Councils gang up to reap rewards of IT outsourcing

Faced with difficulties recruiting high-calibre IT staff and a mandate to implement new technologies as part of the e-government scheme, Lichfield Council knew it was time to consider outside help to deliver IT services.

But the council also knew it alone would be too small to interest the quality players from the private sector. So Lichfield found a partner in the nearby Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, and the two councils started entertaining bids from outsourcing firms.

Rita Wilson, corporate director at Lichfield Council, said: "By two councils coming together, we had critical mass so it made us a more attractive proposition for the right calibre of player."

They had no inkling this was a new idea. "We did it because it seemed sensible," said Wilson. "We didn't know no one else had done it."

The result was a £3m, five-year contract with IT services firm Serco, signed back in 2003, under which Serco took over tasks including infrastructure, desktop and database management and helpdesk support for the two councils.

The transition period was a "learning experience for us all", according to Wilson, as Serco had never managed two organisations under one contract and the councils had for the first time to articulate their IT needs to an outsider in great detail.

Yet they got through it and soon the councils saw benefits including reliable IT support, the ability to monitor and identify system performance and had an easier time implementing new technologies to meet e-government requirements because of Serco's wide range of expertise.

Litchfield's Wilson said: "We're using [Serco] to help us move forward at a faster pace."

The council has also been able to get involved in national and regional IT projects because they no longer have to worry about running their day-to-day operations.

And while the decision to outsource IT wasn't done as a cost-cutting exercise, the councils say in addition to savings incurred from splitting the procurement costs during the tender process, the contract was £700,000 lower than it would have been had the two councils gone it alone.

Litchfield is happy with the internal improvements as a result of the deal - and now boasts an 80 per cent satisfaction rate from external customers, which looks particularly impressive considering that, according to Wilson, "we didn't even know how to measure it before".