ScotlandIS welcomes McClelland Review
The review of public sector ICT Infrastructure, carried out by John McClelland on behalf of the Scottish Government was welcomed today by industry body ScotlandIS.
Polly Purvis, Executive Director of ScotlandIS said:
“Information and communication technologies (ICT) are already transforming the way people live and work. They permeate our leisure pursuits and increasingly impact our lives. The pace of change has been dramatic and our reliance on these services and technologies will continue to increase over the foreseeable future. Research shows Scotland could benefit from an additional £5bn contribution to GVA through ICT related productivity improvements.
“At a time when the public sector faces unprecedented challenges in terms of budget constraints and an increasing need to do more with less, ICT provides an exceptional enabler of improved productivity, offering new ways of working and providing a powerful channel for service delivery to citizens across Scotland.
“The ICT industry in Scotland stands ready to work in partnership with the public sector to ensure that it emerges from the current challenging environment as stronger, and even more internationally competitive, by driving improved productivity, developing more flexible ways of working and supporting shared service models.”
By embracing ICT the public sector can deliver:
• Responsive and flexible citizen–focused delivery
• A lower cost of services
• Improved productivity
• A road out of social, demographic and geographic exclusion
Adoption of technology enabled shared services models will allow high quality services to be delivered to internal and external customers more quickly and cost effectively.
Shared Services also support the green agenda by consolidating and reducing the power required to use technology in specialist centres, and enable employees to work more flexibly from any location across the country, in the process reducing the impact of their carbon footprint.