They could've saved much, much more if they'd not bought Apple branded products. There are many other suppliers of tablets and smart phones that provide the same functionality at greatly reduced cost.

Unbelievable. £12 million on computing 'costs' ??? Are these computers made of solid gold and need replacing each year? An absolute disgrace.

Nice to see Council Tax is being spent well, AGAIN.

Christ, this Council really needs to get their priorities in order.

Just because this was published after I posted here before: http://www.neowin.net/news/dell-exec-ipad-is-shiny-but-not-suitable-for-business

I'm not the only one who's getting tired of people wasting money on technology that isn't fit for purpose.

I think when we see £12M it sounds a big number but when you buy work PC's you buy software and you have to provide backup and maintenance. The £12M I assume covers far more than buying 450 pc's.

Why Apple rather than other manufacturers - well it works - it's well built, the system around it is robust. having seen iPads in operation in business whilst I use my lap top the sheer speed of response and access leaves my Dell laptop at the starting post. Time saving and remote working will save lots. Good to see councils thinking outside the box a bit rather than be constrained by the fear of public opinion.

Of course one of the flaws in the council theory is that internet and 3G coverage in Shropshire is so bad and patchy that filing reports without needing to visit the office will remain an aspiration rather than a reality!

As suggested by a previous comment other cheaper systems are available and equally as good, in some cases better - my Samsung beats my partners iPhone everytime for download speed and ease of function.

I PADS! surely a normal note pad / lap top would do the same for half the price?

It's one thing for actual employees of the council having improved technology. They are employed under specific contracts and have proper working hours, skills and professional qualifications.

Councillors on the other hand are given extremely generous annual allowances with very little examination of what they actually do for it.

A waste of money, even Shropshire County Council has been Apple'd. I have never seen anybody file a report on a IPAD. I could not imagine trying to use the on screen keyboard for doing anything, other than surfing the net or replying to E-Mails.

I understand the IT budget is about 12 mill but wasting some of that on 450 IPADS is sheer waste.

Many other tablets are just as good and as for versatility then you can't beat a good old laptop.

At least councillors will have something to keep their kids quiet at night.

I just love the example of the dog warden.

Pre 2000's dog warden....spots "dog litter" picks it up and disposes of it...cost to public....dog wardens wages for ten minutes.

2012 Dog Warden....spots "dog litter", spends ten minutes tapping "report" into £500 Ipad, sends to computer in office, operator spends five mins logging report, report filed and forgotten about.

Cost to public...dogwardens wages, computer operators wages and cost of computer system...result...still dog "litter" on pavement until roadsweeper comes along...GENIUS!!!

Still I suppose it's created a couple of (non)jobs for the council with some fancy names.

Is Shropshire Council aware of the 40+% profit margin made by Apple on its hardware sales?

Thought not.

Toys for boys

Why we need more women running politics, maggie would never have put up with this.

I agree with IT modernisation but not I-pads which are a rich mans toy with less functionality that I have on my phone frankly. Either get them a smart phone (free with a contract) or a laptop and I pad costs more than both and does nothing to improve on functionality of either device

If it saves money and makes staff more efficient, more power to the council. I am sure they have researched costs and alternatives and buying the very cheapest hardware is not always the cheapest in the long run, so what if it is an apple. If it is reasonably priced long lasting and does the job so be it. Microsoft software costs a small fortune for business and enterprise solutions, until now there has not been many good alternatives. If now a premium hardware company comes along and does away with just about all those licenses for software, it may actually be a good buy and save money as the council has calculated. My job involves researching mobile technology and apple iPad's offer very good value in certain enterprise areas and this may well be one of them.

Very few tablets with good enterprise solutions will sell for less than the iPad, so please don't be too quick to knock it if you don't know all of the facts and figures of enterprise solutions.

It sounds like this gross expense is being justified by paper saving but you could save paper in other ways like banning printing, printing on both sides, using big display screens and powerpoint in meetings and using traditional laptop, email and PC's

no need for flashy flat touch screens to do any of that they should be doing it as routine anyway they are meant to be champions of recycling after all!

shropshire council is a rip off

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at some of the responses to this news.

Shropshire is trying to position itself as a go-ahead county, with a modern approach to business and associated technologies, yet here we have the Luddite reaction of so many.

If I was an out of county businessperson reading these comments I'd certainly not get an impression that Shropshire welcomed the use of new technology - in fact I'd think it was full of people who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Ill cultured and ill informed views on here once again! Apple are selling these ipads at a reduced rate to councils and other government organisations in order to establish a reliance on them. We have people who work in the government organisation I work for who do not use microsoft office, and will be getting ipads soon. And yes, £12 million is about right, after you factor in the costs of the equipment, software licences for EACH pc and the constant computer required.

The council need to make some more savings.

Spending 500k on ipads is a drop in the ocean compared to the costs that are going to occur setting up a new company and employing eight directors to run the council services,not sure where the CE fits in or will that position still be needed.

