06 October 2006 | Rebecca Ellinor

The public sector has warned of a potential supply shortage of IT expertise and may have to stagger its technology programmes accordingly.

A report from the OGC for the Chief Information Officers' Council said government departments should liaise to ensure the market can cope with its demands.

The findings are the first in the Transformational Government series examining how technology can be used to improve services.

"Suppliers have indicated that bid capacity is an issue. It is clear even the largest of suppliers would not wish to cope with several major complex bids at the same time," an OGC spokesman told supplymanagement.com. "The recommendation is departments should work together to co-ordinate their approach to the market."

The study also found more risk being placed on suppliers, as well as increasingly onerous terms and conditions. This, it discovered, is causing suppliers to be more selective about what work they bid for.

"Suppliers believe they are being asked to take on more and more of project risk," said the OGC spokesman. "We are saying departments should ensure the risks they are asking suppliers to take on are appropriate for the project. In other words, risk should lie where it can be best managed."

The study used market research and information obtained from 20 public sector organisations and 13 suppliers. Details of more than 170 public-sector IT projects with an annual value of around £3 billion were obtained for the work.

SMoct2006