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Celebrating local authority digital autonomy and helping to #fixtheplumbing
To mark the fourth anniversary of the Local Digital Declaration, Netcall has laid out its new manifesto outlining how they are enabling digital autonomy for local authorities.
As councils reflect on their digital transformation achievements during the pandemic, it’s also a good time for suppliers to reflect on what they have learned and how collaboration makes a difference.
Local authorities need to enhance citizen and employee experiences, while boosting productivity and delivering cashable savings. Major IT and digital projects often demand big budgets (and long timelines) and come with a hefty dose of disruption, risk and uncertainty. And it can take years before council employees or citizens see any value.
The pandemic accelerated councils’ digital transformation – against a backdrop of staff and budget reductions.
Now the dust has settled, councils are looking at how they can maintain this momentum. They don’t want to go back to hiring expensive IT consultants, investing in hefty IT projects locked into vendor roadmaps, or outsourcing key functions to a remote third party.
The good news is that councils can take control of their own digital destiny using Netcall’s Liberty Platform.
And they can save time and money in the process.
Councils are winning this race and accelerating time to value. These pioneers include Cumbria Council’s award-winning digital team, achieving success year on year. In year one, with four people, they created 16 different systems with low-code, delivering a rapid ROI. In year two, they delivered a nationally recognised track and trace system and revolutionised highways reporting to meet their digital goals, saving over £350,000.
During Digital Leaders Week, Vicky Green, digital programme manager for Corporate Services and Transformation, Ashfield District Council, detailed their successes: “Low-code gave us the ability to be digitally independent and now we are continuing our transformation journey in an agile way.”
Award-winning council South Hams and West Devon District Council’s first goal was to remove high-failure demand processes. Using Netcall’s AppShare, they developed 90+ apps — saving over £450,000 in a year. The team also aims to transform more back-office activities. Jim Davis, customer improvement manager, says, “Not only can we design and develop new applications quickly, but Liberty Create allows us to build a concept and easily show how it works to the wider team. Despite having a much smaller team, we are seeing rapid transformation in about a third of the time and the use of low-code has enabled us to push processes out at about six times the speed of the previous system”.
When your customer and digital teams have the right tools to do an even better job, citizens get the kind of service they expect. You don’t have to wait an eternity for good results.
Clare Evans, corporate services manager at the award-winning Tewkesbury Borough Council says, “Our transformation team is having a meaningful impact on our customers’ experience with us, which is exactly what we set out to achieve. We are pleased our approach is being recognised both locally and nationally, and proud that the LGA referred to us as ‘flying the digital flag for district councils’. In our first 18 months of operation, we achieved some remarkable results, and we have so much more lined up. We remain fully committed to helping reshape the reputation and experience of local government digital services.”
Traditionally, the local government solutions marketplace has been limited by legacy applications and vendor roadmaps. And this needs to change. Most local authorities face the same challenges. At Netcall, we think it’s a good idea to bring councils together — to collaborate, share their developments and learn from each other. Our Community and AppShare support councils to share innovation, helping them save resources and speed up digital transformation.
Combining smart minds and diverse ideas across local government leads to better outcomes.
Collaboration, self-sufficiency and digital autonomy lie at the heart of Netcall’s local government approach. Business analyst Forrester says low-code platforms – like Netcall’s Liberty Create – can increase software development speeds by up to 10 times that of traditional processes and reduce total costs of ownership by up to two thirds.
You may be looking to achieve autonomy over your digital destiny and:
Drive your digital journey, your way, your pace – Netcall enables local authorities to enhance citizen and employee experiences. And we help you boost productivity and deliver cashable savings. Now you can get the digital transformation you need — how you want, at your pace. The power is truly in your hands.
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