Unless a citizen is particularly vulnerable, they often won’t interact with a public sector body until a fundamental checkpoint – therefore it’s important to strike a balance in interaction with the citizen so that they are informed and aware, without interrupting their daily lives too significantly. at the same time, changing demographics are impacting the expectations of citizens – today’s population demands greater multi-channel, multi-lingual interactions.

To deliver such services, public sector workers perform a variety of functions as they engage with and serve the public. In order to provide the best value and quality of service for their local or national communities, however, they need a system that supports them whether it be greater access to tools for a social or care worker making home visits or local police using social media to inform the public about sudden road closures.

As technology transforms the world around us, new opportunities are changing the way public services are delivered, and the way individuals interact with different public sector organisations. This ‘Digital Transformation’ promises to enable organisations to engage their citizens, empower employees, optimise operations and transform their services in new and powerful ways. At Microsoft, we believe the best way to keep pace with this transformational change is to use transformational technology.

Perhaps the most fundamental area of transformation for public sector organisations is empowering employees – and therefore ensuring the flow and availability of information when and where it is needed, so that they can deliver better quality and more targeted services to their citizens.

With many government employees operating in the field, access to data is a key component of empowering them to better serve the public while moving between locations and communicating with other workers, departments or organisations. Ensuring that they have appropriate devices addresses one side of this challenge, but the availability of suitable platforms and tools to empower overall organisational efficiency, increase team collaboration and productivity, are essential in delivering services more effectively.

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the next generation of intelligent business applications that enable organisations to grow, evolve and transform. These applications unify CRM and ERP capabilities by delivering new purpose-built applications that work seamlessly together to help manage specific business functions across Customer Service, Operations, Financials, Field Service, Project Service Automation, Marketing, and Customer/Citizen Insights.

Combining everyday productivity tools found within Office 365, with advanced analytics and BI, IoT, and the strength and security of Azure, public sector organisations can harness the full power of Microsoft through Dynamics 365 to better collaborate with each other and offer an improved service to their citizens. Bring into the equation add-ons like Bots and Citizen Portals integrated with Dynamics 365 and a public sector organisation has the tools to deliver relevant services to the modern citizen.

However, each organisation has its own subtle differences and nuances and getting started with Dynamics 365 can mean significant shifts in processes and ways of working. Therefore, there needs to be a considered approach taken to the new technology is adopted and used – Adoption and Change Management. Being clear on what is possible, what you are looking to achieve, and how individuals within your organisation can be empowered to use these tools are crucial factors in the success of any investment.

To help you get the most out of Dynamics 365, join our webinar run by Microsoft Services, all about Appreciating the Role of Change Management in Dynamics 365. Here we’ll give you insights into how you can ensure employee adoption of the new ways of working and embed continuous improvement into business as usual.

Watch on-demand: The role of Change Management in Dynamics 365

See what happened at Innovation Nation the Dynamics 365 first look event

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Across the public sector, technology has helped transformation with organisations continually finding new ways to innovate and deliver their services to the general public.

Policing and public safety, in particular, is one area where technology has helped drive greater innovation in the field.

In our recent ‘Fighting Crime with Technology’ series we have explored some of the ways in which digital transformation and innovation has empowered individuals and organisations to improve operational efficiencies in various aspects of policing and the judicial process. This can be anything from the logging of digital evidence by first responders, to live video courtroom testimonies, right through to the electronic tagging of offenders on supervised release.

And now the introduction of a new generation of apps built on the Microsoft Cloud is empowering front line workers – and as a result the broader organisations they function within – to operate more efficiently with tightly controlled resources.

In October we will be co-hosting two events with Microsoft partner Black Marble, who specialise in custom development and consultancy services across the Microsoft platform, and who were recently announced as winners of the 2016 Microsoft Partner of the Year for Developer Platform Award.

The sessions will invite attendees to join the discussion around transforming policing by mobilising to meet 21st century challenges. Forming an integral part of the Black Marble offering in policing and featuring at the events is tuServ – the mobile policing platform and app currently being used by a number of UK constabularies. Below we shall take a closer look at this application, and explore some of the operational benefits currently being enjoyed by forces.

What is tuServ?

