If public sector teams are going to push forward with digital innovation through the cost-of-living crisis, they need to focus on quick wins to boost efficiency
James Buckley, Head of Practice for Digital Transformation, Made Tech, explains how the public sector can achieve digital innovation: they must prioritise efficiency to improve services while keeping costs low.
Digital innovation in challenging times
We saw true digital innovation during the darkest days of the pandemic, and we experienced what can really be achieved when the guard rails are taken away. Since then, government and public sector organisations have continued to increase their IT spending, according to a report by Tussell. The NHS’s share of IT spending has also increased quickly since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic as both local trusts and NHS central bodies continue to invest in digital technologies heavily.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ Homes for Ukraine initiative and the recent tracker for the lying-in-state queue are examples of how the government continues to respond to international crises and one-off national events. These examples wonderfully demonstrate the public sector’s ability to deliver critical services supported by agile SMEs – in a world-leading timeframe.
But how do you change an organisation used to long delivery schedules into one that can react quickly in an ever-changing world? Transformation supports organisations struggling to deliver high-quality services in a short time frame into one ready to adapt.
When it comes to digital innovation, it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing approach
Now is the time to lean on nimble tech providers who can step in at any point in a transformation project to help deliver truly impactful change. When it comes to digital innovation, it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing approach. There’s a lifecycle where support can be provided at any point.
The digital delivery lifecycle
You may not need external help at every point in a digital transformation project. But it’s important to know that support is on hand right from the very start of defining your problems through to the live services that solve them. Let’s consider the main stages of a transformation project and the points where you may need support.
In the discovery stage, you explore problems and the approaches needed to solve them and prioritise where to start. This is about understanding the size of the problem and finding quick wins that build confidence. A useful example might be reviewing licensing agreements and contractual arrangements to remove inefficiencies and find potential cost savings.
Eventually, we reach the alpha stage, where prototypes are built, and solutions to the problems you learned about during discovery are tested. This could be several delivery streams working in parallel. For example, addressing legacy systems holding back innovation while upskilling staff in all things digital, data and technology.
Next up is beta minimum viable product (MVP) and live service. This is where you build the service with reduced features or audience – this method is used to reduce risk and build something fit for purpose. A method like this helps us prepare the ground and makes sure users are not affected as things transition over.
Once the service is live, you can continue learning and adapting to meet your users’ ever-changing needs. It’s important to build a culture of continuous improvement and feedback. Part of this is ensuring you have an efficient data feed to assess the service’s performance and improve customer standards. Continually building on capabilities and making the organisation a great place to work is crucial.
Designing for the future
Digital innovation and change can be risky, time-consuming and expensive. Replacing legacy systems, training team members and testing new solutions, all while keeping vital public services running, isn’t easy. But from unlocking new opportunities for better services to easing the shift to online for users, the need for transformation is really pressing, and the benefits are potentially huge.
Digital transformation can help us not only provide new and improved services but cut the costs of maintaining existing ones. Current monolithic IT contracts that don’t allow for flexibility need to be a thing of the past, and seemingly small adaptations can turn into significant wins which help push digitally-enabled change forward.
This piece was written and provided by James Buckley, Head of Practice for Digital Transformation, Made Tech
