Times are tough for local authorities: tight budgets mean that it's difficult to invest in keeping up to date with IT infrastructure, yet they are under pressure to embrace digital for the delivery of services and engagement of constituents.
This pressure on local authorities to 'go digital' comes in many forms. For example, the government's UK Digital Inclusion Charter, launched last year, sets the bar high for public and private sector organisations alike. Its commitment is to cut the number of UK citizens who are still offline by 25% come 2016, then by a further 25% every two years until all are connected.
In a related policy paper, Government Digital Inclusion Strategy, MP Francis Maude outlined the scale of the challenge: "Recent research published by the BBC has found that 21% of Britain's population lack the basic digital skills and capabilities required to realise the benefits of the internet."
Yet, the potential economic and social benefits of digital inclusion are also great. As Maude says: "Independent analysts Booz and Co. estimate full digital take up could add £63 billion value to the UK economy." The paper goes on to estimate that £1.2 billion of taxpayers' money could be saved by spring of this year by making government services "digital by default".
At the other end of the digital user spectrum, local authorities are feeling pressure – or at least demand – from tech-savvy constituents.
To get a better understanding of this demand, we partnered with Ingenium to survey 140 UK-based IT decision-makers from local government authorities about the delivery of services and barriers to adoption of new technologies. The most interesting finding was that 84% of IT leaders are seeing growing demand among citizens for digital services such as mobile apps, and 88% believe that their organisation needs to become a 'digital business' to better engage service users.
The explosive growth in the use of smartphones and other connected devices, especially amongst younger generations, means that more people expect to engage organisations through digital channels first and foremost, so local authorities need to adapt accordingly.
However, despite good intentions, the reality is that legacy infrastructure and falling budgets mean it's difficult for local authorities to fulfil their digital vision.
Overcoming barriers to digital growth
Our study confirms that the top technology challenge for local authorities is delivering required results with tighter budget constraints. Over one third of those who answered (34%) said this was the biggest IT challenge facing their organisation. This was followed by the problem of delivering digital services with legacy IT systems (29%) and lack of appropriate resources to deliver (20%).
These resource and technological issues align closely with key barriers to engaging with service users. The most common hurdle amongst all respondents is legacy systems that are hard to integrate into a more modern infrastructure (43%), followed by the lack of funding to provide additional services (38%).
Despite such challenges, our research indicates that progressive IT leaders within local government are forging ahead as best they can to realise their vision. Nearly three quarters (74%) of respondents have a strategy concerning the implementation of new technologies, and almost two-thirds (63%) are confident or very confident about the ability of their department to deliver significant IT-led innovation in their organisation.
The tools for success
When asked about the types of technologies that local authorities require to develop the organisation, e-transactions (52%), wireless networking (49%), business intelligence tools (42%), and core IT infrastructure, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tools (41%), were ranked highest. The past 12 months paint a similar picture of local authorities laying the foundations for innovation and greater efficiency. Almost half of organisations (45%) have already invested in wireless networking, 30% have focused on e-transactions and 26% have prioritised core IT infrastructure.
Improving negative perception
Interestingly, the majority (83%) of IT leaders surveyed believe they need to build more trust with users of their services, pointing to a number of digital services to achieve this. The largest proportion hope to build trust through better engagement via social media (83%), while 75% would like a standard online payment service and 63% say that mobile apps for council services would help. Four in five (80%) also believe that crowdsourcing might help deliver better services, highlighting how UK local governments are trying to overcome the problem of poor funding creatively.
A number of councils are leading the way with their use of social media and mobile apps to drive engagement, build trust and save money:
- Southampton City Council was recently praised for its use of social media to help cut £1.3 million from its £13 million waste bill. It also has an app that encourages recycling
- Westminster City Council's award winning ParkRight app and parking bay sensors provide drivers with, among other things, real-time information about available parking spaces and the ability to make e-transactions
- Birmingham City Council offers residents an app with comprehensive services, spanning council job vacancies, school term dates, pothole reporting, and contact details of councillors
- Chesterfield Borough Council offers residents a smartphone app that allows them to access housing services, such as repairs, rent reminders, a living cost calculator and other news and events
- Salford City Council provides a similar app that includes details on recycling and bin collection days and updates on council jobs
A wireless approach
Wireless networks are a means to address many of the barriers and challenges outlined above, while also being an enabler for e-transactions and engagement via mobile apps and social media. Moreover, they're seen as a key tool for innovation in general and boosting collaboration in particular. Almost three quarters (74% of those who answered) would like to see a high-quality, secure wireless network to improve collaboration within their organisation and with service users in general.
It's also a complementary technology that can help integrate legacy IT – a major challenge for local authorities. It can plug into existing infrastructure to create a secure extension of the current network. This can be rolled out within an organisation and extended to other locations in the local authority's jurisdiction.
Returning to the Government Digital Inclusion Strategy, going digital is asserted as a way to save budget. This is because digital self-service eliminates much of the administrative burden imposed by traditionally labour-intensive manual processes. In this context, wireless networks make good business sense.
The aim for smarter public services
The proliferation of mobile devices means we continue to see mass demand for Wi-Fi everywhere, whether it be civil servants capturing information on iPads in the office or school pupils using e-readers in the local library. It's absolutely vital that local authorities adapt their technologies to keep up with the pace of change that is taking place within the wider marketplace.
With the potential economic and social benefits so great, high performance wireless networks in particular are proving to be an ideal way to provide ready access to services and help organisations become "digital by default". This will ultimately support the government's ambitious targets for its Digital Inclusion Strategy by fostering greater collaboration between government organisations and their service users.
- Duncan Fisken is EMEA Vice President at Xirrus
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