Councils: Outsourcing IT hits performance

Councils that have outsourced their IT don't perform as well as those running an in-house service, according to the latest research from Socitm, an industry group for public-sector IT managers.

The report shows that user satisfaction is 13 per cent lower among councils with outsourced services than in those with more traditionally run IT.

Socitm conducted a detailed examination of two large councils measuring user satisfaction before and after outsourcing. The findings show a 27 per cent reduction in satisfaction in one and a 32 per cent reduction in the other.

There were similar differences across a range of other criteria including perception, value for money and the performance of the IT unit.

The survey also measures user satisfaction across groups of councils giving ratings out of seven points.

It looked at 10 councils with outsourced services finding that four achieved a score of less than 4.0 compared to just three out of the 75 in-house providers. Scores for the 10 outsourced councils ranged from 3.38 to 4.89. This compares to the average user satisfaction of 4.57 with the highest score being 5.65.

According to Martin Greenwood, programme manager for Socitm's research service, user satisfaction is important but councils should avoid seeing this as an end in itself.

"Efficiency gains through investment in IT will only be made if the IT service is credible," he said. "A large slice of that credibility must come from what users think of the service they receive and the degree to which IT helps them deliver high-quality services."

The report, compiled with Wolverhampton Business School, is available from Socitm. Results are based on a dataset of 87 organisations and 22,871 user responses.