I recall in the film “Troy” that Achilles replies to the messenger boy who summons him to fight the Thessalonian Giant “…that is why no-one will remember your name”. This leads me to think of our new Blue-with-yellow-stripes Government where two young Political leaders might well be fighting a giant financial problem… in a brand new way … and hope that people will remember their names.
By sprinting towards the Thessalonian Giant at full speed and using a side step a “dodge-jump-twist-stab” all in one motion, Achilles achieves the almost impossible, without fear. I am looking for the new tactic to emerge from the emergency Budget and the early clue that £6bn of Public Sector Spending cuts WILL be an integral part of that emergency budget, planned for 50 days after David Cameron’s appointment.
At the Annual HAUC in Cardiff this week, I heard much talk about Partnering as a possible new tactic in achieving Public Sector spending cuts. That was from Conference speakers.
I also heard from some of the 30 Confirm user organisations that were attendees at this annual conference (next year in Glasgow) who feel that they have huge internal savings that can be achieved by putting Mobile Computing in the hands of Street Works Inspectors. The also saw revenue increases by implementing “Dashboards”, which might alert them of Street Works Notices requiring action and thus providing a more efficient service. Some thought that providing on-line access to their bank of Contractors would allow the whole value chain to share one IT system and that efficiency savings would ensue.
What I did not hear about was the idea that large hidden cost savings might be found by sharing one system between several departments: a sort of internal partnering, or internal shared services. The costs savings from a single interface to each of the big four corporate systems (Finance, CRM, GIS and Gazetteer) might save a single organisation up to £250k capital costs and £50k per year. I did not hear much about moving to an OnDemand application rather than an On-Premise software system…where costs can be put into revenue streams rather than Capex plus revenue and I am guessing this is because the IT FM Contracts generally do not allows for reduced IT charges where departmental systems are outsourced into the Cloud.
Savings will be made and time will tell what ways Councils will implement the cost savings. Perhaps, as happened in the film Troy, we will feel delighted as our new Achilles slays the giant deficit.
Here’s to new and elegant “side steps”. Watch your heels, David and Nick!
0 Response to “Achilles provide clues to UK Government cost savings”