Live online debate: How far can the public sector go in offshoring IT services overseas?

Offshoring has been a topic of real debate within central and local government ICT circles recently. . The case of Service Birmingham has been the most high profile as the joint venture announced in May that 100 Birmingham City council ICT jobs were to be transferred to India only to announce a few weeks later that the initiative was to be discontinued . Then there was the news in June that DWP would be offshoring 200 ICT support jobs to Bangalore in India via its contractor HP, a proposal that was questioned by MPs who had concerns about the security risks of storing information abroad. It culminated recently in the the Cabinet Office issuing guidance to help CIOs consider supplier proposals which included offshore provision, followed by NAO chairman Martyn Hart outlining the importance of an exit policy within any offshoring strategy. Tread carefully seems to be the motto here. There are those who say offshoring services as part of delivering back office functions and IT support has been happening for some time, and it's gaining respectability as government strains to save on a large scale. The question is, how far should public sector go in outsourcing IT services overseas? So join us here live from midday next Thursday 11th August to discuss the pros and cons of public sector ICT offshoring and the long term implications if this In the meantime, drop any comments or questions you have in the comment box below – we'll endeavour to answer them as best we can next week. EXPERT PANEL Colin Cram , managing director of public sector consultancy Marc1 Ltd Professor Nigel Driffield , head of economics and strategy group at Aston Business School Mohamed Hans , performance improvement advisor at CIPFA Martyn Hart , chairman of the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) Carrie Hartnell , associate director at Intellect Chris Morrison , PCS National Executive Committee member Jenni Viitanen , research fellow at IPPR North Katherine Wheatley , consultant at FutureGov