IT contractors will no doubt be interested to learn some of the predictions that have been made for the industry in 2011.
Gartner expects global IT spending to reach £2.3 trillion this year with SMEs being amongst those to invest in new IT products and services.
We’ve heard a lot about IT outsourcing recently but Socitm, the public sector IT association, believes that public sector IT outsourcing could delay the benefits of cloud computing. The association says ICT strategies must be changed to implement cloud computing if the government wants to provide affordable public services.
Socitm have published a briefing called ‘Heading into the cloud’ in which it points out that public services will only remain affordable with increased efficiency and ICT-enabled automation and the only way to justify that investment is to make use of the cloud. Cloud services are widely believed to improve flexibility, resilience and reduce cost and risk.
Public sector providers should therefore hold off outsourcing options and new data centre investments, the association urges. There have been concerns over data security when it comes to the cloud but these should not stop the public sector adopting it. Instead public sector organisations should be more focused on ensuring information assurance.
However, not everyone believes the government will follow this advice. Jean-Louis Bravard, a director of Burnt Oak Partners’ has predicted that other European governments will follow the UK’s example and actively outsource.
He also predicts that central and local government will expect service providers to purchase equity in new shared service centres to ensure commitment. Providers from India are expected to be the most flexible and therefore they will be successful.
Mr Bravard does not appear to have much faith in the “cloud” saying that clients will struggle to make their processes virtual and will swim in an ocean of poor data. And cloud strategies will need to be rethought as new legislation is introduced around tracking and tracing data.
Another of his predictions, which I’m sure a lot of people would love to see come true, is that data mobility and improved computer systems will lead to call centre jobs being moved back to this country from India and other low cost countries. Not only would such a move create more jobs in the UK, it might make it easier for people to get the information they want when they make an enquiry.
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