Bonkers...or not?

[RGDave]

Have a read of this. It was on the front page of the local newspaper...



A controversial pilot scheme to equip councillors and officials with iPads worth a total of £12,000 is to be rolled out and will save Shropshire Council millions of pounds a year, it was claimed today.

Council chiefs say the scheme, which has seen 40 members of staff including a number of councillors trial the online technology, is already proving successful in saving time and boosting productivity.

The £300 iPads are fitted with cameras and apps which enable officials to use Skype and communicate for free, work remotely on patch and interact with council services around the clock.

The gadgets also allow councillors to post reports from meetings online.

And it is claimed working from mobile devices will also drastically reduce the need for printing and posting out official reports, saving Shropshire Council a minimum of £100,000 a year.

Currently the authority’s IT annual budget is £12 million, but switching to new technology could save at least 20 per cent of this sum, council leaders said.



Read more: http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2011/.../#ixzz1WjRh5tZ6


One or two questions to ponder.

Buying 40 iPads can save £100,000 a year? (Take note, private business, that's right spend £12,000 save £100,000.....please!"£$)

iPads are £300? (can I have one for that please)

and, presuming these people already have phones and computers then how in the reaches of the insane mind, can someone claim that there is potential to save "millions of pounds a year".

all this from the same council that spent 1.4 million on "different traffic lights" because the old one were "costing the local economy £72,000,000 a year".

 

[Lump]

I'm a buyer for a small company in leeds (50 odd office staff and 250 site lads).
The costs off running an office are mind boggling. Never mind for the size of a council. Boxes of paper are expensive, photocopiers are expensive, repair contracts for those photocopiers are expensive... You get the gist.

Thats how they "say" they will save £100k.

 

[AuburnWarrior]

There's a word in that post that doesn't ring true.....

'work'!

Everyone knows that council officials don't work.....

 

[bladeplayer]

Not sure of a total but skype instead of calls would save a very large ammount , as counsellors would have work phones or expences this would be a massive cost .. it would cut down on personal calls aswell .. the saving on paper, printing & ink on nonscence correspondance would be massive aswell

 

[Iaing]

Suppose it depends how many of the iPads "get broken" or "get lost".

 

[Ken_A]

Suppose it depends how many of the iPads "get broken" or "get lost".

amd if Angry Birds is installed :-/

IMHO they are a gamer/fun tool not a substitute for real laptop.

 

[RGDave]

Suppose it depends how many of the iPads "get broken" or "get lost".

amd if Angry Birds is installed :-/

IMHO they are a gamer/fun tool not a substitute for real laptop.

Yes, this thought did cross my mind.

 

[brendy]

Will they be removing the mobile phones, laptops etc from circulation and getting some of that expenditure back via auctions etc? I bet not.
Money can be saved by shaving a little of every department, not focussing on one area and scissoring it to bits.
Ipads are not the nicest things to work with when it comes to RSI also, same as the iphone, I have to limit my use of them as my finger joints are starting to feel sore and this (iphone) is the only addition I have made to my lifestyle in the last year or two.

 

[RGDave]

I'm not convinced that buying iPads will see the redundancy of mobiles and laptops/desktops that the people already use.

I accept an argument that sending documents over the 3G network could save time and money, skype calls could save on phone bills, and also that mobile IT can have positive benefits to productivity.

What makes me cross is suggestions that millions of pounds could be saved by buying iPads.

Either the figures are correct or the council is still in the dark ages and not utilising IT when, for the most part, they already have it....so they've been wasting huge amounts of money on paperwork and communications.

Most businesses have become mostly "paper-free" over the last decade and considering Apple seem determined to undermine many existing windows-type tools (flash?) and corner much of the market for home-grown and home-purchased software, then things don't seems that good.

 

[sawtooth]

The concept is sound but I question the ruggedness of the IPAD. If deployed right, technology for mobile workers will easily pay for itself. At the end of the day the IPAD is a consumer class device and will probably end up costing a hell of a lot more than £300 per unit though. Presumably thats just the cost of the hardware, there will be a hefty service contract in place to make sure that the broken units are replaced/or repaired to keep them in operation.

Better to pay a bit more for the hardware and go for something durable with a proper drop spec and IP rating. Something less worth nicking

 

[RGDave]

The concept is sound...

I've actually written to the local paper (letters to the editor) and they've sent my email back as I forgot to include my address. I'm thinking of sending it back "as-is", but t.b.h. I was rather critical of the journalist that wrote the item(s).

I don't object to people working for the council having iPads or any kind of modern technology; that's fine. What got me was the claims about potential savings.

Councillor Taylor-Smith said working from mobile devices would “drastically reduce” the need for printing reports, saving more than £100,000 a year.

Maybe, as someone has already pointed out. BUT,

They also pointed out members already have taxpayer-funded laptops and BlackBerry smartphones.

If laptops and blackberrys are already being used and sending electronic documents, then where's the saving?

The one that got me was this...

....officials say they are confident that the strategy could in fact save the council at least 20% of it's current £680 million budget

Yes, that someone claiming using iPads will save £136 million. That can't possibly be true.

Meanwhile, The Grange Day Centre in Harlescott, Shrewsbury, which is used by disabled people, is being closed down tomorrow by Shropshire Council in a bid to save £200,000.