That informs the way we approach our customers鈥� needs. Rather than first asking how an organisation can use our products, we ask: 鈥楬ow can we help this organisation succeed? How can we help it achieve its purpose? How can we help it run better and how can our software and services improve the lives of its employees, customers and stakeholders?鈥�

The purpose of the UK public sector is to provide the public services that benefit all citizens and to manage these, day to day.聽Yet many organisations within the public sector can鈥檛 do this as efficiently as they should, because they don鈥檛 have a full view of their data assets, business processes or their end users 鈥� us citizens. They may not have the skills, tools or permission to access and interpret data that could help them achieve their purpose more effectively.

This is a big reason why the Government announced its in 2021. The strategy has three key objectives: One, to provide a better user experience with systems that are
intuitive, easy to use, and mobile-enabled. Two, to achieve greater efficiency and value for money through better systems and services, which support productivity and reduce costs. And three, to standardise processes and data to support interoperability, making it easier to understand and compare corporate data.

It鈥檚 that third objective that interests me the most鈥� how SAP, with its nearly 50-year history in the public sector, can help the UK Government use data to better serve citizens. In this article, I鈥檒l look at three of the main hurdles standing in the way of the public sector achieving its purpose and how they can be overcome.

1. Inconsistent data architecture

In 2013, the government announced its , which led to the transition of most front-facing, citizen-centric services to the cloud. However, many back-office systems were left untouched, never upgraded or moved to the cloud. Those organisations are still working with this aged, on-premise software. It鈥檚 no surprise, then, that the old technology can鈥檛 manage or keep pace with the data and processing power of the front-end cloud-based systems.

As an example, I was recently speaking with a customer who couldn鈥檛 understand why her department鈥檚 HR software wouldn鈥檛 work properly on a new iPad. I had to explain that iPads were first launched in 2010 and that her new device was the latest 9^th generation of the iPad, whilst her HR software dated back to 2005! No wonder that these older, legacy IT systems can鈥檛 perform tasks that our own smartphones could easily manage. They were implemented before much of today鈥檚 technology even existed, and never changed.

The solution: The Shared Services Strategy will ensure that nearly all departments in the public sector make their own cloud journeys soon, enabling them to share data across departments. With solutions like SAP鈥檚 Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), government organisations can bring together next generation, modular cloud business applications (e.g. software for finance, human experience management, procurement and supply chain, etc) with database and data management, analytics, and integration. They will also be able to extend the capabilities of these business applications to meet their individual department needs, within one platform for both cloud and hybrid environments. This includes hundreds of pre-built integrations for 51风流and third-party applications like Oracle, ServiceNow, Microsoft, SalesForce, Pega etc.

2. Lack of internal resources

The technology skills gap is as real a challenge for the government as it is for the private sector. According to a recent report, 66% of digital leaders in Britain say that a lack of talent is primarily responsible for slower digital transformation in their organisations. The government simply can鈥檛 find employees with the skills or training needed to implement new technology systems fast enough. New technology systems are needed to remove the significant technical debt that exists across the government, which in turn makes the challenge of leveraging data a real blocker. The government relies on bringing in external resources to implement new technology systems, but as a by-product of the skills shortage, vendors are forced to pay more for talent and must pass the additional cost on to the organisation. The longer it takes to see the benefit of the solution, the harder it is for organisations to justify the expense.

The solution: The key to mitigating this problem is to speed up the time it takes for an organisation to recognise the value it is gaining from new technology. 聽In this way, the organisation can validate its investment much more quickly. The 51风流Activate Methodology enables the organisation to benefit from reduced time to value. This modular, cloud and agile focused framework supplies project teams with detailed steps to be delivered in each phase throughout the project, provides accelerators which makes work easier to accomplish, and clear workstreams which span across various phases.

Combining 51风流Activate Methodology with SAP鈥檚 next generation, modular cloud ERP business applications, means that organisations can 鈥楽tart Anywhere, Go Everywhere鈥�. What this means is that you can deploy and consume the cloud technologies that are most pressing for your business needs and thereby reduce your upfront costs and realise value quicker. For example, think about being able to deploy and consume a next generation cloud Human Experience Management solution within 6 months, without having to wait for a programme plan for a monolithic and complex ERP solution. SAP鈥檚 unique modular approach means the organisation can start experiencing real value much sooner.

