3.12 The Department's Information Technology Technical Consultancy Unit is responsible for maintaining a strategic view of the market and for advising the operational research specialists, Feasibility Appraisal Service and Strategy and Planning Division on technical issues. The unit consists of one Inland Revenue employee, who was previously the Chief Technologist and Architect of the Information Technology Office, supported by an external consultant.
3.13 The head of the Information Technology Technical Consultancy and the retained consultant maintain their external perspective and market knowledge through contact with a wide range of IT industry suppliers, users, observers and research organisations. These include: the Gartner IT Executive Programme and its annual symposium; GIGA; the Sainsbury Technical Infrastructure Forum and the Toshiba UK Customer Council which comprises 20 major UK users of laptop computers. In addition, EDS organises technology visits to major suppliers, such as Sequent and Microsoft, and to other EDS customers. These arrangements also help other staff, including those in the Feasibility Appraisal Service, to keep their knowledge of information technology developments up to date.
3.14 The Department supplements its in-house skills by using external advisers to provide specific advice on strategy. The following examples illustrate the use of external advice.
■ During the market testing and competitive tendering process which led ultimately to the formation of the partnership, the Department obtained advice from Wentworth Research on information technology outsourcing and from Lucidus on the development of contract management procedures.
■ Before adopting the current programme to replace its desktop personal computers and terminals, two reports were commissioned, one from the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency and one from Gartner, on likely developments in desktop personal computers and client/server systems and the strategy the Department should adopt.
In these cases the Department was able to demonstrate how it had used the advice received to refine its strategy and decisions.