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Editor's note Looking at the Budget paperwork through a technology lens casts a different light on the chancellor's plans for the year ahead. Since 1997, New Labour has talked about "sunrise" industries and green technologies that will lead Britain to a new position of world leadership. The reality has been a few interesting tax concessions, usually involving even more red tape, and IR35, which specifically targeted practices in the IT contracting industry.  This week's publication of the Operational Efficiencies Programme, which targeted up to £15bn of savings by 2014, found backing from the chancellor in the budget. The OEP identified £3.2bn of cost efficiencies by streamlining and standardising public sector IT, with an extra £1.6bn from a more unified IT procurement programme. Jon Wilcox looks at how some of theOEP's savings will be used to fund some of Mr Darling's green technology and low carbon investments.  Kind regards,  John Stokdyk  Technology editor, editor@accountingweb.co.ukAccountingWEB.co.uk Featured links Budget 2009: Your in-depth analysis CRM for professional services: Turning potential into reality Beyond cost cutting: Managing your practice software in a downturn Technology holds the key to Darling's budget plans Hard times and environmental pressures pushed tech solutions up the chancellor's agenda in yesterday's speech. Jon Wilcox looks at the detailed proposals. more Budget 2009: Your in-depth analysis As the chancellor starts to address the huge fiscal deficit, the Budget Report contains bad news for high earners, and delivers disappointingly little in the way of tax measures to help businesses and individuals. Click here to download and read BDO Stoy Hayward's full budget analysis. Excel User Conference: Introductory tips The first day of the 2009 Excel User conference was designed for ordinary users and eased them in with some relatively straightforward ideas, reports Simon Hurst. more CRM for professional services: Turning potential into reality Every contact, business opportunity and bid is more important than ever to accountancy firms. CRM can help deliver the best profit margins and a competitive edge. This paper explains the tangible benefits that a good CRM deployment will bring to your practice. Which is the best browser for me? Trevor Eddolls test drives the latest models. more IT Zone latest Excel zero-day vulnerability patched Oracle acquires Sun and looks towards integrated system Office 2007 Service Pack 2 to tackle native OpenDocument and PDF files Cloud Banks: The importance of aggregation by SaaS vendors Golden Cells: The Excel Zone online video awards Practitioner's Diary: Keep it simple, Alistair! Beyond cost cutting: Managing your practice software in a downturn As the economic slowdown continues, companies are looking for ways to cut costs and IT budgets are a prime target. Rather than implement across-the-board cuts, managers should take a more integrated view of how IT is used throughout the business. Read this whitepaper to learn more Any Answers How do you go about opening clients' files when they use Excel 2007 and you don't?more  Nick seeks feedback about TaxCalc from other users. more  Can anyone recommend point-of-sale software suitable for a village shop, asks Nigel. more  AccountingWEB.co.uk's new job board partner Accountancyjobsonline.co.uk – brought to the profession by CCH, the publishers of Accountancy Magazine - offers the accountancy profession just that; accountancy jobs online in a fresh, real-time, up-to-the-minute careers environment. Click here to visit the new job board today  Partner News nFlow first to offer fully supported digital dictation from iPhone in the UK  Digita: Recognition for the ICAEW IT Faculty's technology innovation See Access Dimensions first hand in online demos Lakeview and Version One partnership delivers integrated document management Alchemex 'BI in the Cloud' - a smart solution for small businesses Has Outlook blocked your images? If you need to right-click one of the images in this email bulletin to see the pictures it's easy to set up AccountingWEB.co.uk as a 'safe sender' so you don't have to do this every time you receive an email bulletin. Select the Actions-Junk Mail menu and pick either the 'Add Sender' or 'Add Sender's Domain' option.