance risk, save time and money and meet their business objectives.

The Civica Services relationship will enable FAST Ltd to offer a range of services to its customers, helping them improve efficiency through more effective software lifecycle management.

Since 2003, FAST Ltd has provided a best practice and structured programme around licence compliance for businesses spanning all sectors and sizes.  One of its customers, services company Amey cut its hardware and software bill by £150,000 by managing, monitoring and auditing its IT estate.

In recent years FAST Ltd’s portfolio of services has expanded to include SAM, which led to customers requesting additional services such as ICT Strategy Planning Services and Software Fulfilment Services. 

Matthew Barnes, Managing Director for FAST Ltd  said, “The partnership of our two organisations is an exciting development for our customers and helps us to reach our goal of providing a ‘one stop shop’ for Software Asset Management  and IT Compliance. ”

One of Civica’s public sector customers is Gravesham Borough Council which faced a challenge to ensure the best use of its software assets given the government drive for efficiency.

The authority brought in Civica Services to review its Microsoft infrastructure for compliance. It also wanted advice on using the Public Sector Agreement—PSA09—for more cost-effective software licensing devised by the government and Microsoft. Under this licensing model, Gravesham has saved £46,700, equivalent to 80 per cent of its annual software spend. It is making a 74 per cent return on investment (ROI) from the Microsoft Software Asset Management review—more than its original target.

The council now has a three-year roadmap for IT development which includes a refresh of all desktop software and a virtualised infrastructure to enhance management and cut operational overheads. 

Some of the key issues around SAM and software licensing were discussed at FAST Ltd’s annual conference at Twickenham a few weeks ago.

Leave a comment

Posted in Campaign4Change, public sector, public services, Software Asset Management

Tagged , , , ,