A read of any council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) document will reveal the drive to digital as a core focus. ‘Digital transformation’ is a commonly used phrase within the private and public sector, but what does it really mean to local government and other public sector organisations?
Is ‘digital transformation’ a confusing term for the sector?
In very simple terms, digital transformation can be summarised as “the adoption of digital technologies to improve processes, reduce costs, manage risk and deliver an improved citizen experience”.
The word transformation is not especially helpful. It suggests the necessity for sweeping and total change. The truth is that transformation can occur gradually, in small steps, with each ‘win’ providing the proof-point to convince decision-makers within organisations to green-light further digital plans.
Some councils and public sector bodies are more advanced along the digital transformation path than others. But every public sector organisation will recognise the operational and efficiency challenges presented by inflexible and outdated processes that are heavily reliant on manual intervention.
What are the drivers for digital transformation?
The sector is really facing a perfect storm of challenges. Budgetary pressures are severe at a time when citizen expectations in terms of service and interaction have never been higher. Add to this the complication of hybrid working and dispersed teams and it quickly becomes clear that legacy processes are poorly equipped to cope.
Digital transformation can present citizens with choice over how to respond or sign-up or complain, easing the burden on internal teams and expediting vital functions such as payments and collections. Digital transformation is also empowering today’s hybrid working world, enabling authorised remote workers to edit and share and issue documents from wherever they’re working.
The bigger picture is greater efficiency and cost-savings through the reduction of manual, paper-based processes.
What do ‘small steps’ look like? Where might organisations realise immediate wins?
Adare SEC works with organisations to understand current processes and identify obvious and achievable pathways to digital progress. This is not about simply transferring existing paper-based services onto a computer screen - a broken process is a broken process. It’s about designing new and better approaches that place internal efficiencies and citizen outcomes at the core.
One recent example involved digitising incoming mail for a housing association. Previously, this work had been done by one person in a mailroom using a multi-functional device, with the resulting scanned documents then emailed onwards for continued processing. This was clearly a hugely time-consuming process with no reliable audit trail. Today, all mail is routed to Adare SEC for high volume scanning and is then auto-routed to the intended recipient. Digitised mail is ingested into a web-based portal, offering secure access for authenticated users to view inbound mail from anywhere - whether onsite or remotely. The portal effectively provides a real-time overview of a customer's entire communication history.
The basic premise of this transformation is not particularly complex. But the efficiency and security gains for the organisation concerned are significant.
How does digital transformation dovetail with the sector’s sustainability agenda?
There is a clear disconnect within the sector between the legacy onsite print production model and stated environmental ambitions. Onsite print happens in two ways - via a network of tens or even hundreds of departmental desktop devices and, in several organisations, via a dedicated in-house print room stocked with equipment capable of higher print speeds and volumes.
This set-up is power-hungry and inefficient in terms of sustainable use of floor-space, not to mention the impact of deliveries to and from the site.
Use of transformation solutions such as hybrid mail enables this bulk print to be directed for processing offsite via a high-volume, highly efficient set-up. Messages can be printed and posted or sent via text or email to recipients. Whole fleets of in-house, power-hungry departmental multi-function devices can be eliminated and replaced with offsite, multi-channel hybrid mail efficiency.
How is Adare SEC able to assist with public sector digital transformation ambitions?
We work with over 100 councils in the UK along with a host of other sector organisations, helping to drive greater efficiency and choice within citizen communication strategies. We have an expert team coupled with a suite of transformation tools, meaning digital opportunities can be identified, scoped and implemented in as little as eight weeks. This is what we mean by ‘small steps’ – change can happen quickly, without disruption, leading to significant operational efficiencies and bottom-line savings.
