South Wales Evening Post - 26 February 2007
A Planned customer service system for Swansea Council costing around £84 million has been ditched in favour of one costing less than £1 million.
The authority has been forced to turn to Cardiff Council for help after its multi-million pound IT plans fell apart.
Private firm Capgemini had been in line to provide the cutting-edge customer service system after supplying the technology to replace the authority's back office IT system.
But as projected costs spiralled, council leaders decided to drop the company and find a cheaper alternative.
Cabinet member for eGovernment Mary Jones has now confirmed high-level talks with Cardiff Council are at an advanced stage and a deal could be struck within weeks.
Just £200,000 has been set aside for the start-up of the scheme, which is expected to be in place by September.
It will not deliver the ambitious promises outlined when the council embarked on its eGovernment programme two years ago, but comes at a fraction of the cost.
Councillor Jones said an alternative had to be found after an option to deal with Capgemini was dropped in January.
"We have gone out to look for an alternative that is affordable and acceptable for what we want to do with it.
"No deal has been done, but we have had talks with Cardiff Council to use its system.
"Swansea Council's involvement with Capgemini has been dogged by controversy. As well as spiralling costs, the deal to transfer council staff to the firm caused the longest public sector strike in Welsh history.
Less than £8 million of a projected £26 million of savings have so far been identified as achievable.
Another link to Capgemini, the project's name, has also gone.
Councillor Jones said: "We are dropping the name mailto:Service@Swansea. The new system will not be called that and we have three alternatives that we are looking at."
The opening of the council's new customer contact centre at County Hall in September is a key factor - something has to be in place by then, and Cardiff offers an affordable and reliable solution.
However, unlike the original plans there will be no call centre, and residents will have to deal with staff face-to-face, or use an email form.
The news has been broadly welcomed by opposition groups at Swansea Council, although they say too much time has been wasted with Capgemini.
Councillor Mark Child, the Labour group's technology spokesman, said: "Unfortunately, we no longer have the IT expertise to be able to implement this in-house as they were all transferred to Capgemini. Having said that, this is the approach we have been advocating all along.
"Cardiff has had this system for five years and it is something we could have gone with much earlier."
Conservative group leader Rene Kinzett agreed that something needed to be done.
He added: "It is only a shame that we have spent so much time and energy, and possibly money, on discussions with Capgemini."The fact that we are not making the savings from the first phase means we are not in a position to get anything like the system we were promised."
Your Views
Shambles@Swansea
Alun, Swansea
I am not at all surprised that this scheme has been downgraded. There have been so many assurances that everying was on track while that it became suspicious. but I am very annoyed that opposition parties who clam to hold the Lib Dem cabinet to account seem to be going along with this and not demanding a full enquiry. Do we have to rely on the Evening Post for our information?
Gary Lewis, Sandfields
Are we supposed to be grateful to Councillor Holley for wasting our time and money over the years? They can try to dress it up however they want, but it is an expensive failure and the people in charge should be held accountable.
Martin Daniels, Swansea
Swansea Council (and Ioan ap Jones) need to explain why it took three years, an expensive army of consultants, phased contracts and a decision to privatise IT services when the answer to all our problems was just up the road in Cardiff all along. Based on their abysmal record to date, how can we be expected to believe that this is even a viable change?
Wil, Swansea
I cannot see what all the fuss is about. The council have delivered what they said they would, a new contact centre with the appropriate technology at a fraction of the original price quoted. Where is all this money they are supposed to have spent? From what I can see they avoided signing up to a costly second phase as the figures did not stack up, whilst phase one is still on track to make the savings required of it.
Ioan Ap Jones, Uplands
Maybe we could call the new project Cardiff@Swansea, I'm sure that will be very popular with the Swansea tax-payers!! We could also outsource our councillors to a private firm and see how much money we could save that way!! I'm tearing my hair out waiting for their next terrible decision. They're about as useful as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest!!
Lord Dunvant, Walters Row
The decision to award the Capgemini contract was made on the 30 December 2005 by (5) Cabinet members , namely Councillors' Chris Holley, Mike Day, Mary Jones, Graham Thomas and Joan Peters. The other (67) elected members of the City and County of Swansea were not given the opportunity to vote on this matter. The above named Councillors should be be held financially responsible for this fiasco.
Swansea eye, Swansea
What I would like to know is when this decision was made and many councillors were involved. all we get are announcements and lots of spin. Whatever happened to open government?
Arthur, Swansea
So there is going to be no service at Swansea worth mentioning. What's changed?
Jason, Swansea
I am appalled that the announcement, no matter how welcome, is being made without a hint of an apology to the residents of Swansea whose money has been wasted on this ridiculous project. Councillor Holley and his colleagues have spent millions of pounds of our money and seem to think that they can just shrug and walk away from their mess.
Peter Davies, Swansea
Getting rid of the Service@Swansea name will not get rid of the bad smell that this expensive fiasco will leave behind. Politicians may think they can cover over the traces but the taxpayers wil remember come election time.
J. Atherton, Mumbles
So it comes to this. After strikes and compulsory transfers and contracts costing millions of pounds, not to mention an entire floor of County Hall being emptied of staff, the promised Service@Swansea is to become an appendage of Cardiff. This is progress? What a joke.
Jerry, Swansea
I do hope that Swansea Council do not ry to spin this as a success story. They signed the contracts and promised the savings. Instead of providing leading edge technology, they are buying a cheap substitute from Cardiff. Chris Holley and Mary Jones should resign over the time and money they have wasted. If they did not understand the issue then they have no business being in office.
Malcolm, Morriston
