The fact that councils aren’t embracing G-Cloud isn’t the
biggest issue here; it’s the slow adoption of the wider concept of cloud based
IT as the preferred approach. As of 2013 around 30% of councils used no cloud
delivered services. The 70% embracing the cloud sounds promising, but when we dig
deeper this tends to be in one or two niche areas within the council, or just
email, with most local authorities continuing to spend the majority of funds on
traditional on premise IT and maintaining legacy systems.
There are two main reasons I’m interested in this, the first
being the most obvious one of cost. Cloud services tend to be cheaper. There is
no hardware on site, meaning lower initial setup and on-going maintenance costs.
This makes a big difference, as today 38% of IT budgets tend to be spent on support and maintenance. You also avoid waste. With traditional
on-site hardware a large proportion of the functionality and computing power
may never be used, but with the cloud you can generally pick and mix from
modular options, and the hardware itself can be shared with other users.
The second and more interesting reason though is innovation;
to me the cloud means progress. Cloud services can be updated quickly with
improvements rolled out to users remotely. Systems aren’t installed on site and
forgotten about; they can evolve and improve, with all customers benefitting
from new features and functionality. A cloud-based solution encourages the
provider to work with their customers to optimise for the entire user-base, and
not to have to develop bespoke solutions for every client. This drives
innovation and can result in significant benefits for customers, with it being
far easier to embrace new approaches and best-practice. Interestingly this
comes back to my original point, sharing services between local authorities, or
even between the public and private sectors doesn’t just save on IT costs, it
results in better, more flexible systems which lead to improved services which
are both more efficient and more effective – effectively you’re spending less
and getting more.
One final thought while we’re talking about sharing. What
about taking it a step further? Cloud services create the opportunity to share
data and insight, not just servers and IT support. It might be a bit of a leap,
particularly in the public sector, but knowing more is generally a good thing,
and sharing data is a good way to get there. There may be hurdles to jump, but
joining up these systems and maximising the use of data within and between
local authorities whether in revenues and benefits, public transport or housing
might have the potential to have a far greater impact on cost savings than the
current practice of reducing household or community services
By Patrick O'Neil, Head of Pre-Sales Consulting, TDX Group
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