Government IT strategy goes smarter, cheaper and greener

Whitehall confirms savings target of £3.2bn and looks to the future with a new apps store and the promise of higher quality services

Public, Wednesday 27 January 2010 10.52 GMT

Can the government's IT strategy match the new super-fast and effecient processors that will power computers in the future?

The government's new IT strategy, as part of the operational efficiency programme (OEP), could save the Treasury £3.2bn when implemented in two years' time.

The Cabinet Office's document, published today, brings together the initiatives launched over the past year in what it describes as a plan for a "smarter, cheaper and greener public sector IT infrastructure".

Cabinet Office minister Angela Smith forecast the savings would hit £3.2bn annually, equivalent to the 20% saving on IT identified by last year's OEP, and that it would contribute to higher quality services.

"We are committed to putting the public's needs first," she said. "That is why we are innovating and revolutionising our IT systems to ensure that they are as effective and efficient as possible for those working in the public sector, and at the same time we are able to make huge savings."

Certain strategies of the plan have already been launched and publicised by the Cabinet Office. They include: establishing the G Cloud for IT services for government in a cloud environment; reducing the number of government data centres from more than 100 to 10-12; creating a government applications store of reusable online computer programs on a pay-by-use basis; and the implementation of a common strategy for desktop computers.

It says the resulting savings would be £300m annually from the data centre rationalisation, £500m per year from the applications store and £400m a year from the desktop strategy.

John Suffolk, the government chief information officer, said: "We have seen a period of significant change over recent months and years. Technology has changed, the economy has changed and IT in government must also change.

"This strategy sets out a new model for government IT which will deliver a secure and resilient IT infrastructure that will enable faster, better services for the public."

He added that the applications store is still in the design phase but is expected to begin delivering a few "quick wins" in the course of this year.

"It's like all these things, it looks fine on paper but you've really got to go out and try some of this stuff," he told GC News. "So low level, relatively simple quick wins are on the agenda for this year."