I thought a reduction in senior management costs was part of the big picture.

Apple, via the right honourable Tim Cook (who is the new Steve Jobs in that he’s the new voice of Apple) claims that its new iPad creates “A world where PC is no longer at the center of your digital world”

Let's put aside cost for the moment, which is it to be the ipad or a laptop?

The Casual User: iPad Wins

Essentially then, it comes down to usage. If you’re the type who does a bit of light web-browsing, likes casual gaming, answers the occasional email and makes a video call once in a while, then Cook’s statement is perfectly justified. In fact, even if you do quite a bit of the above, any iPad but especially the third one has a lot to offer. That goes double if you mostly use your computer at a desk, as it takes care of typing: you can just buy a stand and decent Bluetooth keyboard for your iPad 3 and away you go.

The Enthusiast: iPad 3 Draws

If you’re an enthusiast you’re more likely to want the new iPad as a secondary tool. You’ll use it for those tasks and recreations it excels at, and switch to a laptop or desktop PC for the rest. This approach gets you the best of both worlds, but you have to be able to afford it.

The Productivity Freak: iPad 3 Loses

You want to work in Excell or Photoshop, but the iPad won’t let you use a mouse. You need to type pages of reports, but the proper desktop Bluetooth keyboard is not portable and that iPad keyboard case gives you RSI. You want to print some forms but the iPad won’t play nice with your printer. You can buy an iPad for play and a little work, but a laptop is the essential here.

But Things May Change

Of course this could all change. A laptop could come out that lasts as long as the iPad 3 on a charge and has a similarly high-resolution screen – but we wouldn’t count on it anytime soon, at least not for under £1,000. A more likely scenario is that Apple ups the new iPad’s compatibility, making or letting others certify drivers for all the bits it currently can’t interface with.

It’s also worth remembering that some Android tablets already offer most of the laptop advantages, with models like the Transformer Prime, with its keyboard dock and superb connectivity, setting the pace.

Gary

As a dedicated hater of macs and a confirmed pc expert I felt insulted to be given a naw IPad. The first day was hell. But not to be outdone I made a conscious decision to persevere. I am glad I did! The IPad is much faster, has a quality build, a multitude of applications that work out cheaper than the Microsoft equivalents (there are some shortcomings in being truly compatible - but these can normally be overcome apart from a MS Access database equivalent).The portability and ease of use of the IPad is excellent and in a corporate environment I can see not only significant cost and efficiency savings resulting. Good on Shropshire Council in having the foresight to use technology to move forward. Written on my sofa using an IPad.

I am all for reducing costs to the tax payer,

However, do we really all need an ipad council in these austure times, best just to reduce the wanton waste, halve the council, halve the staff,and let a dog poo where its wants so long as we collect and recycle the waste. Viola should pay for muck rakers association - better not go out now, big brother is whatching us.

So are Shropshire County Council exempt from GCSx CoCo compliance?

I will look forward to my personal details being left on the train.

how is there loads of money on gadgets and concrete slinkys but no investment in basics like frontline bin collections like the cardboard fiasco

#shambles

Not that it has anything to do with the IT strategy, but the short answer to your questions are, no. There is no increase in allowances or salaries for the additional duties. Most of the other positions are from the outside through the normal recruiting process.

Grumpy old man-what your now arguing about is how the council works. There is so much wrong with your comments, I don't where to start. How is the council going to be sustainable by cleaning up dog litter? It is against the law, they should pursue enforcement rather than cleaning it up. Tools like this are helpful in building up a case, as the law does not favour your local authority. If sending £80 on an iPad helps, so be it. I'd rather argue, are they ALL going to go the right people? Are they going to keep a desktop computer as well! Technology will never be a waste of money providing it is used correctly.

Michelle-the difference in keeping commuity recycling centres open 7 days a weeks and upgrading IT systems... The costs of upgrading the IT would probably only cover the extra two days for one centre for one week. Check the internet before going out to which ones are open. Thats you doing your part in helping at a time of cutbacks.

May I add, that the company I work for regularly lets some of the employees work from home. They use the internet and remotely acess the work system from their own laptop/pc. The tasks performed from home involve Adobe Illustrator, Framemaker etc and are far more complex than typing up reports or marking stuff on maps?

"Grumpy old man-what your now arguing about is how the council works. There is so much wrong with your comments, I don’t where to start. How is the council going to be sustainable by cleaning up dog litter?"

Rich, I won't even comment on the last bit of your statement because it's all waffle but getting to the nitty gritty.

Firstly, you say there is so much wrong with your comments you don't know where to start...well be a man and get on with it but I have been in the council offices and seen the buck passing, just to try and get an appointment with one person you have to go through two or three others first, who seem incapable of making a decision without a "meeting".

The there's my council tax bill that they've made a mess of for the second time in three years...all basic 11plus maths. I sent an email two weeks ago asking for them to rectify the bill and still no answer....Ipads down maybe???

