More money for e-government spending

Spending on IT across the public sector in western Europe will reach $50bn within three years, according to analyst IDC.

IDC predicts spending across Europe will rise 5.3 per cent between now and 2009. And the UK government is to up its layout on technology by $800m, from $4.1bn to $4.9bn, over the same period.

IT spending by local authorities across Europe will outpace spending by central government, growing at 6.2 per cent - from $20.1bn last year to $25.5bn in 2009. Central government spending will grow at the slower rate of 4.5 per cent over the same period.

Governments will increasingly focus on re-engineering their processes to join up services across authorities and sharing common functions, especially in the back office to make the management of the IT infrastructure more coherent.

Massimiliano Claps, programme manager for IDC's European vertical markets, said in a statement: "Government CIOs must leverage on internal staff and external resources to support this long-term transformation."

The public sector will be looking for suppliers that can join up processes across various departments and support the deployment of shared services, IDC said.