Dan Peters 06 June 2014

Society denies councils are 'wasting millions'

IT and digital professionals working in local public services have bit back at claims councils are wasting millions by not using the Government’s G-Cloud framework.

The Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) said media reports of research by IT supplier Bull showed ‘poor understanding’ of how local councils procure and deploy IT.

Ministers launched the framework to enable the fast and low cost procurement of a range of commodity software and cloud services.

A Socitm spokeswoman said: ‘While local government is making less use of the G-cloud framework than its central government counterparts, that is partly because the G-Cloud and the Government Digital Service were established primarily to address problems with central government IT procurement and deployment practice.

‘While local government has, to date, made less use of the G-Cloud than its central government counterparts, it has engaged with the programme from its inception and played a significant role in G-Cloud creation and implementation.

‘Socitm research suggests that G-Cloud may not always offer the most cost effective solution for councils.’