Consortium calls on government for £1bn ICT package

A consortium of players from across the IT industry has called on the Government to invest in a £1bn IT stimulus package to cut costs and deliver greener technologies in the public sector.

A panel which included The Society of IT Managers (SOCITM), the charity Global Action Plan (GAP), Logicalis and CA, went to the House of Commons to launch the initiative entitled ‘A Shared Vision for Smarter Services’.

“A green ICT stimulus is essential in helping deliver the urgently required step-change needed to help government hit legally-binding carbon targets,” says Trewin Restorick, CEO of Global Action Plan in its report.

The consortium partners have estimated that the stimulus package would generate cash savings of £2bn over three years, which would be available for reinvestment in front line public services, and achieve a 12 percent reduction in carbon emissions hitting targets proposed by the Carbon Committee.

Chris Gabriel, marketing and solutions director for Logicalis UK, says: “For every pound spent of this £1 billion fund... services would see a return of at least £3 in efficiencies by 2012. By the time we are out of the recession a return of investment could already have been achieved.”

Gabriel also said that while the idea for the stimulus package initially came from Logicalis, the firm will now be taking a step back, with the campaign to be led by Global Action Plan and SOCITM. “It’s their decision as to where it goes from here,” he says. “We’ll play our part, but as part of the community now.

“This isn’t about a cheque for the big boys – it’ll go into the central government pot. We’ll be in the same procurement mix as whoever else is out there. It’s up to us all to put a load of ideas into the pot. Any the industry has ideas now, pitch them into GAP. We’ll all end up competing but that’s how it works,” he adds.

 “Anything that encourages investment in more effective technologies for the public or private sector has got to be good for the industry as a whole,” says Richard Blanford, MD of reseller Fordway.

However, not everyone is happy. Storage vendor Compellent says its efforts to be publicly involved in the campaign were declined – despite it citing Compellent’s technology in a case study an installation by Fordway at the London Borough of Hillingdon. Compellent has openly described the move as “galling”, and it feels it has been “pushed out” for political reasons.

Andy Hardy, MD of international sales at Compellent told Channel Pro: “Playing such a key role, Compellent also proposed getting more actively involved in this initiative, for example as a sponsor alongside IBM and CA. However, this request was declined. Despite this, we remain supportive of the initiative, but would strongly welcome a wider involvement by more vendors, especially those whose green and efficient technology credentials form the basis for key aspects of this initiative and the spirit behind it.”

The claim is resolutely denied by Logicalis’ Gabriel. “There was no active attempt to exclude them,” he told Channel Pro, adding that while Logicalis, CA and IBM invested in getting the package off the ground, they weren’t even included in the report or any case studies, to avoid any vendor-bias.

“The only people complaining are those that were included in the report, and didn’t invest anything,” he says.

“This isn’t a sales thing for vendors. The IT industry must pitch in any good ideas they have, and work as partners instead of suppliers.”