If We Can’t Embrace Each Other, Let’s Get On With Embracing The Cloud

Can the lessons learnt from this year be used as foundations to build a better, more digitised future?

Many public sector organisations are still, despite some pretty encouraging steps in the right direction, hugely reliant on legacy solutions and processes –  even though most are aware of the benefits digitisation can bring. Now that isn’t just an assumption, in UKCloud’s 2020 survey, 87% of participants agree that they’d move all of their IT systems to the cloud IF the perfect solution existed. But what does perfect even look like?

A lot of hesitation concerning cloud adoption of course stems from costs as sector organisations continue to balance increasing demands from the communities they serve with shrinking budgets. Concerns around security also remain. Data is a vital national asset and it’s right for businesses to want to keep that secure but this needn’t mean avoiding newer value-adding tools purely on the basis that they’re not fully understood. But attitudes are changing. For example, just a few years ago, it would’ve been unfathomable for some of the Police National Computer’s (PNC) workloads to take place in the cloud – they do now.

Progressive technology has been high on the agendas of organisations for some time – just look at the NHS. Outlining how it would improve itself over the next decade using technology at the heart of that effort, its ‘Long Term Plan’ was released in January 2019,  In the summer of that same year, the government’s healthtech unit NHSX was launched, responsible for driving digital transformation throughout the organisation. Yes, our health service was on a nice little timeline – and then COVID-19 arrived…

…and years of digital transformation took place inside just a few months.

Technology has spearheaded the NHS’s response to this pandemic; GP practices now conduct appointments remotely and almost every NHS trust has made it possible for both clinical and administrative staff to work from home by leveraging electronic patient records and communications tools such as Microsoft Teams – seemingly perfect solutions to what was previously deemed a huge undertaking, don’t you think?

The ramifications of COVID-19 will endure long after restrictions have been fully lifted and this will require even more adapting that needs to happen with the same momentum. Decentralised workforces will require further measures that enable them to deliver services securely from wherever they reside so cloud technology must be core to transformation within the sector.

And all that really takes is the embracing of it – because the so-called perfect solutions for reliable, secure communications platforms actually already exist.

Whether it’s improving constituent interactions or allowing users remote access across multiple sites for real-time collaboration using voice, video, IM, document sharing and more, Daisy’s OnlineUC Mitel solutions enables this all from a single, unified application. Built on the secure and trusted platform Google Cloud, it really is ideally placed to ensure your seamless transition to the cloud and a brighter future.

This article orginally featured in Public Sector Focus Magazine, Sept/October 2020

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