Utilising the power of the Microsoft Cloud, tuServ is a mobile application that was built to enable officers to access all relevant data systems from a single point, removing a dependency on paper-based systems. Running on both mobile phones and tablet computers, officers can be equipped with the most appropriate device without sacrificing functionality.

The product is a fully convergent and integrated solution capable of satisfying organisational requirements. With a solid infrastructure, tuServ will automate many procedures and link business processes to further reduce the need for duplication.

How do police forces use tuServ?

With tuServ an officer has access to all the information in one go, accessing numerous databases instantaneously. This includes PNC, intelligence, crimes reported, any Stop & Search on an individual and any custody information – all in the field, at an officer’s fingertips. tuServ provides a much richer picture and delivers insights faster than existing systems are able to. With better access to more comprehensive information, in a more effective, cost efficient manner, officers are able to be of better service to the public.

Keeping pace with available technologies, tuServ is now fully available on the Windows 10 platform, or the Universal Windows Platform, which for the development team means one codebase, deployed across whichever device the force chooses.

What this means for the police forces themselves, is that officers on a phone have the same experience as an officer on a tablet, and never get left behind in the release cycle. This leaves the mobility choice firmly with the force, putting their own needs first.  Plus, tuServ is making extensive use of other novel features available across the UWP, adding Cortana integration and cognitive services (translation, and facial recognition). Furthermore, with full Continuum integration an officer’s station is anywhere there’s a screen and keyboard.

Transforming Policing: Mobilising to meet 21st Century Challenges

If you are interested in looking at how digital transformation will enable forces to meet the challenges of 21st century policing, then join us at either of the events in October. These sessions will include workshop style demonstrations of the latest in apps and hardware available from Black Marble tuServ, and will present attendees with an opportunity to speak with representatives from both organisations.

Click here for more information and to register for the event nearest to you
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Now imagine that this is possible today. This is not a prescient fantasy . This is the next generation offender tracking, powered by the Microsoft Internet of Things. And it is here.

Real-time interventions, preventative actions and retrospective provision of evidence are just some of the ways in which the next generation of offender tracking technology is allowing for real transformation around offender rehabilitation and public safety.

Since the advent of electronic offender management (EOM) in  the 1980s, relatively little  has changed in terms of the technology that police forces and rehabilitators use to monitor individuals upon their supervised release from prison.

However, the pace of advancement in the field of available and suitable technology has opened up a wide range of possibilities. Furthermore, with the government recently announcing that it is backing a number of police forces areas to pilot the satellite tracking of offenders using GPS tagging, this is an area primed and ready for digital transformation.

Shaping the next generation of offender tracking

Last month, Microsoft brought together two technology partners  leading the field of EOM – MITASS, who focus on wearable tracking devices, and Minttulip, who specialise in  the creation of apps and action surfaces that bring data insights to life. Joining them were representatives from the Home Office, MOJ, and a number of different police forces and rehabilitation organisations.

The purpose of the day was to update attendees on the currently (and soon to be) available technology, and to facilitate discussions around how through working with police forces and correctional institutions, the next generation of offender tracking can be shaped and delivered.

Providing background and research statistics on previous work around EOM and the impact this has had on recidivism and crime rates was Chris Miller, former lead for electronic monitoring with the Association of Chief Police Officers. Some of the most compelling insights he offered were around the number of crimes an offender will commit before they are eventually caught . On average, a criminal will have perpetrated between five and 10 crimes before they are apprehended and convicted.

With GPS tracking enabling a solution that offers certainty and speed of detection, this is just one area where public safety and the efficacy of law enforcement can improve by stopping sprees from occurring, and behavioural correction and rehabilitation can become more successful.

Another significant figure he shared was around the comparative costs of imprisonment versus monitored release. The average cost of custody per year across all offenders is estimated to be around £36,000. However, when using EOM to monitor an offender on release, this cost comes down to between £3,000-£6,000 per annum.

Delving into the more technical material, John Bryan from MITASS explored the current capabilities of GPS tagging devices, as well as looking forward to what is looming closely on the horizon. Microsoft’s Simon Francis then shed some light on the latest innovations around the Internet of Things, providing real-life examples of how other industries are identifying collectible data, and using that data to drive decisions that are improving business outcomes and efficiencies.

