South Wales Evening Post - 13 January 2007
Senior Swansea councillors have formally ditched the company lined up to help deliver the second phase of its eGovernment programme.
IT firm Capgemini was involved in the first phase of the project but is not being taken on board for the follow-up Service @ Swansea phase.
It aimed to deliver a hi-tech solution so the council could better communicate with its customers.
The first phase to replace IT equipment was signed 12 months ago and is worth £86 million to the firm.But spiralling costs for the project have put the customer service element in doubt, with an out-of-hours call-centre being put on hold.
The authority's cabinet decision means it will have to explore other avenues of achieving its goals.
Council leader Chris Holley said that a lot of hard work over the last year by the authority and Capgemini had shown the phase two proposals were not affordable.
"Phase one will improve the efficiency of support and back office services and will start to show benefits for the council during 2007," he said.
"Continuing reviews of our option to sign up to a Capgemini-managed phase two have shown that there is not a solution that is acceptable to the council. That is why it's being recommended that we don't proceed with this specific deal.
"There are significant budget pressures this year and we must cut our cloth according to what we can afford. That applies to eGovernment as much as it applies to all the other services we provide."
Mary Jones, cabinet member for top performance and eGovernment, said that the people of Swansea wanted easier access to services at a price that was affordable.
She said: "Phase one will introduce a world class system to run all back-office services which will make the council more efficient in the way it runs finance, procurement, personnel and payroll services. This will replace some 30 old, outdated ICT systems. The council is committed to improving the ways in which people can access our services face-to-face, online and over the phone."
