Gershon savings could come from printing reforms not just jobs

Beverley Head
Wednesday, 19 August 2009 12:56

IT Industry - Market

Overhauling Government departments’ printing and document management systems could deliver the savings required by the Gershon Report recommendations, and potentially save IT jobs.

According to Andrew Rowsell-Jones, Gartner vice president and research director, Government departments which reformed their printing operations might be able to meet Gershon cost cutting targets without firing people.

Speaking ahead of an HP customer meeting in Sydney Rowsell-Jones said; “Organisations are spending about the same on documents as they are on technology. “The important difference is, if you ask a CIO they are managed to death on (ICT) costs…yet it doesn’t appear the same care is being applied to something that is of equal expense, because it’s so diffuse. No one ever sits down and says ‘gee we are spending a lot on this document thing’.”

He said many Government departments had hired consultants to examine their print and document management needs. “They’ve got as far as doing the ‘make or buy?’ – should I own my print fleet? They tend to turn to the KPMGs of the world and say ‘do the sums for me’. That’s as far as they’ve got.”

Acknowledging that the Gershon report did not get down to the granular level of reviewing Government printing and document costs Rowsell-Jones noted: “Gershon includes targets and focuses on the big tickets like overheads and contractors. I think in Gershon there are some targets built in – and this may well be a way of achieving them without firing people.”

He described the savings that could be achieved as potentially the “last hanging fruit for the CIO.” Rowsell-Jones said that on average an enterprise spent 6 per cent of revenues on ICT, and a further 6 per cent of its revenues on printing and document management.

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