A "Refreshing" Approach To The Financial Challenge Of Meeting E-Government Deadlines
14 March 2003
Since the announcement of the e-Government initiative, local authorities have been under pressure to deliver web-enabled services. But the road to modernisation has been fraught with problems - as widely reported in the media - and the cost to the taxpayer in terms of failed or overrunning projects estimated at £1bn.
Sun Microsystems' Datacenter System Accredited partner, Esteem Systems, had predicted a sharp increase in the take up of the tailored leasing solutions over the next three years as the rush to get services on-line accelerates. By leasing technology, organisations can acquire the equipment they need, exactly when they need it, whilst accommodating any unexpected changes in their infrastructure going forward.
Some authorities like the flexibility offered by leases to accelerate changes in their assests, usually well in advance of normal write-off periods, but the main attractions of leasing solutions such as those offered by Sun Microsystems are the convenience of technology and finance from one supplier, the ability to invest heavily on a limited budget, and the back-up security of Technology Refresh - which is part of Sun's Finance offerings.
Technology Refresh is a mechanism that allows the authority the flexibility to accommodate unexpected changes in future business needs and allows scalability of the infrastructure in line with the growing requirements of e-government.
In principal, when new technology becomes available, you can exchange a percentage of the original inventory at any time throughout the life of the agreement providing the authority protection against obsolescence and the ability to maintain the technological expertise to carry forward the e-government strategy.
Technology Refresh also gives authorities the ability to maintain their existing infrastructure, but swap out obselete hardware with minimum budgetary impact thus allowing the IT department to plan and control the cost of system upgrades in the future.
Some of the general benefits of leasing are: cash management; lower investment hurdles as no initial capital outlay; creative payment profiling as payments can be spread to match the life of the contract; ease of internal cross charging; attractive finance rates; repayments spread over time so lower net present value costs.
David Ogden, Director of Esteem Systems' Sun Division said: "The pressure is on for local authorities to invest in IT to meet strict deadlines. The problem is that the money to fund these IT infrastructure developments runs into millions of pounds and many organisations simply do not have access to that kind of budget. Sun Finance offers a long term answer and will become part of many organisations' strategies to upgrade continually with a manageable repayment plan."
If you require any further information, please contact our Press Officer on 01937 861000 or e-mail on press@esteem.co.uk
