Government tells suppliers to 'get their act together'
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The UK government's top IT procurement officer has issued a stern warning to suppliers to tone down their claims and improve the quality of their work.
4 April 2003 The UK government's top IT procurement officer has warned suppliers to tone down their grandiose claims, improve the quality of their implementations and start delivering genuine value.
The warning was delivered by Peter Gershon, chief executive of the Office of Government Commerce.
"Every day I'm faced by suppliers who make exorbitant and unsubstantiated claims. If they were selling to individuals they would be made a regulated industry," he said. Gershon was speaking at an Institute of Economic Affairs conference.
However, Gershon also implied that many in government could be easily seduced by suppliers' exorbitant claims. "Often clients believe what they're told and are disappointed when they don't deliver the anticipated benefits," he added.
Furthermore, unless suppliers improve the success rates of their public sector IT projects, they would undermine the public-private partnership (PPP) initiative, which is already coming under fire from the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee for delivering poor value for money.
Gershon outlined three areas where suppliers need to improve: more realism and clarity in what they can and cannot deliver; greater effort to bring projects to a successful conclusion; and improving risk management. "The challenge to IT suppliers is to get their act together," he concluded. "Otherwise, the fate of partnerships is in doubt."
Speaking at the same conference, the UK government's e-envoy Andrew Pinder admitted that 40% of IT projects in his department have gone awry. He blamed a lack of competence on the part of suppliers. "We want them to make a difference, by trying to be honest, to innovate and, when things go wrong, to tell you when things are going wrong," said Pinder.
