Monday 22^nd February was the day the UK public finally saw light at the end of a long, long tunnel. As Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out his roadmap for easing the UK’s lockdown, many people began looking to a future where they could return to some kind of normalcy.

The truth is, of course, that the world we enter in June 2021 is likely to be very different to the world we left in March 2020. No more is this so than in the UK public sector, where organisations have had to overcome a challenging operating landscape while delivering citizen services that had never been more essential.

Last year, many organisations focused on the logistics involved in ensuring people and departments could carry on functioning with minimal disruption to the citizens they support. Cloud technology was a massive enabler for this, with hosting services like Microsoft Azure and collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams becoming cornerstones of peoples’ working lives.  

On the whole, the UK public sector has dealt admirably with lockdown. However, now that we’ve adapted to this new reality, it’s unlikely that citizens will want to engage with public sector organisations in the same ways they did before lockdown.

In 2021 we have a chance to make longer-term considerations around our cloud strategies and how they can deliver positive outcomes for the citizens we support. Here are some ways in which springboarding to the cloud can set the foundation for exceptional service delivery in 2021 and beyond.

Overcome Challenges and Embrace Opportunity

Forward-thinking public sector organisations that seek to improve citizen services while remaining within strict budget constraints are increasingly moving to cloud technology. Here are five reasons why:

• Unlock siloed, hard to access data. Many organisations store data in their own on-site data centres, making the information hard to access and potentially introducing information silos that can harm communication and productivity. Hosting data in cloud environments unlocks these silos, making it easier to deliver a consistent service to citizens without compromising security.
• Free up human resources. Managing your own infrastructure can take up a lot of time and human resources, detracting from digital transformation initiatives. Hosting services in the cloud will remove day-to-day management burden and allow IT to focus on innovations that improve citizen services.
• Streamline day-to-day operations. Through the levels of data collection and analysis that are enabled by hosting data in the cloud, public sector organisations can make evidenced process decisions that allow them to provide the most appropriate services, quickly.
• Develop citizen-accessible systems. Improving citizen services is a key target for public sector throughout the UK. Cloud technology gives organisations the opportunity to develop citizen-accessible systems that improve services and extend their reach securely to allow both staff and citizens to access data from anywhere, whether on-site or offsite.
• Integrated, always-on citizen. Today’s citizens can sometimes be frustrated by the fragmented services they receive when transferring between public sector organisations. Cloud technology can help reduce that frustration by allowing key systems to integrate and giving citizens a ubiquitous end-to-end experience

Embracing Cloud in 2021

Massive transformational changes that fundamentally improve citizen services are achievable through the adoption of cloud technology. Six Degrees has an enviable track record of helping public sector organisations remove digital transition roadblocks and springboard to the cloud – the right cloud for them.

We are actively working with Central Government and Local Councils throughout the UK to improve the way they deliver citizen services: we recently helped Government Digital Service make considerable savings.

Six Degrees is one of only eight UK organisations to be awarded the Azure Expert MSP accreditation, out of Microsoft’s 64,000 worldwide partners. Our Azure Expert MSP status is validation from Microsoft that our cloud assessments, people, process, and managed services are best in class. We also have access to funding that will help accelerate your cloud transformation and get you up and running in Azure quickly and easily.

Join Six Degrees’ panel session at Public Technology Live to discover ‘Where next in your Cloud Journey?’ with speakers from HMRC and Scottish Government.