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Vicky is one of the creators of CLGdotTV, where she also produces and presents programmes. She has 25 years experience of delivering projects in and for public sector organisations including government departments, local authorities, the NHS, and professional associations. Much of her work has been around digitally-enabled innovation and improvement.

@vickysargent

Deprioritising tech may be the smart route to public service transformation

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Jason Kitcat (Essex CC) Richard Farrell of Netcall and Sleuth Co-op’s Hilary Simpson discuss how local authorities might overcome challenges of legacy systems, digital skill shortages and the persistence of old-style procurement.

As Director of Corporate Development, Jason is working for change by getting his Essex colleagues to focus on citizen outcomes and experience, using the tools of service and interaction design, ethnography, data and analytics, recognising there will be many different ways forward, not all of them involving 'IT'.

Richard, whose role at low-code platform provider Netcall includes thinking about the future of IT, says he spends a lot of time ‘filtering hype’ and agrees that tech should be subservient when it comes to change. The company is still getting asked to automate bad processes, and culture remains the biggest challenge.

Skill shortages are also a problem for public service organisations that cannot offer 24-year-old coders Macbooks, pizza and ‘beer o’clock’. But there are various solutions, including growing your own; making use of the ‘missing 50%’ of the IT/digital workforce (ie women); flexible contracting via the new digital frameworks; and using low-code to deliver customised applications created by business analysts rather than coders.

Procurement comes up again as an issue: why are legacy suppliers STILL getting the contracts? Nobody ever got fired for hiring the usual suspects still applies, apparently, although there is agreement that GCloud and the other new tech frameworks are becoming real game-changers.

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Netcall takes the pain out of big change projects, working with 1 in 4 councils to deliver better services for their citizens and within the NHS to help Trusts reduce DNAS by up to 40%, reduce postage costs for reminders by 50% and give patients choice over communication with their hospital.

We help 600 UK organisations across all sectors to radically improve customer experience through collaborative CX. As a leading provider of low-code, contact centre and omnichannel messaging solutions, we enable customer-facing and IT talent to collaborate. 

As described in the interview with Kate, our low-code allows you to make big changes fast – without creating work for IT, blowing the budget or replacing core systems. Prebuild applications are free to download bringing around 80% of standard process functionality. So, you don’t start from scratch. And, when you’re ready you’ll update and share unlimited services with other councils.

Now it’s your turn. Talk to us about your business case today 0330 363 0300 www.netcall.com

 

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