Councils are feeling the heat. The national political agenda is dominated by major economic challenges, from high energy costs, demands for pay rises from workers, and the need to provide services for an aging and financially stressed population. And the cybersecurity risk is real.
Given this context, we can see why local government might be reluctant to invest significant amounts of money to modernise and transform their IT systems. But it is clear councils cannot continue operating as is. Many are run on ageing systems no longer fit for purpose, information is siloed, which brings about huge internal and external inefficiencies and for hackers, local governments are seen as easy targets that lack the resources to defend themselves against routine cyberattacks, bringing in unacceptable risk.
And while many in local government recognise the need to address these issues, some councils might feel there are more pressing demands for limited budgets than spending on new IT systems.
The local government leaders we speak with at TechnologyOne – whether unitary, county, district or combined authorities – all know they must find ways to do more with even less, and fast. They are keenly aware there is no room for error on IT investment or on the growing issue of cybersecurity. Digital transformation isn't something that can be put off, it is in fact the key to the conundrum.
The Government's digital strategy estimates that an impressive £1 billion in annual savings could be achieved by replacing legacy IT systems, and by switching to digitally transformative cloud-based services, within central government.
While digital transformation was well under way in UK councils before the arrival of COVID-19, the pandemic has greatly accelerated the pace. And the cost savings are just one side of it. More effective flows of data, which joined-up Software-as-a-Service enterprise resource planning systems enable, can also help councils drive intelligent digital services and improved decisions on investment. The greater protection against cyberattacks that modern IT systems gives is a welcome additional benefit for local authorities, who can't afford to see their system brought down by hackers.
At TechnologyOne, our new Solution-as-a-Service offering (also known as SaaS+), sees us charge a flat, single yearly fee to implement, run and support the software. This means local government can avoid the high initial outlay that usually comes with an ERP implementation. SaaS+ also dramatically decreases the implementation time of the core solution, which helps improve time to value.
As councils are feeling the pressure from every angle, digital transformation needs to be in their arsenal to help them cope with inflation, population shifts and support residents through the cost of living crisis all the while heightening protection for cybersecurity risks.
Digital transformation is one of the topics that will be explored with local government leaders in London on Thursday 27 April 2023, at Showcase, an industry-lead conference hosted by local government software provider TechnologyOne. The event will explore emerging trends and challenges in local government with international experts and some of the UK's preeminent thought leaders, including including Professor Tony Travers, from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
TechnologyOne is a global Software as a Service (SaaS) company. Founded in Australia, we have offices across six countries. Our enterprise SaaS solution transforms business and makes life simple for our customers by providing powerful, deeply integrated enterprise software that is incredibly easy to use. Over 1,200 leading corporations, government departments and statutory authorities are powered by our software. We take complete responsibility to market, sell, implement, support and run our solutions for our customers, which reduce time, cost and risk.
To register for the event, visit TechnologyOne Showcase.
Leo Hanna is UK executive vice president at TechnologyOne
This article is sponsored content for The MJ