Bringing things back into the context of the day, a live demo of Minttulip’s Offender Tracking Dashboard gave an example of just how easy it is to set parameters and alerts – in this case a GeoFence – with Robert Mossop showing how bringing devices together with the Microsoft platform to make an intelligent fit, and creating the right interface to get things done, is well within the grasp of anyone involved with electronic offender management.

Key takeaways of the day

Following the presentations, the floor was opened up for questions and discussion. With a number of different organisations and functions represented, the specific requirements and questions were quite varied. However, two key themes stood out:

Modernisation: There was a clear enthusiasm for change among those who joined us on the day. Those responsible for integrated offender management can see their approach to electronic tagging being transformed by the Internet of Things and the subsequent use of the different types of data it can yield:

“Looking at various methods of offender management, it’s clear there are more innovative ways of early intervention to prevent re-offending.”

Interoperability and versatility: Owing to the broad spectrum of offenders and the varying severity of their previous convictions, flexibility of data use is essential. The restrictions and alert criteria will therefore need to be calibrated for different individuals and categories of supervision, meaning that the malleability of the system chosen to process and present the data is key in allowing any necessary interventions to be made appropriately and in a timely manner, based on contextual information.

What the platform provided by the Microsoft Internet of Things and offerings from our technology partners provides offender managers and rehabilitators with, is an open canvas to catalyse their transformation in this area of public service, and empowers them to reinvent their own operational possibilities:

“[we’d like to explore] …proximity based alert systems for use in stalking cases – keeping the victim safe by allowing them to know when their stalker is nearby… a notification to the victim to immediately safeguard themselves, and to police if [a monitored individual is] breaking a restraining order.”

The emphasis placed on different datasets – both from the tracked individual and from other sources – being interoperable was at the forefront of most minds, with another attendee describing the live demo by Minttulip as showing “more agile ways of working”.

Start your organisation’s transformation

Police forces and offender rehabilitation organisations are encouraged to begin working on their own Proof of Concept with Minttulip, in order to establish the appropriate collection, use and presentation of available data to fit their own purposes. To find out more and to start planning your next steps, please email Lisa Meeds at Minttulip, or telephone 01494 618 567.

Contact Minttulip

If you’d like to learn more about what was covered on the day, click here to download the presentation slides:

Download Slides

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The next stage of this process is offender rehabilitation, and one where the use of technology is beginning to accelerate and transform certain areas of operation.

As part of the planned prison system shake-up detailed in last month’s Queen’s Speech, the government announced that it plans to allow eight police forces to pilot satellite tracking of offenders using GPS tagging. As part of the pilot, offenders are given a tag that is used to track and monitor their location and movements. By uploading that data into a databases, police forces will then be able to compare an offender’s movements to any recorded crime data and so any co-location to a crime event could be identified.

Last year, research conducted by Policy Exchange into the ‘Future of Corrections‘ found that 58% of the public, and an overwhelming majority of frontline police and probation officers, would support the “comparison of the movements of offenders against crimes reported to police”.

Aside from key operational improvements this could yield for police forces, tracking offenders this way could have significant cost savings across the correctional and rehabilitative system. For example, it costs the UK taxpayer an estimated £26,645 a year to keep someone detained in prison, while estimates for monitoring an offender with an electronic tag over the same period ranges between £3000-£6,000.

From a budgetary standpoint it is clear that allowing offenders to serve at least part of their sentence outside of prison could  alleviate some of the financial burden weighing down an industry that is in need of reform.

But how can this be applied across the UK? And what are the other benefits?

The type, portability and availability of data from a new wave of discreet, offender-worn GPS tracking devices is empowering police forces, rehabilitation organisations, and most importantly the individuals themselves to be part of a system that is much more geared toward preventing recidivism and further disruption to the public, or the perpetuation of disorderly behaviour.

The Next Generation of Offender Tracking – June 28th, Microsoft Paddington

MintTulip and MITASS have partnered to develop the Next Generation of Offender Tracking solutions built on the Microsoft Azure IoT suite, and we invite you to join them at our London Paddington offices on June 28th to discuss the future of offender tracking.