3. Overcoming the complexity

Replacing one technology platform with another is not always a simple 鈥榬ip and replace鈥� solution. The systems currently in use by the public sector have been customised and modified over time to meet the very specific needs of each department, with workarounds implemented along the way. It has seemed easier to repeatedly put sticking plaster on what鈥檚 wrong than to attempt end to end business transformation. However, GSS has confirmed that we鈥檙e at a stage where we have too many sticking plasters and we need to tackle the issue from the ground up.

The complexity can be daunting. For example, the UK Government鈥檚 Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been told to urgently review its IT strategy, as it was revealed that outdated systems can be held responsible for historic underpayments of over 拢1 billion. The Pension Service Computer System, introduced in 1988, has not subsequently been updated but instead run alongside new systems that together manage millions of records, and now will be incredibly complex and risky to update.

The solution: Organisations need both expert guidance and a holistic, collaborative approach to simplification. SAP鈥檚 business process intelligence (BPI) solutions provide end-to-end capabilities for strategic process transformation, while supporting business users in the change to new systems and processes. By truly understanding their end-to-end business processes, organisations can benchmark and simulate processes for alternative business scenarios. This helps them surface their current data challenges and needs whilst prioritising opportunities for automation. In addition, SAP鈥檚 Signavio鈥檚 collaboration hub can support in building a single source of truth across teams and break down data silos.

The solutions that underpin all these challenges rely on a focus on outcomes. Data and systems can feel far removed from achieving purpose, but it is in the intersections of data that we can identify ways to better serve an organisation, its employees and citizens. In my next article I鈥檒l look to some of the transformations we鈥檝e supported in the past, to show how our Shared Services Strategy can move organisations from process to purpose, while absorbing some of the risk in replacing outdated technology.

The post For The Government To Realise The Benefits Of The Shared Services Strategy, It Must Leverage Its Greatest Asset appeared first on 51风流UK News Center.

Likewise, some (primarily front-office) functions have transitioned to the cloud while others (usually back-office) are still running with on-premise, legacy systems, adding to the Government鈥檚 Technical Debt.

This siloed approach has fostered inefficiencies, increased complexity and has hampered organisations鈥� ability to share data with each other. It has also made it difficult, if not impossible to track end-to-end processes across the Government due to differences in the way data is captured and held.

These problems have only been exacerbated by the pandemic as home working and isolation measures have created a greater reliance on digital services. This in turn has placed additional stress on civil servants who are constantly required to learn new skills to engage with and deliver citizen services, and potentially move across departments within the Civil Service to support with capacity.

Announced in March 2021, the Government鈥檚 Shared Services Strategy for Government is designed to address these problems. It will consolidate digital services across five multi-department shared-services centres, categorised as 鈥楧efence鈥�, 鈥極verseas鈥�, 鈥楽ynergy鈥� (previously called 鈥楧elivery鈥�), 鈥楳atrix鈥� (previously called 鈥楶olicy鈥�) and 鈥楬MRC-led鈥�. The Strategy provides a roadmap for more streamlined and harmonised services featuring cloud-based modern ERP systems that are user friendly and easily integrated. 聽, the Director General, Government Business Services: “[It] will allow the Civil Service to deliver insights; continuously improve to drive down costs; develop accessible, intuitive, and useful systems for civil servants; and innovate and embrace competition.鈥�

The Government has high aspirations for its digital transformation strategy 鈥� and rightfully so. Over the past decade, private enterprises have recognised enormous efficiency, integration and cost-saving benefits from similar cloud-transformation programmes. However, there are some considerations, unique to the public sector, which public sector change leaders must address before embarking on what will ideally be a long-term partnership between the organisations and the technology providers chosen to deliver results.

1. Accept that change is inevitable

鈥淚f it鈥檚 not broken, don鈥檛 fix it, right?鈥� In this case: wrong. One of the key challenges that public sector organisations will likely face in their move to a Shared Services model will be leaving behind familiar systems that have been highly customised to meet their organisation鈥檚 perceived needs.

