Focusing of the fundamentals for growth.

In my previous article I touched on how integral it is for the public sector to embrace change and the opportunity technology proposes. I’d like to continue on this topic by saying, having been on the virtual event road again, attending the Virtual Government Technology Conference and hearing some of the presentations, it’s promising to see the strong focus towards improving our public sector offering and how we can push past the COVID-19 pandemic.

To take a step back and look at some of the work that has already been achieved, I wanted to, of-course focus on our beloved NHS and the work they tirelessly deliver day in day out. Many doctors and nurses have had to work remotely to provide effective care, especially to those patients who have been self-isolating, and technology such as Microsoft Teams has enabled an agile delivery of service. Caroline Dineage, the minister for digital and culture at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport mentioned that the UK tech sector has been a force for good during COVID-19 and this positive impact gives tech companies the motivation to continue to look towards what opportunities can be further developed.

It’s evident that companies are building in speed of delivery within their operations and this level of adaptability to the market is what is going to enable the public sector to deliver on demand services that are so readily available in other sectors. But where do you start? COVID-19 meant that some firms had to deploy new digital initiatives within in an incredibly short period of time but with that potentially the long-term vision was forgotten. I’ve broken the key fundamentals that I think the public sector can focus on towards building back a better society for us all in the long term.

·      People – How well we build back will be defined by the people embedded within these projects. Currently 67% of parliament is occupied by male leaders. We need to ensure that diversity across every spectrum is championed so that leadership across major governmental projects is fully representative of the UK population and that there is a level of transparency on these projects so that there is the ability to ideate and mitigate issues that occur.

·      React and act – Sustainability has been a growing concern for many years now and how we act now will essentially shape what life will be like in the years to come. The UK has earmarked 2050 to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero. Technology can play a major part in how we act but we must also consider how to manage these projects and financially the impact they will have on broader activities.

·      Measurement – We must get down to the detail of the value added. Today organizations have a wealth of data available to them but how we interpret this and understand how this is recorded to highlight wider economic benefits will be key.

To summarize, I think we have a unique opportunity to bounce back from COVID-19 but we must ensure that agility of operations is met with the long term vision we aspired to reach before the pandemic hit. Our upcoming webinar which focuses on the topic of digital transformation will tackle how organisations can best equip themselves to succeed in their digital transformation initiatives.