Reading Room chief exec queries Gov plans to scrap 75% of its websites
Reading Room’s chief executive has questioned the strategy of the review launched by the Cabinet to identify three quarters of the Government’s 820 websites to offload.
Margaret Manning, has said that the review sees the Government look to tackle the symptom, rather than the source of the problem.
"A legacy of poor planning, bad implementation and headline grabbing buzzword bingo initiatives has led us to a position where duplication of effort and vanity projects now overshadow the undeniable cost savings and service improvements the digital age can enable,” said Manning.
In contract, Manning highlighted the private sector’s use of cost-effective digital marketing, saying; "Commercial organisations are relying ever more heavily on the internet to sell stuff, to deliver services and to communicate with its customers and stakeholders and have demonstrated, in sharp contrast, how cost-effective digital marketing can be with proven return on investment of more than 200% per annum.”
She continued to say that the companies which had failed to invest in digital have already lost their shoulders, while the Government has continued to ‘spend and fail’ and has ‘getting away’ with it longer that it would like to admit.
Manning added that the Government must develop a better online strategy rather than continue along the same path during a time when it intends to make widespread cuts to the public sector.
"While the intention to cut waste is admirable, we have reached this sorry state of affairs because still many in government forget the absolute crucial ingredients of any good strategy: establishing clear measurable objectives, as well as the processes by which those results will be measured and acted upon, ensuring true value for money for the public purse."
Manning concluded by saying that she supported the Central Office of Information’s new strategy of paying suppliers in relation to the results that they achieve while she believes will drive a better focus on results, but that the Government must also deliver ‘real change and focus’ within its marketing departments so that accountability is not the responsibility of outsourced companies, but also by Governmental departments, to ensure a partnership and shared goal.
"Without this cultural change and full engagement of the marketing and communications sector, what the government is suggesting is like cutting off a foot because it’s been buying Jimmy Choo shoes to walk to work in,” Manning concluded.