The Covid-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the need to ensure robust and accessible online services for citizens. With fewer face-to-face services available – and a need to minimize public health risks – digital services are now the default for many. As a result, the desire to accelerate digital delivery within local councils is gaining even greater pace.
Many local authorities have made great strides in ‘joining up’ the online experience for residents. However, the complexity of the starting point, including the sheer sprawl of solutions that most councils have, and the balance of day-to-day demands against longer-term transformation efforts often means that the journey can be both slow – and quite bumpy.
Councils also have to navigate the growing headache of how to square the desire for sustainable digital transformation with the current financial and demand challenges. Balancing ‘keeping the lights on’ and putting in place solutions that are fit for the future is not an easy task. Now more than ever, in-house teams are over-stretched and budgets are far beyond their limits.
Councils adopting a risk-based approach are now addressing their most critical risks and short-term opportunities, while putting in place the right foundations to ensure sustainable digital services in the longer term.
So, what are the five risks and solutions council leaders need to be aware of?
Limited optimization
Most council IT estates have evolved over time, and contain a mixture of enterprise capabilities, and a myriad of small scale applications that fit a specific need. Yet, too often we find that many councils are only using 70 percent of what their software is capable of. Knowing what you’ve got and what you could leverage is often the best and most cost-effective starting point for transformati ..
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