
Saving money through smarter procurement?
Well, I'm not opposed to it, but it won't happen by itself.
You "save money" (or rather, optimise expenditure) on tech by first making sure you understand what you're trying to do, and then making sure you understand how you're going to do it.
The ongoing fetish that UK.gov has for outsourcing project and consultancy work is a terrible strategy for this, because it's so open to abuse by those who want to ensure they keep getting more work.
The smart way to do it is to bring people with industry experience and knowledge in-house, paid reasonably well but not exorbitantly (which is easy enough when you consider the extortionate rates often paid to consultants) and get *them* to deal with the procurement work, on the basis that they'll be better place to spot the utter bullshit so often proferred by tech suppliers for what it is.
Without overhauling a bunch of stuff (including the existence of middle or senior management who want to be "involved" with tech provision despite being unable to understand any of it), it'll never happen, but now and again it's a pleasant daydream for those of us with our noses to the grindstone...