Digital Transformation (How to Get Your Data Working Harder)

Transitioning to a citizen focussed service delivery, implementing new digitised services and policy development are all transformational undertakings for public sector organisations.

All of these changes have one thing in common, data is the key to their success. It is the platform for digital transformation and without fast, always-on access to data, progress will stall.

From the development of new service delivery models, to analytics and AI to deliver faster and more informed decisions, to civil servants, data is everything.

A lot has already been achieved with the digitisation of service, but with more to do, to see continued improvements in public services, citizen satisfaction levels, cost reductions and improving efficiencies there are still a number of factors that can hinder progress.

1. Trust

If citizens do not have trust that government organisations will store their data securely and safely and that it will be used for the benefit of individual citizens they will become increasingly reluctant to share it. 

Similarly, civil servants who are becoming increasingly dependant on accessing data to fulfil their jobs need fast and reliable access. Without this, they can quickly lose faith in the ability of IT to help them operate efficiently.

2. New Data

With ever-changing types and volumes of data being generated, data infrastructure, protocols for data sharing and the ability to consolidate data all need to be considered when dealing with this valuable commodity.

Historically data was "cold" and consisted of things such as letters, emails and service usage records. Nowadays, with the introduction of IoT and digital services we are seeing more and more "hot" data produced which can be used for real-time provisioning and data analysis.

3. Silos

Silos are preventing personalisation of services as the data is held by the department which generates it from each user.

With citizens generally using more than one government service at a time, it is unacceptable for data entry to have to be repeated across an organisation. Citizens expect to only enter data once, particularly when using services they deem linked e.g. local GP and pharmacy.

4. Security and Compliance

Whilst data needs to be readily available to those who require it, access has to be relevant in order to keep it secure.

In order to not only remain secure, but compliant too, tracking access to data is key.

Data must also only be used in accordance with GDPR laws and IT security managers will need to demonstrate this multi-layered approach to security and compliance within their organisation.

5. Performance

High-speed data is at the core of digital transformation, without it, services simply don't work. 

From at the edge processing of IoT application data to providing near real-time processing to personalise service experience, performance is essential.

Thought should also be given to the provision of data recovery.  It is essential to provide agile ways that ensure people, sites and data remain connected with zero downtime and eliminate the impact on citizens. 

The Future of Digital Transformation

Digital services have evolved over the years, with changes in analytics, AI and the volume of data created cited as just some of the factors to consider when developing new services.

Embracing new data and analytics means that it is necessary to migrate from outdated legacy-tech storage solutions to a more flexible and agile architecture that can support modern data-intensive workloads.

Why Data-Centric Architecture accelerates Digital Transformation

Historically data storage has been reactive rather than proactive, based around a tactical response to business needs. Consequently, legacy storage systems are often complicated, messy and expensive to maintain.

When deploying all-flash it's vital to develop an architecture that serves up data to the services and applications that use it.

Future-proofing your data in this way will mean that you continue to build a data-centric architecture that will not become outdated, allows for scalability and is cost-effective.

Why Wavenet?

Outdated systems outdate your operations. Faze out old infrastructure and roll in the new with a telecoms company that can help you be brilliant.

Wavenet deliver all aspects of IT services from maintenance and computer hardware, to email, data and network security.

Plus, thanks to our state-of-the-art data centres, we provide a range of cloud-based services for businesses wishing to remove the hassle and risk of having IT infrastructure maintained on-site.

Provide your business with flexibility and market-leading solutions with Wavenet.