VARs should cash in on council spending

Local government workflow projects 'mean opportunities for channel'

Resellers have a golden opportunity to cash in on local government spending to assist workflow projects, according to a survey by PA Consulting.

The report was commissioned as part of the government-backed Enterprise Workflow National Project, which was launched in June last year. This initiative is aimed at raising awareness of the benefits of workflow and providing local councils with guidance.

Workflow is the more common term for business process management, where tools are used to automate tasks such as order processing.

Although 70 per cent of the 75 councils studied had experience of using workflow, it has mainly been applied to services delivered by individual departments.

The report suggested the technology not only supports the government's joined-up e-government agenda, but can also cut costs by providing modelling tools for automating tasks, as well as links with disparate systems.

The Society of IT Manage-ment has predicted that local government spending will increase by £500m this year. Technologies such as CRM are expected to see the biggest investment.

Keith Munt, head of public sector at VAR Morse, said there is an opportunity in this area for resellers with the right skills.

"There is a big difference between workflow in the public and private sectors and the subject matter is different, but we have got our heads around this. In local government it is all about citizen relationship management," he said.

"We see this as a big area of opportunity for resellers because there is a lot of integration of back-office systems to be done to make it work."

Rod Matthews, head of information society technology at Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council, which works with resellers such as Satelcom, said: "If you sign a deal with a big systems integrator for 10 years you are stuck, but if you break it down into smaller partners with specialist skills it is better, because you can change partners."