If nothing else this explains why DIUS was able to sign up its permanent secretary Ian Watmore within five weeks, who as government IT head at the CO at the time the Flex contract was being awarded, is a man who should know all the finer details. At the time Watmore, a former MD of Accenture, said: "I want DIUS to live up to its name in being innovative and I am delighted to be at the forefront of government best practice in a shared IT solution. Following the recent formation of DIUS, a key priority for the new organization has been to select an IT service that would not only provide an existing, class-leading standardized IT facility, but one that would also provide a low risk transition to a shared service approach in order to make considerable cost savings and free up resources for frontline services."

At the ONS it was not so straightforward, with controversy surrounding the shifting of personnel to Fujitsu and issues with its back office function, which naturally, is data intense, making it an on-off deal which has only recently been confirmed.

Tryon believes that Flex is being watched closely in the marketplace and is causing some concern among his competitors who fear being frozen out. He says that he gets lots of approaches from software vendors who want to be part of the deal. He also says that the CO is very excited about the whole thing, and that for the first time in his career he is pushing at open doors.

Kevin Doherty is the CO's relationship manager for Flex. By his own admission his job is to proselytize Flex and get others to do so once they start using the framework. He says that shared services projects such as Flex actually offer greater transparency and put vendors under the spotlight to deliver. "It doesn't make life easier for suppliers. They are under pressure to deliver. It is as big a change for them as it is for the customers. They need to show ROI over short periods of time. There is a growing body of knowledge in the service and there are softer benefits such as collaboration and sharing of experiences."

However, none of this impresses Professor Anderson. He says: "The CO shouldn't be in the business of setting IT strategies for other departments, and it shouldn't be selling computer systems on behalf of IT companies. Government is not about subsidizing the IT industry, which it has been doing since Blair decided to spendall that money on the NHS system back in 2002. The public sector has been getting it wrong for years and the government's record on IT delivery is miserable. We've got to the stage where IT spending in the public sector exceeds that of the private sector. [It] has subsidized the IT industry and kept it in profit following the collapse at the end of the dot com boom."

Professor Anderson dismisses the claims that shared services and projects such as Flex will save money and divert resources to frontline services. "Don't listen to their boasts," he says. "That's not what actually happens. Unfortunately money gets diverted to the pockets of rich, greedy computer companies."

He believes that the UK's whole approach to IT is misguided and says we should look to continental Europe where piece-by-piece evolutionary progress is preferred to big-ticket projects. He says these deliver better services and accountability.

"Voters don't care about computers or civil servants in Whitehall who want to expand their power base and make their departments bigger, or politicians who want to use the internet to make themselves look modern. When this lot get thrown out by the voters, the NHS database, ID cards and the children's database will all be scrapped."

Whether one believes in the power of IT to change government services for the better or not, there is a burgeoning competitive marketplace being built around shared services and suppliers and departments are working closer than ever before. As for project Flex, it has yet to tested in a major government department. Only then will we know if the framework is robust and flexible enough to stand up to the tasks assigned to it or if, like so many other public sector IT agreements before, it disappears down a giant pot hole.