Don't talk to me a bout council faffing about...I used to work for one.

Secondly, Rich, although I agree that leaving dog litter is illegal, who then do you suggest cleans it up?

(a) nobody

(b) the public)

(c) the manufacturer of I pads?

It seem the council is incapable!

All they seem to want to do is photograph it and file it...

Welcome to your caring council!

i must say though i loathe the council this is press and public trying to have a go at them for the wrong thing, critise the closure of libraries and disabled centres, there shambolic recycling service and poor contract management and control of costs, critise that insane island on smithfield road, but dont slag them off for trying to make the place more efficient, i welcome modernisation and more ICT for the council it is needed from my dealings with them let me tell you hats off to martin smith for this it is the correct approach and more home working and more it should be the way to go, arguable if they had more it they would not have taken some of the crazy decisions above becaus they might understand their customers better and be able to consult and respond better and work more business like too

OBVIOULSY TIMES ARE REALLY HARD AT THE SHIRE HALL THEN!

nice work if you can get it, company car for the senior managers no doubt too? out of touch

"Council saves money through better use of IT". That's essentially the story here yes? Why such vitriol then?

Also folks, take the time to read the ICT strategy and note how it talks about staff being able to use their own technology to work from, and other devices (other than Ipads!) in order to work mmore efficiently and save significant amounts of money.

Even those of limited intelligence (and there's plenty on this thread) might think this to be a good idea?....

Its just a different kind of IT tax (on US). Now the council is beholden to whims of Apple Corp. AND Microsoft instead of just Microsoft.

If they REALLY thought about this - they don't NEED most Office apps ( I appreciate they may have locked themselves in with databases Access - yuk) but there are alternatives and free ones too. They could get together and force MS to offer just Access.

If they want tablets then get Android ones - get standard council software developed by employing good devlopers with other same minded councils and SHARE the product - really save everyone money. not this pithy shifting and blurring of real costs.

if its so efficient for us all to use IT please can they buy all the taxpayers a i pad each then. then i can contact my council 24/7 to moan about the pot holes, litter, crumbling swimming baths, dogs fouling in the park, failing schools and lack of weekly bin collections

An iPad (I'm writing from one now) is for fun but so slow for doing any serious work. I use an old Dell laptop for that. I assume the council hasn't factored in staff time in it's coatings.

Also there are accessibility issues for staff who have a visual impairment.

Re the claim that printing costs will be reduced -2 points:

1. it was never the case in my old office where people worked from home two days a week.

2. re staff time - apparently most people take 40 percent longer to read a document on screen than on paper.

It would be interesting to have seen what the reaction to this story would have been if it had referred to a "cloud based system accessed via mobile devices" instead of iPads. I imagine a lot of the vitriol that is present throughout these comments is derived from the fact iPads are being used.

I think this is a good move by the council, every effort should be made to introduce efficiency to public sector organisations and the use of IT is an effective method. The private sector already do this to generate profit, why not use it to save money and increase the level of service in the public sector.

I would like to refer our hard-working council members to this apt article in the Independent website, clearly the true reason for aquiring said expensive gadgets at the expense of Shropshire tax-payers:

Why the iPad is a waste of time

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/why-the-ipad-is-a-waste-of-time-7835824.html

Laptops are so much faster to use than iPads. I doubt the costings have factored in staff time. Let's hope the dog wardens don't have eBay or Facebook addictions!

We will just have to watch as our council stumble forward with their IT infrastructure plans. Its true that Android now has a better application platform thus allowing for better development and support. Android devices can be secured to a higher and better level than iPads and they don't suffer from the 3G to 2G connection issues which has dogged Apple until the latest release.

I am an apple fan but I cannot justify the costs of everything on apple. I spend hours searching out the cheapest apps until I went android. I am also worried about the poor security on the iPads, the only real security would be to use the iCloud or sugar sync to store or access documents but with poor connection they would struggle out of town. iPads could use VPN but again with out wifi they would struggle.

At least with a laptop they can be encrypted and the user can use a mouse and a better keyboard. Software is centrally funded (well used to be).

What I am trying to say is that there are much better alternatives to the iPad, and to replace users pcs or laptops should be a user preference and not a directive. Using a touch screen for typing can cause RSI and other long standing medical issues. Excel is difficult to use without a mouse.

What is going to happen to the users old equipment. Would it be sold to help pay for the new IT equipment or for the vast roling expense of iCloud storage?

Just like the £25,000 hybrid electric cars they treated their staff to at our expense, this is saving public money apparently!!!

meanwhile the Espresso machine in the management suite is "improving efficiency" by making staff more motivated and energetic too!!!

We're all in this together apparently except for the millionaires at Shirehall who are above the cuts!!!

I agree entirely about weight. That's why I bought one. I hope the council doesn' have too high an excess on insurance as they can go walks - very coveted. I think laptops are much more practical for staff who can spend some time working from home. I wouldn't like to write a long doc on an iPad. Best wishes.