Local Authorities Lose Money on Poorly Designed Websites
11 February 2010
Data from the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) reveals that local governments in the UK are currently losing £11 million per month due to websites that are not designed to take full advantage of online capabilities.
Socitm Insight’s Program Director Martin Greenwood recently stated that for public sector organisations, The financial pressure is ramping up, but a lot of this is not just about cutting costs, but providing better services.
He was quoted recently in an article by Computer Weekly’s Rebecca Thompson at Local Government Chronicle’s (LGC) website.
Further data from Socitm shows that 4.4 million online inquiries per month at council websites are currently ending in failure. About 20% of users find only part of what they were looking for, and a further 21% can’t accomplish what they want to do at all. This despite a national push for innovative use of information technology and increased attention to use of the internet for government functions.
Councils are also being urged to use social media to communicate with the public, collect feedback, and disseminate information about their resources, yet 90% of councils still restrict use of social media at their offices and regard such networking with suspicion. Jos Creese, Chief Information Officer at Hampshire CC and chair of the Local Public Services CIO Council, says that culture and business change
is necessary for councils to meet these challenges:
You can introduce fantastic tools that will enable organisations to be more efficient, but it will need different thinking from senior managers for these to have full effect. You can’t slap new technology like wallpaper over the cracks of old working practices.
David Wilde, CIO at Westminster CC agrees, saying that Technology will enable,
but that methods of service delivery have to adjust to take advantage of it.
Applying technology effectively will be key for UK councils to find ways to save money in these budget-cutting times. Leadership will need to become closely involved in delivery of their services, from working with and supporting their IT personnel to re-evaluating current online systems and correcting faulty designs that waste money.
