Industry expertise: Central government

Reducing spend on ICT has been a major focus of the efficiency and reform agenda. When spending is reduced, the challenge is ensuring that increasingly-connected citizens don't experience a drop in service.

It costs an estimated £3bn a year to run the central government civil estate. The move to fewer, more modern freehold properties and increasing capability for flexible working will both make better, more cost-effective use of space. New end-user computing contracts and lease-break opportunities are expected to support this goal.

Some departments are already sharing HR, finance and procurement services, and the use of common ICT contracts is also on the rise. The government's Next Generation Shared Services programme sets out a roadmap to consolidate the current eight shared service centres into five larger centres, with all departments and their arm's length bodies asked to consider using one of them.

As an approved supplier of the PSN frameworks we can help public sector organisations make the most of PSN and the ‘network of networks’. The result being increased collaboration between central government organisations. This enables them to share networking facilities, as well as improvements in how you interact with the public and savings as a result of efficiency gains.