IT departments belonging to local government offices must deliver more efficient outcomes during this year if they are to meet cost-cutting targets in light of the recession, it has been stated.

The report, which was carried out by local authority IT association Socitm, said that public services would see increased demand due to the current economic climate and as such, regional governments must do more for citizens with less money.

Socitm stated that such technologies as virtualisation, software-as-a-service and hosted facilities will be utilised to improve efficiency and make the company more technologically aware.

It added: "Government expects councils to deliver a further £4.9bn in cash-releasing efficiencies by 2010/11 and this represents a challenging target that will demand transformational efficiency programmes by councils incorporating bold ICT initiatives to achieve them."

Socitm, formerly known as the Society of Information Technology Management, was founded in 1986 as the professional association for IT support managers working for the public sector.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).