New Normal impacts public sector

​

Public Sector information management processes come under the spotlight in the latest report by enterprise content management and process automation specialist, SynApps Solutions (www.synapps-solutions.com).

The report, ‘Information in Transition: Smarter Working in the new Normal’ (https://bit.ly/36vJ2mD)’ reveals the impact of Covid-19 on smart workforce collaboration, records integration, and data processing in the public service.  Each day, 18% of respondents say they need to log into 20 or more systems, whilst 26% say their information search facility is ‘not at all intuitive’, and a further 35% feel they ‘lack the right tools to find information efficiently’.

Disjointed legacy systems continues to burden the sector, and some public sector workers are still using paper-based systems in parts of their operations, making flexible, remote working a stretch goal for many organizations.  As the public sector transitions to delivering services in a ‘new normal’ that will almost certainly feature an increase in smarter working, the report shows organizations must enable easy access to critical information wherever employees happen to be working.

“In a data-led public sector, the speed and efficiency with which employees can access information is absolutely critical to performance and quality of service,” explains James Paton, CEO of SynApps Solutions.  “Almost three quarters of those who responded (73%), cited the use of multiple systems across their organization as the single biggest reason they found it difficult to access information.  In fact, 38% of respondents said they had log into 16 or more information systems in the course of a working day which contributes hugely to service delays and performance issues.”

Perhaps the most surprising fact to emerge from the survey results is the fact that 60% of respondents rely on paper records to some extent.  Encouragingly, however, 71% of respondents said they convert paper records into digital files, for example by scanning or using OCR technology.

“An Enterprise Content Management solution that automates document management and streamlines information retrieval from a structured repository brings enormous cost and efficiency benefits,” adds Paton.  “As workplaces become more dynamic and adaptive, the need for digital operations supporting collaboration at distance becomes more and more important.  In the same way, platforms that aggregate quickly and efficiently wherever it’s required are a prerequisite for effective business process management.”