Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy

IT and Financial Management in Public Service Organisations

High performing public service organisations have to harness the power of IT. Only in this way can they integrate their business and financial planning, maintain effective transactional services and run financial information systems that meet users’ needs. CIPFA offers practitioners a range of publications, information and consultancy services focused on the IT dimension of financial management.

Resources

PUBLICATIONS

Public Sector Contracting for IT in an Uncertain World (2010)
Public sector bodies that have outsourced IT services to the private sector, or are looking at outsourcing, cannot ignore the financial risks that private sector partners may currently face given the recession and the ramifications of the “credit crunch”. Sarah Sasse & Patrick Arben of Wragge & Co and Andre Sidorowicz of KPMG in the UK look at the issues that the public sector needs to face up to. This publication is free to download.
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The Top Ten Tips for Delivering Efficiencies through Technology (2009)
This publication provides a simple and authoritative guide to using technology to improve efficiency in public services. It offers a compendium of ideas, information, case studies and techniques under ten main themes - the top ten tips. The implementation of the ideas included in this report could result in efficiency improvements worth hundreds of millions of pounds across the public services.

Shared Services: Where Now? A Guide to Public Sector Implementation (2008)
publication coverWritten by Chris Brown, Ben Paul and Rajni Dev, three leading shared service experts from PricewaterhouseCoopers' Government and Public Sector Practice, the guide sets out evolving best practiceand the lessons learnt from real experience in developing and delivering shared services. The publication is the essential toolkit for use by leaders and practitioners responsible for turning the shared services concept into a practical and efficient reality.

ICT AND BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION TISonline

TISonline.net is CIPFA's online information resource supporting financial managers in the public sector. Its ICT and Business Transformation information stream provides an overview of the role of information and communications technology (ICT) within an organisation. It aims to provide financial managers, advisors and other users of ICT with an understanding of its capabilities and benefits, and the potential advantages or drawbacks of particular courses of action. For more information, see www.tisonline.net/tisbrochure.pdf

USEFUL LINKS

There is a wealth of IT-related material available across the internet along with a particularly wide range of publications and events provided by suppliers, professional and other organisations, and user bodies. Below is a small selection of links that may be helpful to public service practioners.

SOCITM - The Society of Information Technology Management was founded in 1986 as the professional association for ICT managers working in and for the public sector. Members are drawn primarily from local authorities but also from the police and fire services, housing authorities and other locally delivered public service. SOCITM's site provides information on IT for all readers and additional information for its subscriber members. www.socitm.gov.uk/Public/default.htm

UK Government ICT Strategy resources
Links to the Government’s ICT strategy. It advocates the reuse and sharing of ICT assets, to improve productivity and efficiency, reduce waste and the likelihood of project failure.
The strategy aims are to open up public service delivery by supporting online transactional services for citizens and businesses, and create channels for collaboration and policy debate.
It moves away from very large programmes to a greater number of smaller and more agile projects. It wants to create a common ICT infrastructure built on a set of common and, where necessary, mandated open standards. www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/uk-government-ict-strategy-resources

ICAEW: IT Faculty
The faculty helps chartered accountants, and others in business, make the best use of IT and keep up with issues and developments. It provides regular bulletins, articles and events. www.icaew.com/en/technical/information-technology

BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
The BCS promotes wider social and economic progress through the advancement of information technology science and practice. www.bcs.org/category/11307