Brums could outsource I.T overseas

[AyatollahPies]

BBC News - Birmingham City Council IT jobs 'could go overseas'

 

Is this the shape of things to come?

[featured_spectre]

imagine the call out fees!!!! lol

[CHR1S]

...hmmmm

 

..... thats erm.....

 

..... worrying.......

[unixman]

We're all in this together

[Tricky_Dicky]

Is it just me or when ever it comes to saving money it is always IT and "back office support" staff that get fired? The main people I see in back office support are normally accounts staff who work damn hard. It is the little efficency that need to be worked out of every department to save money. I work really hard to save money where I can, even doing simple things like a proper managed print solution which even though it had an initial outlay will pay for itself in 3 months and will then carry on saving money for the next 3-5 years at least. If everyone did that there would be very little need for redundancy or outsourcing.

[bossman]

I may be wrong here but didn't the last outsourced managed service deployed in Birmingham fail miserably?

 

If so then why are those people at the LA who are in charge of decision making still in their jobs?

 

It seems to me that these are the people who are costing the country and LA's money with pie in the sky dreams of trying to save money when long term it costs them 10 times more.

 

Outsourcing always seems to come into play with large companies as they seem to think that it will save them money, last large company was British Gas who outsourced their IT and Call centres to the dismay of their customers who closed their accounts and went elsewhere, so intense was this that within 6 months of outsourcing they had lost 60% of their income.

 

There are many other companies who have gone down this route and paid the consequences so why do LA's when they don't have the expertise lean towards this strategy?

 

Beats me!

 

Good luck all those in Birmingham again

[CHR1S]

One issue is, we cant go elsewhere...

[unixman]

I may be wrong here but didn't the last outsourced managed service deployed in Birmingham fail miserably?

 

Yes! Birmingham Post - News - West Midlands News - Birmingham's Voyager computer fiasco slammed in report

[Butuz]

When will they learn.

 

Butuz

[Rydra]

Sigh. Another case of robbing peter to feed paul; Money will be moved from "Personnel" to "IT services". The money outgoing will be the same, but the costs will just come from a different financial code.

 

Thankfully, last I saw there are still rules and laws governing data and where that data is allowed to go, and as I recall we are not legally allowed to send certain sensitive data outside of the UK. So this will be a very restrictive service.

[GrumbleDook]

The Data Protection Act sat

Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the EEA unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

 

In the US this is matched under the Safe Harbor agreement, India improved their DP and IT laws in 2010 and other countries have done or are doing similar.

[Trapper]

We're all in this together

 

Yes we are...... Every man for himself!

[CHR1S]

A little bird tells me the figure stands at 55 in the summer (so far)

 

Id be mighty peeeed off if I were one of the 55!

[Trapper]

I really hope it's none of the good guys in third line like <> who do a fantastic job when the case gets through to them.

 

I wonder if this is why Bridgit left (the Head of the technical side)?

[CHR1S]

Im not going to comment further, I dont even know if these people know themselves so its not fair for me to say any more.

[apearce]

some BSF contracts say that it can't be outsourced out side of the UK but is this BSF or is it the council wide IT?

[Trapper]

Well it's a shame if this is true and coming to pass.

 

Although it's sometimes a rocky relationship I really appreciate the knowledge these guys have, and that for certain types of call you always end of with the same guy and you can develop a rapport. Far better than a guy reading a script on the otherside of the world.

[Trapper]

some BSF contracts say that it can't be outsourced out side of the UK but is this BSF or is it the council wide IT?

 

Sounds like it's the back room Link2ICT/SB staff not schools so it'll treated like any normal commerical outsourcing.

[shenley]

Coventry City Council are in the process of taking their IT back in-house to save money. (This is why there have been loads of IT jobs advertised by CCC.)

[jamin100]

Yeh it will be a real shame if this does come round. There are some fantastic people at link2ICT. But it is worrying that the council are looking at doing this. I wonder if schools own in house IT will be next for the chop!

[ChrisJ]

At the moment it isn't any Link2ICT staff.

 

But I'm glad it doesn't affect me anymore as I'm leaving them.

 

Bit sad as I do work with a good team (CMIS & SIMS .net).