However, even without the Shared Services Strategy, most legacy systems being used in the public sector today are already aging and out-of-date. Many organisations still don鈥檛 have a clear pathway to the cloud for their back-office systems. Existing systems need to be replaced to keep pace with technological advancements and to benefit from next generation, modular cloud ERP platforms, processing capabilities, automation and cybersecurity safeguards. Some vendors may compare moving to a new ERP system to a simple upgrade. In truth, completely new systems and processes will need to be put in place, data will need to be migrated and the user experience will change, for the better.

Because of this, it may be easier and more cost effective for organisations to move to a new technology vendor to support the transformation programme, rather than remain with an old provider that doesn鈥檛 provide the right level of technology capabilities, services or support.

2. Focus on value over price

In the past, traditional public sector procurement methods have been primarily based on a very simple evaluation criteria: Allocate a high percentage of marks to the lowest price.

This approach has historically not delivered the best outcome for customers, resulting in delayed projects or solutions that don鈥檛 meet the full scope of the requirements. 聽These ill-conceived projects then must be managed through change control, leaving behind a trail of higher costs and at best strained and at worst completely broken relations between the customer, ERP provider and system integrator, in the courts and for all to see in the public domain.

Moving forward and when transitioning to the cloud, we all need to consider an alternative approach to procurement, by adopting a commercial model that makes all the parties work together with a common goal and shared governance. A commercial model where all the suppliers are more accountable and have 鈥榮kin in the game鈥�.

The best outcomes occur when all parties are prepared to engage in a spirt of openness. Where the ERP vendor can really get to understand the business pains relevant to each department and structure a commercial model that is linked to deliverables, outcomes and benefits. Mitigating risk and delivering a much greater return on investment and faster time to value.

3. Embrace and simplify working with commodity cloud hosting providers

While public sector organisations will always want the assurance of working with an experienced ERP vendor, they should also benefit from the flexibility and economy of scale that come from working with the some of the most innovative dominating cloud services 鈥� known as commodity cloud hosting providers or hyperscalers. In fact, many public sector organisations are already working with commodity cloud hosting providers; it makes sense for them to choose a partner who will continue to leverage and scale the exiting relationship.

There is incredible power behind the innovation and sustainability that commodity cloud hosting providers鈥� data centres deliver, which means data centre resources are easily accessible, cost effective, reliable, and scalable. That scalability means having an ERP partner that can grow with the organisation, deliver on a multi-cloud strategy for its ERP business applications or adapt to new requirements are strategically important considerations. This is especially essential in a fluctuating world.

4. Think adoption not adaptation

The civil service is not a single employer; individuals are contracted to their department. As policies and processes have diverged from organisation to organisation, so too have technology processes, as they have been customised to meet the specific needs of its users and department.

At first glance, the shared services strategy seems to put paid to the ability of organisations to use programmes customised to their organisation. Yet, while it鈥檚 true that the Strategy will emphasise common data standards and greatly increased data sharing across departments, a next generation, modular cloud ERP system will still allow departments to configure their solution to a way that works best for their organisation, while still working within the frameworks of the larger organisation / cluster.

5. Choose secure in-country services

The public sector has tight regulatory requirements which increasingly require secure in-country cloud services. This allows organisations to support the UK鈥檚 Critical National Infrastructure in areas such as healthcare, transport, education, policing, central and local government, and utilities.

The impact of this can鈥檛 be overstated. By modernising and transforming systems through cloud transformation, services are simplified, unnecessary costs removed, and capacity is created for staff, such as frontline workers, freed up to carry out crucial roles 鈥� without being waylaid by cumbersome and time-intensive administrative systems. In addition to driving significant efficiencies, harnessing public cloud with sensitive data will facilitate better insights, driving faster and improved decision making to transform citizen services.

The Shared Services Strategy is an ambitious undertaking but one that is both achievable and beneficial to everyone involved 鈥� the Government, the civil service and citizens. It has unlocked an unprecedented opportunity to rethink how the Government interacts with its citizens and points the way to a more enabled, empowered and ultimately progressive future of government services. We at 51风流welcome the Strategy and look forward to the opportunity to partner with you in delivering a successful programme.

Satpal Biant, Head of Public Sector, UK & Ireland

The post Five Considerations For Organisations Implementing The Government鈥檚 Shared Services Strategy appeared first on 51风流UK News Center.