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More councils are embracing the concept of shared services, according to communications and ICT company, BT. Speaking to The MJ, Mark Quartermaine, managing director of BT Global Services, said councils were starting to look at the benefits of combined information services. ‘The Government has talked about shared services for some time,' said Mr Quartermaine. ‘It's something which is easier to talk about than do, but it does seem to be happening more at a local government level.' He said more councils were looking at the possibility of joint venture deals, particularly tied into local regeneration plans to bring in more business to their area. Mr Quartermaine said BT currently had a ‘healthy pipeline', with between 20 or 30 local government organisations which are interested in some sort of joint venture. He added the firm had just extended its contract with Edinburgh City Council until 2017. BT's Wireless Cities programme, which has been rolled out across the country has also benefited local authorities which are using it to power their CCTV systems and parking meters. He also added that more councils were using framework agreements to procure products. Mr Quartermaine said BT sold more than £200m of goods through frameworks in 2007, and were expecting that figure to rise to £250m this year. ‘The procurement process is still long and tortuous,' he said. ‘Frameworks do give local government a more easier way to buy, and we are seeing them being used more and more. ‘The Comprehensive Spending Review is hitting hard,' said Mr Quartermaine. ‘The more forward-thinking councils are looking at all areas of their organisation and thinking they need to do something differently.'

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BUSINESS

More councils want to share, claims BT

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