The days of expensive monolithic local government IT programmes are over, according to one of the country's top consultancy firms. A Deloitte report published last week, Taking control of IT, urged local government to take ownership of IT and develop adequate governance to make significant savings and reap the potential benefits of information technology. Deloitte put the potential savings that can be made by redesigning IT at up to 30% of total council-wide spend. Costi Perricos, technology partner and author of the report, said: ‘For far too long local government has tended to view IT as a black art that is better performed by external contractors. It is not understood and the result has been failed outsourcing contracts.'