Public sector firms failing to cut IT budgets

Research commissioned by VMware reveals a massive £2.6bn still needs to be shaved off budgets in the next three years

Half of UK public sector organisations have yet to make the demanded cuts in their IT budgets, research has claimed.

The research, carried out among senior UK public sector finance officers by ComRes on behalf of virtualisation vendor VMware, revealed that senior finance bosses have only implemented less than nine per cent of the planned cuts so far, leaving a whopping £2.6bn still to cut over the next three years.

In total, 61 per cent of senior financial officers claim that reduced IT budgets are already impacting frontline services, and 69 per cent of respondents believe the cuts will be difficult to achieve within the three-year timescale.

Also, despite public sector IT often being associated with a high failure rate, 73 per cent of respondents believe IT is integral to cost-cutting efforts, 91 per cent believe it possesses the ability to transform the ways organisations operate, and 87 per cent believe it delivers organisation value. A further 83 per cent of public sector bosses believe IT is essential in delivering shared services.

Mark Newton, UK managing director of VMware, said: “We are seeing a major shift in the way IT is perceived in the public sector. This research clearly shows that financial decision-makers recognise that smart allocation of IT spending and resources can make a fundamental impact on their organisation. Rather than seeing it as a drain on resources, IT has the power to drive positive organisational change.”

He added: “By simplifying IT and accelerating the transition to cloud computing, where the goal is to deliver IT as a service, the public sector has a real opportunity to lead the way in achieving major transformational benefits. Cloud computing is an enabler for shared services, and as this model is increasingly adopted, the role IT will play in the delivery of vital public sector services will become even more crucial.”

Roger Bearpark, assistant head of ICT at Hillingdon Council, believes technology offers real promise for government services.

“Our council administration saw the need for cuts long before corporate social responsibility was on the political agenda, but without question we are far better placed to deal with the need to find savings because of a virtualised infrastructure,” he said. “Not only can we contribute to the overall cuts by keeping our own costs low, but we can also drive efficiencies throughout the rest of the organisation, and because we have such an agile infrastructure, we can make these changes quickly.”