Is the Public Sector headed for an IT ‘ice age’?

This is the week when the Con-Dem coalition announced it is going to get this country back on its feet by implementing £6.2 billion of immediate funding cuts.

So, what was the outcome? George Osborne swung the axe on the totally misunderstood quango state, whilst chopping and felling the initiative that was the apple of Labour’s eye, the Child Trust Fund. Another £836 million savings will be made at the Business Department, as well as up to 300,000 jobs earmarked to go across the public sector. Of course, perks for civil servants and MPs were on the list, as were the British Universities who will lose £200 million worth of funding, as well as slashing university places by 10,000.

But what of the future of IT in the public sector as the blood runs in the streets of Whitehall? CIOs have been warned that the public sector is at risk, as fierce budget cuts and possible salary freezes are planned, which could herald the exodus of key IT staff. In addition, projects currently underway are to be reviewed. The probable outcome is the private sector is destined for a rush of IT staff looking to jump ship. This, coupled with an immediate freeze on spending on new public sector IT projects above £1 million with existing projects in the pipeline for the last six months in jeopardy, begs the question, what could be the outcome?

Technology underpins the performance of all businesses; public or private. Technology provides businesses with processes, methodologies and technical platforms to perform better, faster, more effectively and more profitably. Reducing head count in public sector departments may be seen as an immediate cost saving, however this deficit can be countered by making the business more technically innovative as long as the technology is in place and allowed to do its job. Cutting both man power and technology will have lasting effects.

What of the outcome? Certainly talented public sector IT staff will migrate to the private sector, if the sector can accommodate them. Certain skill sets may disappear from the arena completely, as is currently happening with the mainframe market, where technologists are retiring with no-one in line to replace them. Reducing funding to British Universities and cutting the number of graduates yearly may cause a drought in the talent pool. That’s just for starters.

Technology changes at such an alarming rate that applications and hardware get smaller, faster and cheaper. In 1965, the co-founder of Intel, Gordon E, Moore stated: “The computing power of a microprocessor will double every 18 months.” This became known as Moore’s Law. To date, this has been the case, providing us with cheaper, faster computers at an amazing pace. Now add to this hypothesises that the price of technology halves every 12 months and one can see that very soon, the public sector could be falling behind the technology trail.

With this in mind, and the public sector slashing budgets, putting crucial IT projects on hold, this will surely have an effect on the way the public sector operates and competes. With the reducing of head count and the freezing of salaries, coupled with the eventuality that key IT staff may make the leap of faith to the private sector, within the next six months, the offices of Government could be 18 months behind the technical curve and heading for an information technology ice age. Remember what happened to the dinosaurs!