Earlier this month CIO UK was involved in a study of local government CIOs and how they viewed joint procurement, shared services, the cloud, vendor relationships and the government’s austerity measures. Some 27 CIOs in local government were interviewed as part of the research process by RPC Consulting, who gave us access to the full study so we can report on the more anecdotal opinions of the CIO community: Shared services “The future direction is through shared services.” “Shared services is probably the best way we can all reduce costs.” “I think that shared services will grow and austerity will drive that growth.” Procurement “Everyone is running around in circles on joint procurement ideas.” Outsourcing “I do not believe third parties are reliable for protection of data so I wouldn’t outsource.” Vendors “Vendors now pricing better and are more affordable, but we want surety of support costs.” “Vendors are over-promising and under-delivering.” “They are all much of a ‘muchness’.” Maintenance “In no other environment do you have to pay to use something you’ve bought.” “We will continue to purchase the basic level of vendor support for all our applications.” Cloud “Cloud will become a bigger thing, but there are fears around its flexibility and security.” “Security will grow in importance but flexibility issues and security need to be resolved.” “Moving to the cloud will be needed to reduce costs.” “Frameworks and G-Cloud will feature heavily in future procurement.” “SaaS is going to be the flavour of the day.” Austerity “Market conditions will soon force some radical changes to local government service delivery.” “We have not hit the worst yet. There will be further pressure on frontline budgets.” “Things will get worse, we will do less and more cheaply and look to voluntary sector to take on some services.” Transformation “There’s a lack of IT maturity; it’s just seen as another cost.” “There’s a lack of direction here with no goals for automation or transformation.” “In the future it’s all about collaboration, Sharepoint and the desktop.” Related content brandpost Sponsored by SAP When natural disasters strike Japan, Ōita University’s EDiSON is ready to act With the technology and assistance of SAP and Zynas Corporation, Ōita University built an emergency-response collaboration tool named EDiSON that helps the Japanese island of Kyushu detect and mitigate natural disasters. By Michael Kure, SAP Contributor Dec 07, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by BMC BMC on BMC: How the company enables IT observability with BMC Helix and AIOps The goals: transform an ocean of data and ultimately provide a stellar user experience and maximum value. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 3 mins IT Leadership brandpost Sponsored by BMC The data deluge: The need for IT Operations observability and strategies for achieving it BMC Helix brings thousands of data points together to create a holistic view of the health of a service. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 4 mins IT Leadership how-to How to create an effective business continuity plan A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here’s how to create a plan that gives your business the best chance of surviving such an By Mary K. Pratt, Ed Tittel, Kim Lindros Dec 07, 2023 11 mins Small and Medium Business IT Skills Backup and Recovery Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe