outsourcers being heavily scrutinised and criticised by local activists, bloggers and pressure groups all keen to see the outsourcing plans scrapped, even though the outsourcing driver is saving money and easing council budget pressure. In Cornwall, Cornwall Council voted to delay a proposed £300m shared services joint venture until it has been debated and approved by a meeting of the full council. BT is now the only company bidding for the contract after another company, CSC pulled out. Cornwall could still go ahead with BT, but it is understood that this arrangement would be subject to additional scrutiny by the council. In addition, alternative proposals to the current arrangement, either with or without BT’s involvement, will now be considered. The controversial scheme, which has already cost former council leader Alec Robertson his position, is now likely to be delayed for a number of weeks. Originally a decision was due to be announced by the end of November. BT’s proposals would have guaranteed council savings of £149.6m over 10 years and forecast additional savings of £129.4m. BT also said that it will generate local 1,043 jobs. Meanwhile in North London, Barnet Council’s leader
Richard Cornelius recently survived a confidence vote over the controversial £1bn ‘One Barnet’ outsourcing plan. Under the first part of the plan, awarded last month, Capita has been named as preferred bidder to deliver Barnet’s new support and customer service organisation (NSCSO). The contract, which is expected to be worth approximately £320m over 10 years, and is still subject to Cabinet approval, was won against competition from BT. Capita is expected to start running the NSCSO in April 2013, although details have yet to be confirmed.
The second contract, titled the ‘Development and Regulatory Services project’, is expected to be awarded in early January and will see either Capita or EC Harris gain a £275m contract to run the council’s transport and environmental health services. Meanwhile, just to prove that outsourcing remain an option for local government, Southwark Council in South London struck a four year deal with Capita for the provision of an IT managed service which the council hopes will “transform the council with benefits for both customers and the workforce.” The contract, procured via the Government’s Buying
Solutions framework, is said to offer “significant, seven-figure savings” to the council which is having to cope with “in-year” cuts of £5.1m and make savings of around £76m over the three years from 2011-12 to 2013-14.
The contract is for the management and the upgrade of all of the IT facilities that support the delivery of council services. Facilities include the provision of resilient and secure disaster recovery and business continuity, support for the council’s networks; data centre hosting including the management of IT equipment, and support for business applications. During the first 12 months of the contract, Capita has
promised to deliver nine major projects to provide the council with a platform to radically transform services, ranging from modernisation of the desktop and rationalisation of data storage and security to the use of mobile devices. Councillor Richard Livingstone, cabinet member for
resources at Southwark Council, said: “This contract gives us cost savings and an improved IT service at a time when resources are extremely limited, when frontline services need as much protection as possible and when staff need all the support that we can give them. “We felt that Capita’s experience of local government and solution development will create a platform to completely transform our service. We expect a smooth transformation to a new, modernised IT infrastructure and, ultimately more resilient and responsive IT.” Outsourcing undoubtedly divides opinions. It is clear however, from Southwark’s new outsourcing deal, Cornwall and Barnet’s deliberations, GM’s changing focus and Gartner’s figures that outsourcing remains a key tool of business and organisational change.
If you are an
outsourced company, your job is effectively to not foul up
Volume 22 – Issue 4 |December 2012 29
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