Channel needed in public sector as CIOs disappear

Networking vendor Netgear (NASDAQGM: NTGR) has issued a call for channel partners to work more closely with public sector organisations as budget cuts take their toll.

Discussion at a recent panel event organised by the firm pointed to a lack of strategic IT decision-making in the public sector due to a reduced number of CIO-level positions as budget cuts take hold. “There are fewer councils now who’ve got anyone who approaches the role of the CIO,” said Doug Maclean, consulting director at SOCITM. “In many cases there is no real manager driving the service forward; there’s no-one making strategic decisions.”

In addition, while more organisations are looking towards shared services to drive efficiencies, they are struggling without the necessary leadership. The panel collectively agreed that public sector organisations should focus instead on ‘smart IT’: working with channel partners that are able to deliver the strategy needed but executed using reliable, affordable and simple technologies which meet their tight budgets. Jonathan Hallatt, VAR director at Netgear, said that “specialist VARs must step-up to the challenge to provide public sector workers the strategic direction they clearly need at a price they can afford.”

“We are evaluating everything suppliers need to work in partnership with us. We are asking for help and find that traditional vendors and suppliers aren’t agile enough,” said David Grasty, lead ICT business partner at Kingston Council. “We are looking for flexibility above all else…Merging council IT departments provides a sensible way of maximising resources and talent to drive strategic IT plans.”

This lack of IT decision making in many public sector organisations was echoed by channel consultant Stephen Harley from ACS, which provides public sector organisations with IT solutions and consultancy. “Public sector bodies that previously had their own IT teams have now entered into outsourcing contracts. Channel partners have become the IT department and manage the services for various organisations, especially in the education sector.”

Maclean added that the web and the cloud will become vital to the public sector’s operations moving forward. “The whole requirement of an IT infrastructure is going to become much simpler in the future because it will essentially be a web connection,” he said.

“Information is a council’s key asset. Very few councils and particularly those without CIOs actually understand the true value of information and or recognise that couldn’t survive for five minutes without it. This provides a great opportunity for channel partners to provide solutions that help public sector organisations manage their information more effectively.”