UK local government dinner debate: facing change

At the end of January, TechMarketView hosted a dinner debate (sponsored by Computacenter and Unit 4) focused on the topic of ‘UK local government: supplier models of engagement’. Attendees included top level decision makers from local authorities and IT and business services companies. Further details of the event can be found in previous HotViews posts.  

We were driven to organise the event based on research findings in our report UK local government SITS supplier landscape, which highlighted a shift in the way that some suppliers were choosing to target the market. For example, several suppliers were coming to market having developed ‘point solutions’ to tackle discrete problems faced by local authorities.

Those same suppliers had previously been the beneficiaries of numerous multimillion – and in some case, multibillion – pound multiple service line mega deals. However, as TechMarketView research has shown, those types of deals are far less prolific than they once were.

By gathering the great and the good from UK local government and from the leading software and IT services suppliers into the market, TechMarketView hoped to elicit the answers to some key questions about how local authorities are reacting to budgetary pressures and government policy changes. In particular, we were intrigued to determine whether the large single authority multi-service line mega deal, which has been a key feature of the UK local government SITS supplier landscape over the last decade or so, still has its place. Or are local authorities beginning to favour alternative models of engagement?

In the latest note from TechMarketViews’ PublicSectorViews’ team we summarise the evening’s discussions and provide our opinion on what it all means for suppliers tackling the UK local government market (the evening’s discussions were under Chatham House rules so views are unattributed). The discussions centred on changes in the UK local government market and what they would mean for local authorities, and secondly, what that would mean for software and IT services suppliers to the sector. Subscribers to TechMarketViews PublicSectorViews stream can download the note here. If you’re not a subscriber, please contact Deb Seth to rectify the situation! 

Posted by Georgina O'Toole at '09:34' - Tagged: publicsector   localgovernment   markettrends