2011 could be a busy year for the UK’s small business technology sector as councils struggle to cope with the public sector spending cuts.
A recent report from ComRes shows that local councils in England and Wales think they will have to depend more on technology in order to deliver public services this year because of the cuts.
70% of councillors think that technology will have a greater role to play in delivering various services and 84% said that their local authority is open to improving efficiency by leveraging technology.
IT umbrella company contractors could soon find that local council technology projects are being outsourced to small IT firms and individual freelancers.
Meanwhile, billings for IT contractors in the public sector are once again increasing. Interquest, an IT staffing firm, says that the paralysis that affected freelance IT workers last year seems to have come to an end. The public sector organisations that it deals with finished downsizing their IT contractor workforce by the end of last summer, Gary Ashworth, the company’s executive chairman pointed out.
Many people feel the public sector will be a fly in the ointment this year for the IT sector, Ashworth continued. The public sector cuts were deep and opportunities for contractors shrunk by around 35% but the outlook is looking more promising. As government departments merge, they need to invest in IT to make sure shared services such as procurement and finance, work.
Ashworth expects to see increased public sector demand for contractors with enterprise architecture, programme transformation and customer relationship management skills.
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