Open to those involved in offender rehabilitation, ranging from MOJ policy makers and Prison Governors to police officers responsible for Integrated Offender Management, the event will offer insight into modern integrated offender management technologies, and provide attendees with a fantastic opportunity to help shape the delivery of the next generation offender tracking solution.

Microsoft’s Simon Francis will also be lifting the lid on the transformative power of the Internet of Things, covering the IoT market and where we see possibilities for business; how we deliver IoT through our various technologies; examples of where the IoT is already delivering benefit to customers; and what next steps organisations need to take to engage with us.

For further event information including a full agenda and registration details, please click below.

Register for The Next Generation of Offender Tracking – June 28th

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Given the huge variation in existing infrastructure, geographic location, surrounding topography, and population demographics, its hard to tackle this issue from a one size fits all mind set. What works for brand new cities being built quite literally from the ground up in Asia might not necessarily be compatible with redevelopment work happening in any given London borough, nor will that approach be as affective if it were adopted in say, the North of England.

Microsoft CityNext is a partner-led initiative that empowers cities to be more sustainable, prosperous, and economically competitive. Cities can tap into the solution portfolios of Microsoft and our partners and innovate at their own pace, deploying real-time solutions that can interoperate with and improve upon existing IT investments. These transform their operations and infrastructures; engage citizens and businesses; and accelerate their economic development and environmental sustainability.

In the video below, Microsoft’s Ellen Wilson touches upon three different ways in which the CityNext approach is seeing local and regional authorities empowering the individuals that make up communities to better access and utilise services that are of a higher standard and efficiency than ever before.

Cities Unlocked is an initiative that allows visually impaired people the freedom to move beyond the constraints of their immediate environment, and to make use of all that their city has to offer. An audio headset linked to a smartphone app informs the wearer of nearby amenities, whether that be a local coffee shop, or the fact that they are approaching the bus stop where they need to alight. Given the waiting lists for guide dogs, making this sort of personal assistance available through technology will empower many more people to live their lives with far less restraint than they currently may do.

Another example of how a Smart City can improve the way it operates across a range of areas can be found in Glasgow. Through the power of the Microsoft Cloud, data from a number of sources is securely stored and made publicly available, opening up a whole wealth of possibilities for public and private organisations to build solutions, services and apps to better serve their customers and local residents.

Find out more about how local government can benefit from technology here.

Finally, we hear about Kent County Councils initiative around digital healthcare. We have already touched upon the needs of an ageing population, and with 37% of internet users in the UK aged over 75, there is a huge opportunity to use technology to enhance the way healthcare is delivered. Empowering patients to take control of their digital health records and continually add their own data through mobile apps and technology not only improves the accuracy of information, but can negate the need for many of the more routine trips to see their GP or carer.

Find out more about digital healthcare here.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=y8ME75S5TK0

So how does a city start their journey towards becoming a Smart City? Having the right technological building blocks in place will allow cities and regions to develop at their own pace. By building on the Microsoft Cloud, local and regional authorities can move forward in the confidence that any recent or current investments made in digital infrastructure will still be interoperable in years to come, and can form part of a lasting solution benefiting all.

Click here to learn more about CityNext, and for further examples of this principle in action

The post Creating Smart Cities: Using Microsoft CityNext to connect public services appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Earlier this year, Arif Harbott, chief digital and information officer at the Ministry of Justice, discussed the vital role technology is playing,  and will continue to play, in the transformation of the UK justice system.

Speaking at the Government Digital Service conference Sprint16, Harbott acknowledged that prior to the introduction of the MoJ’s digital capabilities plan, the criminal justice system was a “complex proliferation of silos and systems”.

Furthermore, he said, much of that system was not only paper-based – from “a police officer’s notebook, through various printing and scanning into different systems, all the way out to a probation officer who has to print out their reports” – but less time and energy efficient.

As part of a wider series looking into fighting crime with technology we are running, we have already seen how frontline police are beginning to make better use of technology from  the way they capture, manage and share evidence from incident scenes and witnesses. This blog will look at how technology – and in particular video technology – can and is helping improve criminal justice systems.

Digital Courtrooms

In many places around the world, legal systems are turning to video footage to record trials and other court proceedings for record-keeping purposes. Moreover, many judges are allowing witnesses to testify via teleconference to create a more inclusive justice system.

