WIREDGOV

At techUK’s ‘Future Trends’ event we heard what the challenges and opportunities in the local government tech market are.

Last week, we held a lively panel discussion with Nadira Hussain, Head of ICT, London Borough of Enfield, Georgina O’Toole, Chief Analyst, TechMarketView and Terry Brewer, Local Government Association on what the latest trends, challenges and opportunities in the local #govtech market are.

Buying and Purchasing

There is a noticeable shift in how local government are buying and what they are purchasing. While business processes are still big drivers in local government, application services and infrastructure market are also seeing a reasonable growth.

The 3Ds and 3Bs

Data, digital, devolution continue to be drivers for change and doing things differently in local public service, as outlined by Georgina O’Toole at last year’s forecasting session. However, new macro-changes have impacted the pace of change and these include: Brexit, bodies and budgets. Suppliers are changing the way they operate, and the market are changing how they buy because of the 3B’s.

Meeting Rising Expectations

Nadira Hussain highlighted that in Enfield Council they are re-modelling and re-engineering their approach to match customer expectations on how they want to access public services. With the rapid pace of tech innovations an agile response to delivery is needed.

Moving to End-to-End Transformation

Local government are moving from fragmented to integrated services and using data analytics to better manage demand.

Tech as an Enabler

The common theme was that tech is the enabler in delivering public services differently, and breaking down the barriers to traditional public service reform. New technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, have the potential to transform outcomes, however, it is still a new and emerging market for the sector.

Procurement

Terry Brewer launched the Local Government Association’s National Technological and Digital Procurement Category Strategy at the event, which seeks to:

• assist and to promote value for money, economic growth, and wider digital service delivery, whilst adding social value from technology
• simplify and to harmonise the IT estate in local government, reducing cost and increasing the flexibility of technology
• streamline IT procurement processes. This will help to avoid ‘lock-in’ to particular contracts, suppliers or technologies that creates legacy barriers to digital developments in particular.

Terry highlighted that council procurement strategies should be put in front of elected members so it gets the scrutiny and attention it deserves. Furthermore, procurement should not be a blocker to transformation. Procurement teams should be involved much earlier on in the journey.

A key area of opportunity and where things can be done better at procurement level is social value, contract management and embedding cyber security in the process.

If you attended the event, let us know what you thought and continue the conversation @techUK and #techUKlocalgov