Is it time the public sector embraced emerging technology?

The latest report from think tank Reform highlights that current Governmental operating systems offering public services are failing because they’re built around archaic, hierarchical structures that simply aren’t responsive or efficient enough. So the question is asked, is it time for emerging technology to be embraced?

The good news is, as part of their digital strategy, the UK Government is set to transform its legacy systems in line with the rest of Europe, with its strategy focusing on 3 key areas:

• improving citizen facing services
• improving departmental performance and driving efficiencies
• internal government transformation to deliver change better.

Other objectives include modernising workplaces and the skills and culture within them.

For some, the deployment of AI (Augmented Intelligence), automation and robotics to enhance services are considered too radical and raises concerns over the speculated 250,000 job cuts that could happen as a result of the digital  transformation.

Research shows that currently, the public sector is not embracing technology to enhance its service delivery. As a result, it is performing poorly in comparison to the rest of the world or indeed the private sector.

Reform senior researcher, Alexander Hitchcock, urges for a new approach to be “underpinned by a new mentality: a culture of innovation.” Embracing emerging technologies such as automation, wouldn’t just significant impact on the output and quality of work, it changes the organisational culture and paves the way for future upgrades, systems and processes.

Emerging Technology

Emerging technologies such as automation and robotics are already being piloted and rolled out through Back Office Workforce Optimisation platforms, some of which being championed by the UK’s leading financial institutions including the Student Loans Company.

Through automation and workforce optimisation, many some financial institutions have benefited from as much as 15% efficiencies and 50% reduction in customer complaints. And it’s not just the bottom line that’s being affected, benefits are being felt company wide, from workforce satisfaction to eradication of mistakes and adherence to compliance.

Empowering the workforce

Emerging technologies such as workforce optimisation solutions enable ongoing, continuous improvement opportunities for individuals within an organisation, as well as the organisation itself.

By providing managers and leaders with visibility of employee performance at a granular level, skills gaps can be rectified and performance highlighted in both an efficient and effective manner. This ensures that employees are nurtured, frustrations are addressed and their skills are constantly enhanced. They also have more of an understanding about their contribution to the overall company goals.

Smarter working

Transforming business models from being cumulative, task owned, and paper-heavy, to a linear, end-to-end process of transactions and tasks, modelled, monitored and managed on the basis of ‘live’ data not only eradicates common mistakes, but it makes business processes smoother and leaner by improving efficiency through this automation.

Surely, with technological innovation high on the agenda, an infrastructure that enhances the customer journey, whilst making employees more skilled is the answer to eradicating archaic, sluggish and expensive governmental institutions.

Corporate Modelling

Corporate Modelling have a proven track record of working with some of the UK’s leading governmental and financial institutions to implement change, improve organisational performance and reduce company inefficiencies through their award-winning back office workforce optimisation solution OPX. For more information about how Corporate Modelling could improve your processes, please contact a member of the team on 0141 945 2168 or simply drop us an email.

We will be holding live demos of our award-winning, back office workforce optimisation tool, OPX at the Customer Planning and Strategy Forum on 24th and 25th April.

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Helpful sources:

Wired

IT Portal

Civil Service World