Take Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois, for example. The court recently allowed a man bedridden from a stroke to testify via Skype. The man was seeking the extension of a protection order against his estranged wife, but felt too weak to get out of bed .

Likewise, the Ontario Superior Court recently allowed a witness from Denmark to testify via Skype in a child custody case. “Skype is now in HD and has an internal automatic checking system,” explains Family Lawyer Phil, who persuaded the judge to allow the testimony. “You can see people in the courtroom and they can see you. This is clearly the way of the future.”

In the UK, the first ‘digital courtroom’ was set up in March 2013 in Birmingham, with the pilot scheme including digital screens to present evidence, police to court video-links, and video technology to allow witnesses and experts to give evidence remotely. This was widely regarded as a success with the former Justice Minister Damien Green announcing a national roll-out of the system in April 2013.

Video Conferencing

As video conferencing in the courtroom becomes mainstream, it is improving courtroom efficiency in a variety of ways. It’s expediting the issuance of search warrants. It’s speeding up arraignments, pre-trial conferences, and other court hearings. It’s allowing foreign and non-local witnesses to testify while avoiding the cost of travel. And it’s reducing the cost of transporting prisoners to the courtroom.

Yet as courtrooms increasingly turn to video technology to improve their proceedings, managing this new way of doing things can quickly turn into an administrative burden. Video-conferencing technology can be unreliable. Video storage can be expensive. And accessing the exact content needed can involve hundreds of hours sifting through vast amounts of video footage.

The good news is that Microsoft provides the advanced technology needed to help judicial systems overcome all these hurdles. Consider the following:

• Capturing video: Increasingly, legal systems are turning to Skype for Business for reliable, high-quality video conferencing. Skype for Business protects conversations through strong authentication and encryption features. It offers built-in compliance for strict security requirements such as the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) standard in some U.S. versions. And it can be used even in situations in which the person appearing remotely is not on Skype for Business. All that person needs is a phone or Internet connection.

• Storing video: Microsoft Azure Storage offers the durability and scalability to store large amounts of video footage at low cost. Data stored within Azure Storage is automatically replicated to guard against hardware failure. And in situations where justice systems prefer to keep their video files on-premises, Azure Storage can be used as a backup to ensure a judicial system’s video footage is always available.

• Managing video: Microsoft Azure Media Services enables legal professionals to access the exact video content they need through Azure Media Indexer, a feature that uses state-of-the-art machine learning to convert spoken language in video files into a searchable text format. Thanks to this feature, legal professionals can conduct keyword searches for specific comments that were made during the conversation and obtain the exact time those words were spoken, making it easy to find those moments in the video.

As judicial systems incorporate video technology into their courtrooms, Microsoft is leading the way, helping them to reliably capture, store, and manage all this data.

To find out more about how Microsoft can help you deliver video-conferencing and telecommunications, register for our ‘The Power of Voice within Office 365 webinar’.

Register here

To find out more about what Microsoft are doing for police services across the country, please visit our Cloud Policing Bubl.

Click here

The post Improving the Justice System with Courtroom Video Technology appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Both the Department of Health and the NHS are committed to delivering a ‘digital first’ health and care system to deliver innovative and patient-driven health services across the UK. Indeed, in February of this year, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced the government will invest £4.2 billion in NHS technology over the next five years. This aims to deliver a paperless NHS, and improve service delivery through a series of initiatives, both online and face-to-face.

Furthermore, Hunt has appointed Dr Bob Wachter, a professor at the University of California and author of the bestselling book ‘The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age’, to lead a review of the use of technology in the NHS.

Different technologies have been used by a number of healthcare organisations to improve key areas of delivery already. This includes putting patients in control of their data and improving the speed and way in which information is recorded, shared and acted upon in to better deliver care.

We show how several health organisations have been able to transform their service delivery.

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Stroke diagnosis via Skype for Business

In the case of medical conditions with a sudden onset – such as strokes and heart attacks – the speed of diagnosis and commencement of appropriate initial treatment can have a huge impact on the overall severity of the condition, and the extent to which the patient can recover.

Historically, if consultants are off-site or they are required outside of normal working hours this can result in delays in diagnosis, at times when a swift intervention can have a huge impact on the chances of the patient making a full recovery.

Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has tackled this issue by using Skype for Business to dramatically improve the way in which patients suffering from strokes are treated in the immediate aftermath of a stroke.

As soon as symptoms occur, patients can be connected with a consultant via Skype – regardless of the time of day – instead of either party having to travel, enabling the correct diagnoses to be made swiftly and for the appropriate actions to be taken without unnecessary delays.

Click here to learn more about the Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

East Kent improves treatment with Microsoft Azure

Making sure that the right people have access to the latest patient information via a secure environment, wherever they are, enables decisions to be made as and when the information is available, resulting in swifter treatment for the patient.

Utilising the security, reliability and scalability of Microsoft Azure, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust developed a solution alongside Microsoft partner Careflow to resolve the issue of delays in communication, and the failure of important information being transmitted between carers.

Working with the Information Governance Department, the Systems Managers at East Kent were able ensure that Careflow on Azure was fully compliant, resulting in a secure system that delivers timely information to healthcare professionals. More than a simple alert system, users are also informed who has seen the alert, when they saw it, what they have done about it, and any other comments. This context allows for decisions to be made a lot sooner and for treatment to progress at the fastest pace it can.

Click here to learn more about how Careflow is empowering better decision making and treatment in East Kent

Engaging patients in their treatment with ‘self-care’ service VitruCare

As technology makes it easier for patients to engage with the care process, health organisations are able to improve delivery while cutting costs. For example, allowing patients to contribute data to their records without having to see their GPs can reduce the number of GP appointments. This saves the practice time and money, as well as improving the patient experience.

This was certainly the case in Bradford, where the Phoenix Medical Practice was able to deliver significant cost savings by trialling a new approach to patient consultations using VitruCare – an internet delivered ‘self-care’ service provided by Dynamic Health Systems – which utilises Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Azure.

By supplying the patient with a range of wearable tech and other devices, they can securely record data such as blood pressure, weight, exercise activity and other daily measurements into the VitruCare dashboard.

Knowing a patient’s everyday health means that the GP or carer is able to schedule appointments proactively, but also provides the incentive for patients to take an interest in their own health and well-being, which could prevent a build-up of health problems.

Click here to learn more about VitruCare and patient engagement

Making mental health care more readily available via Skype for Business

For patients being treated for mental health issues, technology offers a viable alternative to having to make time for regular face-to-face appointments. When patients have an issue resulting in a Did Not Attend, this causes delays and disruption to other patients.

Moving consultations to a simple voice phone call is not the most effective solution however, as body language, eye contact and other facial expressions are additional indicators that help with a carer’s measure of a patient’s wellbeing.

Through Skype for Business, the team at SW London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust have been able to see and hear patients via video calling, removing the need for unnecessary travel and disruption to their work lives.

Patient are able to schedule a call at a convenient time, avoiding the need to take time off from work and potentially having to disclose very private and difficult information to their employers or colleagues.

The availability of Skype for Business on a wide variety of devices has seen patients quick to embrace the technology, and the use of video calling by the team at the Trust has allowed them to communicate with the deaf community through sign language, without the need for face-to-face appointments.

Click here to learn more about the use of Skype for Business at SW London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust

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As evidenced, swift and accurate transfer of information between patients, doctors and staff when it comes to caring for individuals – whether it be a timely emergency diagnosis or a routine follow up appointment – can make a huge difference to the way healthcare is delivered. Technology can facilitate and accelerate this process, connecting people in the quickest and easiest ways possible in order to commence or continue the care pathways in the most appropriate and convenient manner.

Below is a short video demonstrating the impact Skype for Business is already having across a range of different areas of healthcare, by connecting people when it matters the most:

Learn more about how Microsoft is supporting Digital Transformation in the NHS

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Time, location, and access to information are all obstacles that can contribute to a workforce that is not working to the fullest of its potential. Embracing a modern, smarter way of working places trust in individuals tasked with carrying out the business of government.

Moving on from theorising about how smarter working in the civil service could function, we take a look at some of the technology that can help you on your journey to smarter working. This article will look at how Office 365, Skype for Business, MS Dynamics and SQL Server can help improve government agility.

