The trend

More for Less

The goalposts have moved for local and national governments over the last decade.

The sector has gone from relative boom to severe austerity. Many public sector managers are now facing the unenviable task of reducing budgets in a heavily unionised environment.

Across-the-board budget cuts to all departments, may result in savings but would disproportionately damage front-line services.

Investment in efficient IT remains a priority for many public sector organisations. The drive to improve productivity is leading to the rapid adoption of Unified Communications (UC).

Common challenges

Improve efficiency

45% of public sector finance officers will maintain or increase their IT budget in 2011.ComRes/VMware – March 2011

All organisations, whether in the public or private sector, need to concentrate on improving efficiency.
This means making existing processes more efficient and also looking at whether current practices are benchmarked as best practice.

Unlocking funds

Where formal budgetary process needs to be carried out before funding can be made available, the development of compelling business cases becomes crucial.

Solutions

Multiplier effect

Wisely selected technology solutions have a multiplier effect: they allow increased savings and improve customer interaction.

For example, streamlining back-office services via IT will also give local authorities the opportunity to share resources with neighbouring authorities. Significant savings can be achieved and the service will be more complete because of the benefits of scale.

Improve productivity

Whichever way public sector organisations decide to go, the intelligent use of technology can help.

The right technology solution can reduce delivery costs, particularly those linked to back office services, and facilitate the move of more services to the Cloud.

Bluefish has recent relevant experience of implementing shared services and Unified Communications (UC). We have developed a model to enable our clients to build strong business cases and extract the full value of IT. UC allow staff to communicate seamlessly with colleagues and users across multiple channels (fixed and mobile telephony, email, voice mail, or even texting).

This is particularly important for case workers such as social workers or planning officers. Mobile workers may need a desk only intermittently. More public sector employees could become increasingly mobile, free up office space thus reducing costs.

21st century technology

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”Western Union internal memo,1876

Cost reduction concerns aside, strategic use of technology also enables the public sector to keep up with the times. Cloud computing and other innovative technologies can modernise systems and deliver the 21st century service that users expect.

Bluefish are thought leaders in this field and together with our technology partners we are developing prudent but promising solutions for public sector organisations.