Star comment: Challenge of keeping up to date

Technology is moving at such a pace that it inevitably outruns those who try to keep up.

Shropshire Council members have heard that the council has not invested in its IT infrastructure, with the result that its computer systems are clunky and complicated.

They have given the go-ahead for a £23 million overhaul of the council's computer systems, which is hoped will make savings in the long run of £11 million.

Meanwhile, over at Telford & Wrekin Council, there are moves to beef up its technology too, with a new computer system to manage children's and adults' services. The ticket price for this improvement is in the region of £1.6 million. So it's not cheap either.

The councils have our sympathy and our good wishes in getting things right, because experience shows that this is an area in which it is possible to get things horrendously wrong, even without the actions of those who take pleasure in trying to disable or wreck computer networks from afar.

An attempt to upgrade NHS computer systems in England was described by the public accounts committee in 2013 as one of the worst and most expensive contracting fiascos in public sector history, costing billions of pounds.

Anything the NHS can do, the Ministry of Defence can do equally badly, wasting millions of pounds on a much-delayed online recruiting system.

And we haven't even started on problems faced by some big corporations, banks, and so on.

Bringing in new systems take time, so it is likely that Shropshire Council's new system will be yesterday's technology when it is introduced and, who knows, the requirements might have changed by then as well.

Ordinary members of the public may be able to afford to get the latest and the best. With councils, once you have got it, you are stuck with it for years.

Shropshire councillors have agreed the project, but have said they want to scrutinise it at regular intervals as it proceeds. That is a wise move. It might slow things down a little, but not as much as the implementation of a botched system that doesn't do the job.

Looking at things as the project unfolds gives the maximum opportunity to ensure things are as right as they can be. You never know, as a result things might be perfect first time. Miracles can sometimes happen.