SiliconRepublic reports that the “An Bord Snip” (advisory report on cutting Irish government expenses) has told the government that they should shake up IT services in the civil service. They want expenses cut by 50%:
- Less consulting/contractors
- More in-house skills
- Shared services
For example. Each an every department, no matter how small it is, has their own IT organisation, buying power, staff, consulting services, etc. That’s some massive wastage. We could probably run our entire government off of a single Exchange 2007 cluster (replicated of course) instead of an Exchange installation in countless departments. That sounds like a perfect scenario for Exchange 2010 DAG’s. I know of one major department where their entire “hands-on” staff are a collection of consultants and contractors that costs the tax payer a fortune.
Bord Snip also said the government should have a Steering Committee made up of senior ICT advisors from the private sector. I’ll volunteer for that one, thank you very much. I could do with some mileage and hotel expenses as well as a few junkets to somewhere sunny.