Council tech spending in decline

At a time when technology is a key factor in efficiency plans, a report by the Society of IT Management reveals that UK local government spend on ICT has been in decline since 2006, says Public Net.

The society's benchmarking services summary for 2009 presents a picture of ICT managers reducing costs and driving up user satisfaction, against a background of declining expenditure.

The report says that the reductions in cost are worrying. ICT spend per user has dropped by 15.75% in real terms since 2008 and by 19.3% since 2006.

The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), Ivan John Uy, says the new Aquino administration intends to achieve "good governance" by carrying out e-government initiatives across the entire bureaucracy, writes ZDNet Asia.

Speaking at the sidelines of a medical transcription conference, Uy said the CICT would tap tools to integrate the disparate IT systems of various government agencies so information and resources can be shared between the various departments.

The trained lawyer said the CICT, which is the country's main ICT policy-making body, plans to create a Web portal where a single document can be used to transact with public offices.

SolarWinds, a provider of IT management software, and Westcon Group Asean have signed a distribution agreement designed to support expanded availability and access to SolarWinds' enterprise-class products in the Asia-Pacific, according to Market Watch.

The agreement covers six South Asian markets - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. In Singapore, SolarWinds products will be available through Westcon Group's Comstor business unit. In other markets, SolarWinds products will be available through WestCon Convergence.

A specialty distributor in enterprise networking, data centre and mobility technologies, the Westcon Group Asean companies - Comstor and Westcon Convergence - will leverage deep market expertise and offer select resellers access to SolarWinds products.