Getting ‘smarter’ at sharing information: Office 365 & SharePoint

For a real life example of this we can turn our gaze Tyneside, and look at how Newcastle City Council has maximised its workers’ time and energy through the use of Office 365 and SharePoint.

Like many public sector organisations up and down the country, Newcastle City Council has been faced with cuts to budgets and personnel. The need to work in a smarter way led them to embracing Office 365 in order to connect occasionally disparate workers in a number of areas – both in terms of physical location and areas of responsibility. This allowed them to contribute to projects at times and from places that were most conducive to their own personal circumstances and ways of working.

One aspect of the way Newcastle City Council is using Office 365 as the bedrock for this transformation was the utilisation of SharePoint for the access, modification, and sharing of communal documents and information. For field based workers, the use of SharePoint coupled with an appropriate mobile device removed the need to return to the central office to write up notes and reports from visits, and allowing them to spend more time with citizens delivering the services that they require.

For more detail on how Newcastle City Council achieved greater productivity against a backdrop of austerity measures, click here.

Bringing people together more easily: Skype for Business

Getting all the right people around the table for a meeting is often fraught with difficulty. A number of factors will dictate a person’s location on any given day, and even if they are all under one roof, what guarantee is there that a room with enough space to hold them all will be available? What happens if one of the attendees is unable to make it to the office for any reason? Physical meetings involve many moving parts, and waiting for the stars to align perfectly can cause delays to business decision making, and can ultimately end up being more disruptive.

Through Skype for Business, workers can quickly and easily organise meetings virtually, present to other attendees, share documents and files, and record meetings all in one place. In a strangely ironic twist, by providing workers with the wherewithal to not physically be in the office each day, they can become more connected. The Instant Message functionality lets you see when others are online, and instead of sending an email and waiting for them to reach it in their already busy inboxes, you can message them directly with a quick query, and continue with your work with minimal delay.

As well as bringing workers together more easily, the removal of unnecessary travel also helps to reduce costs considerably, meaning that not only can businesses become more productive and improve the services they deliver, but they can make budgetary savings without a loss of manpower nor witness a decline in the level of service offered to their customers.

The use of Skype for Business by Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has dramatically improved the way in which strokes are treated from the onset, by connecting patients with a consultant via Skype – even out of hours – rather than either party having to travel, ensure that the correct diagnoses are made swiftly, allowing for the appropriate actions to be taken without unnecessary delays. In situations such as this, the importance of swift decision making can have significant impact on the long term welfare of the patient, and the level of care required.

To learn more about how Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust is improving the treatment of stroke patients, click here.

Unlocking the power of information: Microsoft Dynamics

While falling under the overall scope of ‘government’, work different organisations and departments operate largely independently. Of course for the individuals served by these arms of government and the Civil Service, all of these different aspects of their life are interconnected.

With all of the vast quantities and types of information involved in administering and delivering services both centrally and remotely, there is a need for organisations to make that data interoperable and of use to all necessary parties. Context is key, and being able to draw links between various clusters of information can help these individual sets of data to become more valuable than the sum of their parts, and provide government with more agile, predictive systems than can be used by a variety of people in different roles.

One way to view a government’s success is the optimal alignment of people, assets, systems, and data to maximize results. Microsoft Dynamics breaks the traditional business application mould today. Emerging as proactive and forward-looking, it connects people to their work, surfacing insights that enable better decisions and guiding processes that optimize results. Agile software empowers adaptation to changing economic and political conditions. Instead of a “system of record,” it delivers a “system of engagement and opportunity.”

To learn more about Microsoft Dynamics and the opportunities it presents for government, download the whitepaper Dynamic Business for Smart Government.

Laying the foundations: SQL Server

Fundamental to all of the examples explored above is the security and privacy of the information being used and exchanged, as well as the tools used to access and modify it. The Microsoft Cloud enables businesses and organisations to move with agility and confidence, safe in the knowledge that their data is stored securely – both physically and virtually. Earlier this month we took a look at the idea of Government as a Platform, and how Microsoft SQL Server can help the digital transformation of government.

Click here to read Government as a Platform: Taking the £1.8B Plunge.

To further understand the benefits of smarter and more flexible working read the eGuide Business Anywhere: The ultimate guide to flexible working.

Download the eGuide Business Anywhere: The ultimate guide to flexible working

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