Recently in London, over 240 public sector representatives gathered to discuss the latest advances in mobile working across government, local councils, healthcare and other public services at the Mobile Working in the Public Sector conference.
Technology has fostered public sector mobility, driving operational productivity and revenue efficiencies in return.
As mobile technology becomes more and more sophisticated, governments and public sector organisations are well positioned to utilise enterprise messaging to enhance staff productivity, reduce costs and improve how services are delivered.
So how is mobile technology transforming the public sector and what can be done to ensure data remains protected and workers remain productive? Find out here.
Overhauling Government Working Practices
Councillor Peter Fleming, Deputy Chairman of the Local Government Association highlighted how working practices within the public sector has evolved.
Public sector employees are no longer chained to a desk and are out about in the field delivering public services.
The success of this is highly attributed to mobile technology, which has become an interface to improve employee productivity and workflow, whilst providing more interaction between government and service users.
Mr. Fleming went on to highlight a prominent success of changing governmental working practices through the use of technology and mobile working.
Bristol City Council use mobile technology as part of their daily operations and as such they have increased productivity from mobile neighbourhood employees which will contribute cost savings in the region of £10 million over the next three years for the council.
Mobile technology is also giving citizens easy, anytime, anywhere access to entitlements and public services.
From submitting an application, checking eligibility, receiving updates, and scheduling appointments, accessing services is now much more convenient.
Enabling Remote Employees with Mobile Technology
#MOBILEPS @SouthCambs 'Lessons Learnt' from Bedford Borough Council's mobile working project pic.twitter.com/MTPCA3E4q5
— Bonnie Kwok (@bonniekwok88) 23 March 2017
Craig Austin, Assistant Director of Environment, Regulatory & Recreational Services at Bedford Borough Council discussed methods to integrate mobile working into public services.
Mobile phones are ubiquitous, which enables public sector employees to share and access information from anywhere at any time.
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) facilitates mobility. However a recent survey by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) revealed that whilst 47% of UK adults use their personal devices for work, less than 30% of them had received guidance on how to use their device for work.
But this isn’t the case for Bedford Borough Council, who have successfully integrated mobile technologies into their workflows in order for workers to share complex data securely, such as video from offsite visits.
Keeping Public Sector Data Secure
Governments take protecting data very seriously.
Andrew Rose, Senior Policy Officer of the Information Commissioner’s Office discussed the complexity of fostering a mobile workforce and keeping information secure.
Compliance is vital in the public sector, therefore it’s crucial that employees are informed and policies are introduced on the importance of only using approved channels and applications when working on a BYOD.
At Soprano we understand the importance of using secure messaging apps to relay sensitive information, particularly to ensure the conversation is compliant and can be archived.
Mobility is Technology Centric
All in all, technology is a fundamental element to mobile working in the public sector.
Government and public sector organisations are using mobile working to facilitate the efficiency and productivity in areas such as inspections, housing repairs, financial assessments, and regulatory services.
Enterprise messaging is one area that supports mobile working in the public sector. Enabling field workers to maintain and update records wherever they are, communicate in a secure environment with head office and access the most up to date workflows fosters an efficient workforce that leads to cost savings.
Discover how you can automate workflows and increase productivity with mobile messaging for government.