Workshop on "Shared Services, Outsourcing, The Cloud— - Liverpool Nov. 2009

Driven by the necessity of reducing costs and by the capabilities of Internet associated with High Speed Broadband, new service delivery models are now becoming a reality across Local Governments in Europe.

Major Cities of Europe has organized a workshop in Liverpool with the participation of Liverpool Direct, South West One, Birmingham, IKS Saarbrucken, BIT Bremerhaven, the Local Government Computer Service Board of Ireland (LGCSB) and Items International. South West One and Liverpool Direct have presented how they have implemented a shared service model and are managing directly the Local Government business and processes including running the ICT. Birmingham has already fully outsourced its ICT while the Business Process transformation is directly driven by the City Council. IKS and BIT are representing a model quite familiar in Europe of ICT companies fully owned by the Local Government that provide ICT services in outsourcing and shared service mode to the City and to other Public organizations in the close geographical area. The LGCSB has presented how Ireland is preparing a major move to integrate Local Government ICT in a Shared Service model.

An related interesting discussion has taken place, provoked by a presentation of Items International about the status and future of Cloud Computing in Government. A report with the overall outcomes of the workshop and all presentations are now published in the Major Cities of Europe Knowledge Base.