Public Sector
ICT spending by local authorities increased by 5% in 2008 and now overall spending has to be reduced by over 20% due to the Global economic position. In light of prospective cuts of £1 billion to the Scottish Government budget from Westminster between 2010 and 2012, Councils will share £11.8 billion from the Scottish Government during 2009-10 to deliver public services. Authorities throughout the UK are still planning to spend over £3bn on ICT in 2009/10. Of these costs, staff account for 44% of overall spend.
Driving down operational expenditure is at the forefront of ICT Heads’ strategies. In the current financial environment ICT needs to be able to demonstrate it delivers business benefit wherever it is used. In addition to providing support and managed services in line with Government efficiency plans, the continuing reduction in the cost of technology means that more can be bought for less. This has presented a massive opportunity and influenced Aspen to extend its offerings in Managed Print Services and Infrastructure Support.
Green IT
The Green IT agenda seems to have left centre stage globally, mostly due to the economic climate and lack of awareness. At Aspen, we have been well aware of the Government’s Green IT initiative, even though, many public sector IT managers remain unaware of the strategy.
“In a report produced by Global Action Plan and commissioned by Cisco, the research identified that 60% of public sector IT managers were unaware of the Government’s green ICT strategy, with 41% of national government respondents ignorant of the strategy even though it encompasses their area of responsibility.” (Cisco Report - The path to a greener government)
With a focus on operational expenditure reduction, both central and local government departments can obtain massive savings by introducing Green Solutions. With our commitment to the environment, we have provided services to reintroduce redundant hardware to many third world countries in line with WEEE regulations. Aspen have recently introduced a unique and innovative way to solve IT disposal issues. This convenient service offers a secure and fully compliant way to dispose of any unwanted IT equipment. The GreenIT Box can be provided to organisations to fill with redundant IT equipment, is uplifted when requested, and a Waste Disposal Certificate provided to ensure you meet your legal IT disposal requirements.
At Aspen, we not only establish significant savings, but help significantly lower customers’ carbon footprints whilst maximizing productivity and efficiencies. These messages are at the forefront of our campaigns.
Did You Know?
Server virtualisation helps reduce your number of servers by a ratio of 15:1, and every server virtualized saves 7000kWh of electricity annually, or about £500 in energy costs.
“Virtualisation improves server utilization rates from 5-15% to 60-80%. Running fewer, highly utilized servers frees up space and power. 4 tons of CO2 are eliminated for every server virtualized – the equivalent to taking 1.5 cars off the motorway.” (VMware - See how VMware customers are cutting energy costs.)
Desktop Virtualisation
There remain some big opportunities for ICT to transform local public services.
“Some of the new emerging technologies can be exploited to transform local public services, delivering better more cost effective customer service.” (Socitm – Local authority ICT spend in 2008/9 reaches an all time high according to Socitm IT Trends 2008 report – January 2009)
Desktop Virtualisation is one such area Aspen can help customers meet such objectives. Desktop users can access through traditional desktop, repurposed PC, laptop or Thin Client. There are huge Power savings – less processing power and less storage requirements (Thin Clients lower the Carbon Footprint further and do not need refreshed as PC’s do). There is secure encrypted access which supports users out with the network’s firewall. A virtual machine can be cloned or moved easily and provisioning is like a single copy rather than installing several applications, user profiles etc. Storage costs can decrease by up to 70% – improving service levels, providing higher operational efficiency. There are up to 40% savings on TCO – These savings are real and can be used e.g. to support other company initiatives. Another benefit is that users can access applications whilst unconnected from the network.
Security
Security and privacy of information has also leapt to the top of the agenda in all organisations. High profile cases of data loss reported in the past twelve months have served as a wake-up call for all public sector organisations. New technology, out-of-date management practices represent a serious threat to organisations. Ministers have recently revealed the number of laptops lost or stolen from their departments, with the Department for Work and Pensions mislaying 41 laptops last year.
“Figures for the Department of Health and its agencies show that the number of laptops lost or stolen reached a peak of 36 in 2008-09. Minister Phil Hope said all the devices were encrypted, minimizing the risk of exposing sensitive or personal data.” (Departments reveal laptop losses - GC News July 2009)
Amongst other departments losses were the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which has mislaid two since 2004; the Northern Ireland Office with five missing since 2004; and the Department for Children, Schools and Families which had six lost or stolen in 2008-09.
As more and more paper is being replaced by soft filing systems, more data requires to be secure. Hardware encryption, data recovery, infrastructure security, single sign on solutions, growing storage, backup and disaster recovery are only a few solutions Aspen can assist with for business continuity.
Managed Print Solutions
Due to the current economic climate and shrinking hardware margins Aspen Solutions Ltd view MPS as key to growth. Providing Managed Print Services (MPS) has helped Aspen to shift from capital to operational expenditure, and benefit from fixed and predictable pricing on a monthly or quarterly basis. As such, we are in the transition from selling hardware to selling services.
Most organisations are unaware of expenditure on printing, due to the lack of centralised print management. As a result, devices become underused, costs, security risks and downtime increases – and user satisfaction decreases due to poor service quality. An audit of the print environment provides the first steps to a MPS, where organisations get cost visibility i.e. which device, where, who is printing etc. Rationalisation can maximise the use of printers, lower running costs, and increase uptime and user satisfaction.
With Aspen partnering with Xerox we are able to utilise enterprise tools which enable us to provide services to assess, design, implement and manage customers’ print environments. As cost reduction is high on the agenda for most organisations, MPS provides an opportunity for us to provide visibility customers need on print costs and enables us to develop long-term and profitable customer relationships.
These messages need to be shared – not only with Public Sector but with all customers in order to assist adaptation to change, enable growth, remain secure and meet the continuing demands from the Government.
Aspen Solutions Ltd is an enabler of change for the future.
