CIO 100 COMPANIES IN Public Sector

1. Ministry of Defence

It’s little wonder that, with global security high on the agenda, the UK defence budget is set to increase from £29.7 billion in 2004/05 to £33.4bn in 2007/08. In real terms (after inflation) this represents average annual growth of 1.4 per cent and will amount to the UK’s longest period of sustained real term growth in planned defence spending.

2. Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs

In the four years since top civil servant Gus O’Donnell, then permanent secretary at the Treasury, concluded that merging the former Inland Revenue with Customs & Excise would create a more efficient and effective tax collection and enforcement organisation, Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has faced a multitude of supplier and management-related IT challenges.

5. Department for Work & Pensions

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) pays out £115 billion a year to more than 26 million customers. While its IT systems may not always have been in the spotlight for all the right reasons this past year, the department headed by Joe Harley has certainly been central to some major changes.

20. The Metropolitan Police

A continuing target of the Metropolitan Police’s director of information, Ailsa Beaton, is the successful delivery of the force’s largest ever organisational change management programme. The Command, Control, Communication and Information (C3i) project is responding to the projected increase in external calls and emails received by the Met, expected to reach 23 million a year by 2010.

21. Home Office

The silos of information and communication that exist in the Home Office continues to dog the government department responsible for law and order, national security and immigration.

28. Department of Constitutional Affairs

The next 12 months will see major upheaval at the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA). The department is responsible for upholding justice, rights and democracy. Its responsibilities include running the courts, and improving the justice system; human rights and information rights law; and policy on running elections and modernising the constitution.

38. Kent County Council

Kent County Council’s ICT group recognises that efficiency in the deployment and use of ICT is not about a narrow approach to reducing costs, it must also be about deriving increased value throughout the business, brought about by investment in the application of technology.

48. Leeds City Council

Leeds City Council has won plaudits for its work on an ongoing programme to improve and expand the electronic delivery of local government services to its 715,000 citizens. This year this has led to the council’s website being rated among the top eight UK metropolitan authorities for meeting residents’ needs by the Society for IT Managers (SOCITM) in March.

51. Manchester City Council

Manchester is the North West’s regional centre for finance, commerce, retail, culture and leisure, home to a major international airport and one of the largest student populations in Europe. It has transformed itself from an industrial city dependent on manufacturing to a thriving, modern, dynamic, international city.

57. Glasgow City Council

Glasgow City Council, Scotland’s largest local authority, is upgrading its network to provide an IP telephony infrastructure and a multilingual contact centre.

58. Birmingham City Council

Birmingham City Council, the UK’s largest local authority, is hoping to realise some cost savings following a strategic partnership deal with Capita. This £475 million deal produced Service Birmingham – a joint venture between the council and the vendor. Service Birmingham’s objective is to create a fit-for-purpose infrastructure, deliver excellent and consistent service levels and support the transformation policy of the council.

59. Lancashire County Council

One of the largest county councils in England, Lancashire serves 1.1 million people living in diverse conditions; from rural countryside to the cities of Manchester and Liverpool.

61. Department for Education & Skills

According to the government CIO’s annual report, IT spend in education is around £850 million with around £25m on internal IT systems.

62. Essex County Council

Essex County Council is a local government authority that provides a vast range of essential services for one and a quarter million people throughout eastern England. It is also the county’s largest employer with an annual turnover in excess of £900 million.

64. Department of Health

The Department of Health (DoH) has, as usual, come under a great deal of criticism this year, perhaps with just cause. Throughout the country local hospitals face closure, nurses are being made redundant and junior doctors are unable to find jobs.

67. West Sussex County Council

West Sussex County Council serves more than 750,000 citizens and spends more than £370 million per year on educating 100,000 pupils and another £130m a year on social care. And the population is growing with new companies springing up throughout the county as West Sussex, with its proximity to London, Gatwick Airport, Europe and a skilled workforce, is perceived as being ideally suited for start-up or expanding businesses.

68. Fife Council

As the third largest authority in Scotland, with a budget of over £580 million each year, Fife Council is responsible for delivering all local government services in the district. Its team of over 22,000 employees delivers more than 900 individual services to the people of Fife each year.

69. Environment Agency

The last year at the Environment Agency was spent working on a realigned IT strategy to create “a decent line of sight between IT and the business”.

75. Foreign & Commonwealth Office

This is a notable year for the FCO. It is in the middle of its seven-year Firecrest contract with HP and it is also the year to deliver on IT-driven savings. Following Sir Peter Gershon’s review of government efficiency, the FCO “committed to realising at least £118 million efficiency gains by 2007/08 through measures including improved information and communication technology (ICT) and more efficient procurement practices. These plans mean that more money will be redeployed away from back-office functions to frontline delivery areas.”

77. Liverpool City Council

Liverpool City Council is committed to providing electronic access to its key services and is proud of its achievement in making these services electronically available a year ahead of government targets. Council customers can now make payments to Liverpool City Council using the website, by calling the Liverpool Direct call centre, by visiting a One Stop Shop or by using the automated telephone payments (ATP) system.

78. Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

2006 saw a process of constant IT driven change at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). It completed a programme that delivered 25 per cent savings through introducing eight desks for 10 staff, supported by new telephony.

79. DEFRA

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA) claimed core purpose is to improve the current and future quality of life. This one department brings together the interests of farmers and the countryside; the environment and the rural economy; the food we eat, the air we breathe and the water we drink.

85. Surrey County Council

The Surrey Golf Course mansion has become shorthand for top of the pile residences of the nouveau and super rich, be one a rock star or a city slicker.

96. Department for Transport

The Department for Transport’s (DfT) stated aim is a transport system which balances the needs of the economy, the environment and society.

97. Sunderland City Council

Sunderland is the largest city between Leeds and Edinburgh. March saw the council’s IT department win the Department for Communities and Local Government 2007 Digital Challenge and Inclusion Network award for using IT to fight social exclusion. The win netted the council £5 million.

100. Staffordshire Police

2006 was a busy year for Staffordshire Police. It held the technology portfolio in the force amalgamation process between West Midlands Police, Warwickshire Constabulary and West Mercia Constabulary.

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