Cabinet Office Chief Information Officer

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Common Desktop

All Government organisations need to provide their staff with access to functions such as email, word processing, spreadsheets and internet browsing - essential “tools of the trade”.  Historically, each organisation has independently specified, developed and delivered the desktop hardware, software and networking solutions to meet that need.  This has resulted in divergent product choices which:

• impede collaboration
• incur repeated costs
• surrender opportunities for saving through economies of scale

The desktop strand of the ICT strategy requires the public sector to simplify and standardise, adopt common delivery models and take a commodity approach to the provision of desktop systems. 

The aim

Our aim is to see desktop computing across Government delivered through common desktop designs and shared services in order to increase capability and lower price. We can:

• Save significant amounts of money by standardising products and sharing the outputs of past investment, which prevents repeated spending on the same problems.
• Enable faster deployments with fewer faults and reduced reworking through the re-use of established technology within and between desktop services.

Key Achievements

Public Sector Flex (a shareable desktop computer environment service provided by Fujitsu, which is available to any public sector organisation at a common price) set a benchmark price for 10,000 users of less than £1000 per year per user. The 2005 median cost across government departments for support of a PC stood at around £2,300 per year. Flex has reset the price for the ICT Industry.

DWP/Buying Solutions are currently following a similar path to a shareable desktop service and there are other models, adopted by other organisations that exemplify elements of the desktop strategy, including the MOD’s Defence Infrastructure (DII) desktop model and the Home Office’s Next Generation IST Transformation (NGISTT) Programme.

What are the key benefits?

• Creating a suite of standard desktop designs is the key to delivering a significant proportion of £3.2bn savings outlined in the Operational Efficiency Programme.  For example, a reduction of £100 per year in the operating cost of public sector desktops would yield a £400 million saving per year if all the public sector followed the best practice models.

The Common Desktop Strategy (ICT Strategy) [PDF]

Contact
For further information email desktop.services@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk