The Government and Public Sector Journal recently published an article featuring Support Revolution’s CEO, Mark Smith. Mark discusses Public Sector executives’ countdown to 2020.
25 November 2015 is a memorable date for most Public Sector executives, although not for the right reasons.
Less than 18 months ago, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, set out the Government’s spending plans up to 2019/20. The Spending Review outlined detailed cuts averaging 19% across unprotected government departments. The UK’s fiscal watchdog followed this up by predicting that 100,000 public sector jobs are likely to be shed during the period.
For every Public Sector executive, this was a bad day. It signalled the beginning of what would be a very difficult five-year period. Budgets had to reduce by around one-fifth. They also needed to cut jobs. The pressure to do more with less would never be greater.
Buried within the detail and the resulting administration was an insistence that IT budgets were specifically targeted. However, public trust in government IT to deliver a cost-effective solution was low and had hit the headlines earlier in the year with reports detailing how The British Government “blew” £2.5 billion on IT projects flagged at “high risk of failure” in 2014/15.
The Universal Credit IT project is one of the most expensive IT projects. It has been flagged as “high risk.” The total lifetime cost of the project has increased by £3 billion over the last two years to £15.85 billion. Knowing where to start and what to cut was a daunting prospect for every Public Sector executive.
A key IT cost for the Public Sector is software support and maintenance from large ERP vendors such as Oracle and SAP. In 2013 alone, the UK Government spent approximately £290 million on Oracle. There are so many versions of the software and various support levels and costs which only exacerbates this.
To read the complete article visit Government & Public Sector Journal
Government & Public Sector Journal, 7 June 2017
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