South Wales Evening Post - 10 August 2007
Swansea councillors investigating why a much-criticised multi-million pound IT upgrade is not delivering millions in savings have been told that it would have worked well, had senior managers been wholeheartedly behind the scheme.
The £83 million deal with Swansea-based IT firm Capgemini was agreed in January 2006. It was the first phase of the council's eGovernment programme aimed at streamlining its services and saving millions of pounds.
But it hasn't been as effective as hoped.
The firm's bosses were yesterday quizzed at Swansea Council's scrutiny committee.
Account director Steve Morgan and vice-president Tom Marsden were invited to take part in the question and answer session in an effort to find out why £17 million in efficiency savings had not materialised.
Mr Morgan said: "Going back to 2003, it was clear that Swansea Council was looking to transform, to change the way it works.
"It needed to do that because the demands on it are increasing in terms of what it provides and the finance is not.
"We saw an authority that was driving towards leadership in Wales."
Mr Morgan said the deal was set up with the then council chief executive Tim Thorogood, who was enthusiastic for the scheme, but said he didn't know if the council's senior managers supported it.
"It's essential the whole management team gets behind the systems for them to work.
"We would have liked to have had an opportunity to convince those members that the programme was well-founded and well directed."
Capgemini also blamed the lack of progress on the council's resistance to change.
"I think there's always resistance to change," Mr Morgan added.
"I think Swansea Council's resistance was at the high end of our experience but I put that down to the fact that Swansea Council has changed less and has been subject to fewer external pressures than other councils.
"In Swansea Council there is a more static workforce, which makes it a little more resistant to change."
Councillor Rene Kinzett, who chairs the performance scrutiny committee, asked the company bosses whether the large savings predicted in the first months of the system's installation were realistic.
Mr Morgan said: "Once we have made savings in an operational capacity they will keep being made, with other savings on top.
"We've been unable to get the data for us to analyse savings accurately because the council has chosen to make savings in other places, as well as with Capgemini."
