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UK: Shared services at forefront of efficiency savings plans
Shared services are expected to deliver efficiency savings across government of some £4 billion pounds according to HM Treasury’s Operation Efficiency Programme: The drive is now on to encourage all public bodies employing more than 250 people to join in sharing services for back office operations including finance, HR, estates management, procurement, legal services, travel services and marketing and communications.
UK: Shared services plan for London boroughs
Authorities given the opportunity to use GLA web site infrastructure
The Greater London Authority (GLA) is planning to offer its newly-procured web site infrastructure to other London councils as a shared service.
The GLA has acquired a content management system (CMS) to serve as a common platform for its own web site and the London Development Agency’s (LDA) site, but also wants to promote convergence of all web-based activities across the city.
UK: Shared services spend to reach £4bn by 2012
Outsourcing will play a big part
By 2012, the UK public sector will be spending £729m on shared services, analysts predicts, as shared service expenditure enjoys a compound annual rate of eight per cent.
Shared services, where government department share back-office facilities, such as HR, payroll or IT systems, is one of the lynchpins of money saving initiatives set out in the Gershon Report published in 2004.
UK: Shared services to cut Whitehall costs

Cabinet Office IT services could ultimately be used by other departments
The Cabinet Office is looking for suppliers for a shared technology service centre that could ultimately serve several government departments.
The idea is for central administration systems such as human resources (HR) or IT to be used by several organisations. It is a key part of government plans to improve efficiency and cut costs.
UK: Shared services will lead to increased data breaches, says security expert
The merging and outsourcing of local government services is likely to lead to an increased number of data breaches, according one security expert.
The recent news that Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham are to merge services is the latest in a series of merger announcements.
Graham Stewart, business development director for Sophos, explained that these moves tend to see the management of information security put to one side: “It is not a process that promotes innovation or enables cost savings, rather it mitigates problems. But without it we will begin to see an increased number of data breaches.”
UK: Sharing not essential for savings, says Edinburgh

Edinburgh Council reckons to have saved £10m this year by using a new system to cut its procurement bill and by standardising systems to enable it to renegotiate an outsourcing contract.
The council said its savings showed that, for large councils, internal efficiencies can be great enough to meet the demands of the government's Gershon efficiency review, without the need to share services with neighbouring authorities or other outside agencies.
UK: Sharing to e-procurement
Whitehall's quest for online purchasing continues, with moves to set up shared IT standards
The Office of Government Commerce is testing "common IT standards" to be shared by the public sector and its suppliers in an attempt to move forward its e-procurement programme.
UK: Sheffield designs CRM for Europe

The council is working with other local authorities in Europe to create a new Customer Relationship Management system
Sheffield City Council is developing an open source Customer Relationship Management platform intended for use in local authorities across Europe.
The council is partnering with other authorities in Europe under the EU funded Citizens Advanced Relationship Management (Carmen) scheme to set up the platform.
UK: Sheffield Homes delivers radical improvements to customer service

In a drive to enhance the quality of service provided to its housing tenants, Sheffield Homes has successfully completed a £1million overhaul of the IT Infrastructure supporting its core housing system.
The improved IT infrastructure, provided by Northgate Information Solutions, has enabled staff to be more responsive to tenant needs through increasing capacity and responsiveness for its 1,000 IT users.
UK: Sheffield to open up CRM

OSS initiative to help council back office's across Europe
Sheffield City Council is leading a project to develop an open-source based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution for the public sector.
The councils is part of an EU-funded initiative called the Citizens Advanced Relationship ManageMENt (CARMEN) project that is looking to develop an “innovative, knowledge-based multi-media service” based on the private sector approaches to the use of CRMs.
UK: Sheffield's online planning service gets top marks in Government test

Sheffield Council’s online planning applications service has scored top marks in a tough new Government test.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has used the ‘Pendleton Criteria’ to judge all 441 local authority and national park websites in the UK.
UK: Shut out of e-services
The UK Government needs to work harder to improve online accessibility for disabled people, according to the Disability Rights Commission
Public sector websites are more user friendly to disabled people than their commercial counterparts, but the Government still needs to work harder to improve accessibility, according to an influential new report.
UK: Single non-emergency number: Contract is awarded for its supplier

The Government's all-new Single Non-Emergency Number service will be supplied by Cable & Wireless, it was announced yesterday.
Launching later this year in five Wave 1 areas, it is a joint Home Office and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister initiative and will provide easy access to community safety advice, information and action. The service will be delivered by Police and Local Authorities partnerships in a joint approach to community safety.
UK: Six major cities sign deals to become 'Wireless Cities' - more to follow

BT has announced agreements with six cities to become wireless pioneers as part of its plans to create a first phase of 12 Wireless Cities across the UK. People in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Cardiff and Westminster will benefit from huge wireless networks, giving them access to information and services.
BT started the Wireless City rollout in Cardiff, where BT Openzone hotspots have been installed in many locations in the city centre. In Westminster, a dedicated high-bandwidth wireless network is already in place and is now being extended. The first six cities were chosen for their commitment to embracing the possibilities brought by the technology. BT aims to announce deals with many other cities.
UK: Size does matter, says e-envoy
Fewer, bigger and better web portals needed for 2005 deadline
E-envoy Andrew Pinder has promised that local authorities will play a key role in efforts to get more people using online services after May's local elections.
UK: Skills gap for local e-government
Councils attempting to push on with e-government are facing skills gaps, an official report says
Most local authorities know that e-government is important but few officers and elected members actually have the necessary skills and understanding to push forward their aims, according to a Whitehall report.
UK: Sky red button gets Looking Local service
The facility broadcasts information on a range of public services.
Sky customers are now able to access nationwide e-government service Looking Local via the red button thanks to a partnership with the Community Channel.
Under the tie-up, viewers of the latter digital TV station will be urged to "push the red button" by an on-screen prompt that will be displayed constantly.
UK: Slap on the wrist for government websites
Flagship sites fail the needs of users and do nothing to bolster confidence in e-government, says report.
Many government websites, including the flagship UKonline, are failing to meet the public's needs, new research has claimed.
UK: Slowdown to 2005
The e-envoy's latest update on e-services indicates that Whitehall is inching towards its 2005 targets
The UK Government has slowed in its progress towards the 2005 e-government targets, according to the latest official update.
UK: Small Business Service to build web portal for low-value public sector contracts

In a sensible e-Government development, the Small Business Service (SBS) has appointed BiP Solutions as its service provider to develop and manage a new opportunities portal for lower-value public sector contracts. BIP Solutions will be responsible for designing and building the portal as well as generating and maintaining buyer/ supplier interest in it. The contract will run for five years.
While all public sector contracts valued at more than around £100,000 are required by law to be listed in the Official Journal of the European Union, there is no such mandate for lower-value contracts. The aim of the new portal is to open up this market to all types of businesses and make it easier for them to work with the public sector. Many of the services at the portal will be free but suppliers may be charged a modest annual subscription for some services.