Back to the Centre
Extract from an Article by GC Published on KableDIRECT
on 23 February 2009
Software as a service is gaining ground in the public sector, but it has to provide more specialist functions to maintain the trend.
Once, all computing data was held within central systems. Then the personal computer devolved much of the information to individuals' desks. Now there is a trend for it to return to the centre – otherwise known as “the cloud” – where it has become as accessible as the data held on a desktop computer.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is part of that movement. It is popular with home users, who increasingly leave email, photos and documents on web servers rather than on their own hard drives. While the concept works best for commodity software used by millions, more specialist SaaS systems are used by government bodies.
In a survey by Kable of 50 IT professionals in the UK public sector 60% said their organisation uses software that is accessed, utilised and hosted on the internet, with central government most likely to answer yes.*
It tends to be used for relatively marginal tasks: mainly collaboration and analytical tools, followed by human resources software. “It's about risk and reward,” says Michael Larner, senior research analyst for Kable. “Changing something like revenues and benefits is too risky for IT departments. People are generally using SaaS for non-core activities.”
Having said that, the survey found limited use of SaaS in customer relationship management and for revenues and benefits. Larner says this is likely to be from clients moving to a hosting service from a mainstream supplier.
Among those who used SaaS, the top reasons given were accessibility, scalability, predictability of software costs and each user being automatically up to date. But replacing Microsoft Office was not a popular reason, even though Google's Apps service, which has free and paid for versions, is capable of doing through SaaS much of what Word and Excel can on a PC.
Some public sector SaaS projects combine collaboration and analysis, and are highly specialised. The Welsh Assembly Government has established Ffynnon, a national performance, risk and project management system available through web browsers, and available for the country's central and local authorities, fire and rescue services and national parks.
It is part of a wider programme, also called Ffynnon, which aims to support collaborative working, improved performance, knowledge management, accountability and standards of service.
The 30 organisations use the system separately, and have customised it for their own purposes, but they can also use it to compare their performance with each other. Ffynnon includes Wales' national performance indicators, against which users can compare their performance. The government says it chose SaaS to allow for rapid low cost implementation, with no user requirement for IT resources or infrastructure installation.
When working together on something, a group of users can agree to collect information then share it through the system. The government does not have access to other users' data – they report their progress against national indicators annually.
The system went live in June 2007 under a £2.5m, five year contract with SunGard Public Sector. Last November the company was awarded a four year, £1.61m deal to provide implementation and performance management support services for the wider Ffynnon knowledge management and business change work.
Last October, all 30 users moved to a new version of the system, providing better reporting and dashboard functions. The Welsh Assembly Government says it will shortly consult on a national programme plan which will detail the support available for further implementation of both the Ffynnon system and the wider programme.
“Ffynnon provides a unique opportunity to transform performance management across the public sector,” says Wales' local government minister, Dr Brian Gibbons. “Organisations can now track and drive forward their performance and can also share their information with others. I am delighted that public bodies across Wales are using the software as a catalyst for continuous improvements.”
* Software as a Service (SaaS) in the public sector, December 2008, Kable
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