The Government’s ambition is to save £10bn by 2017-18 and between £15 and £20bn for 2019-20, with a goal for 90% of the online public to use Government digital services by 2020.
For local authority heads of IT and procurement, the pressure is on. They are facing increasing demands for more digital services from a public accustomed to multi-platform access and engagement. This is coupled with ever decreasing budgets and finance departments questioning every pound of spend.
The answer is a valid and efficient procurement route that is cost effective enough to operate successfully, despite rising austerity measures. It’s also, obviously, got to be able to meet the requirements around public sector data security, as well as opening up secure APIs to digital services to allow others to integrate their services, e.g. buying car tax at the same time as car insurance.
Many local authorities are trapped between developing a digital provision skill set internally or outsourcing and, as they see it, losing control of an element of their core services.
One council decided to take an innovative approach to handling this set of requirements, and approached BT for its answer to the challenge. BT’s answer was Flex.Ability, a new way for the public sector to procure that offered up to 25% cost savings against traditional contracted IT services.
BT offered an ‘Everything-as-a-Service’ (EaaS) solution to allow the contract to be more flexible than any before, enabling the council to pay only for the IT services it uses every month and, in one stroke, removing the need for a laborious procurement process and a contractual tie-in. The transition to Flex.Ability was smooth and came in under budget.
Flex.Ability allows the council to benefit from a catalogue of IT services at pre-negotiated costs, which can be implemented without being locked into a long term contract, and scaled up or down to suit requirements.
It uses secure, cloud-based technology, the latest innovation and fair business practices and, as a result, the framework has achieved an unprecedented 100% green for all levels of service for the council in the last 12 months. Unsurprisingly, other London boroughs are now keen to benefit similarly
There is no doubt that local government needs to do things differently or even different things against a backdrop of austerity, and is looking to public sector heads of IT and procurement to be flexible and innovative in their approach. Using an EaaS solution means that the reforms won’t just focus on efficiencies, but have the capacity to transform government itself and the services it provides to us all.
To stay ahead of the curve, visit www.globalservices.bt.com/uk/en/industries/local_government to find out more.
