UK looks to Indian firms to revive govt IT systems
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 24 February 2009, 16:09 IST   |    3 Comments
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UK looks to Indian firms to revive govt IT systems
Bangalore: At a time when Indian IT companies face stiff resistance from the new administration in the U.S. in terms of offshoring IT works of the country, the government authorities in the U.K. are looking to indulge in $2-3 billion project with top Indian companies. Big Indian IT vendors such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro are now eying at securing billion worth outsourcing contracts from the UK government, reported The Economic Times. According to experts, U.K.'s state-owned departments such as Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Ministry of Justice are seeking help from the Indian offshoring industry for bringing troubled government technology systems back on track and lowering the cost of managing government IT systems anywhere between 25-40 percent. "Government IT spending in the U.K. is estimated to be over $36 billion every year", said Bob McDowall, Research Director at TowerGroup Europe. Apart from the troubled NHS modernization program that needs restructuring, HMRC will also seek to outsource more work as the department plans to make it mandatory for firms employing more than 50 employees to file tax related and other information online by 2011. McDowall also noted that the UK Government IT projects almost always suffer from scope creep, financial and time overrun of a significant dimension. One of the reasons for the government departments to look for help is the scarcity of competent professionals for transforming the systems. "Internal IT development resources are not of the strongest quality - the good people go to commercial organizations. Those that are outsourced to the U.K. based providers are not always delivered on a more efficient, timely and cost effective basis," McDowall added. U.K.'s national healthcare modernization program, pegged at almost $9.6 billion, is among some of the initiatives that failed to deliver. TCS, India's biggest software exporter, has also been involved with the National Health Services (NHS) project for past few years. The NHS project, which had over half a dozen suppliers including BT, Accenture, TCS, CSC and Atos Origin, ran into trouble after an inquiry by the audit department revealed that the program was running over two years behind the schedule, and had run into several coordination bottlenecks between vendors and various departments. "I see a pragmatic approach for the major Indian outsourcers bidding for government work is to provide a package which provides on shore and offshore location for the projects supplemented by an offer of relevant IT training for some of the unemployed who would form part of the onshore servicing," opined McDowall.

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