Today, the pressure on Local Government to do more with less is greater than ever. With more people, more communities, bigger challenges, and a greater need to connect all of the disparate parts to create a cohesive experience for residents, the efficiency conversation is being discussed at every level.
Unlocking the value of your existing assets
So, how can you do more with what you have?
Over time, local government departments have invested in efficiency-driven technologies, with a promise of automation, communication, collaboration, reporting, and more. However, the misalignment of technologies and overlapping capabilities can result in a minefield of localised licences offering niche capability, when the answer to delivering on all of the above promises is already available as part of your Microsoft 365 subscription.
Re-purposing your investment to innovate and drive productivity offers the opportunity to accelerate digital initiatives for less investment dollars than you think.
A unique opportunity for cohesion
It’s the cohesion and interoperability of all of the Microsoft applications which allows public sector entities to “do more with less”. Yet most aren’t leveraging the functionality embedded within the individual applications because, ironically the list of competing priorities makes finding time to “do more with less” the greatest challenge of all.
To start the conversation, we’re sharing a few ideas about the things you could be doing to drive efficiency, using the assets you already have:
Enable real time communications and collaboration across entities, offices and teams.
Build a communications hub using the tools you already have available. With SharePoint and Teams, you can build your own information superhighway. People across your council can work on the same document at the same time, where it is version controlled, auditable, and offers hierarchical access rights at any level.
Communicate directly with residents through contact centre integration
Modernised contact centre capability means you can access new features and functions that allow you to interact, record and audit everyday conversations with your community, building trust and connection at every level, and offering compliance peace of mind – no matter your location. Add this integration to your existing Microsoft Teams environment and the result is the delivery of better end-user experiences.
Work in a way that works for everyone
There is no normal working style post-COVID. From in-office to hybrid to full remote set-ups we’re seeing varied tools and operating systems with work-from-anywhere policies coming into play. Finding a system that works for everyone, regardless of location or infrastructure and retaining productivity and connectivity is a challenge. Microsoft 365 offers councils capability and productivity together through Teams, SharePoint, and OneNote. Are you leveraging the power of what you already have?
Lead with data-driven decisions through dashboards
Councils can integrate data across the whole organisation via PowerBI to harness rich data to drive better and faster decision making. Choose and analyse your key performance indicators. Track productivity and reward against metrics and measures that work for your community and residents. With so much data at your fingertips, what don’t you know? And what didn’t you know you needed to know?
Safeguard and secure your community
Recent high-profile data breaches have demonstrated that security is a major consideration for public and private sector organisations. Local councils are a high-value target because of the vast quantities of sensitive resident data residing within the government vaults, and as such, the risk and impact of cyber-attack and data breach is greater and more far reaching than ever before.
New working models make keeping track of assets, activity, and downloads a challenge. With increased user demand around the availability and responsiveness of applications, there are many elements that are out of your control. And it’s impossible to know the risks you can’t see.
It is always a good time to iterate security to people, assets, communities, and residents. This could be anything from activating the inbuilt security or multi-factor authentication available in Microsoft Office 365; to educating and informing your team of security processes and protocols; or automating activities to reduce the likelihood of human error and burden on already overstretched IT resources.
With the right team beside you, everything is possible
By engaging subject matter experts in areas you don’t have the time to focus on, we bring the expertise, experience, capacity, and capability that your council can use to achieve its goals.
We can:
- Work alongside you to understand and leverage the software and licences you already have.
- Automate processes to facilitate faster issue resolution – saving time and cost, and improving experiences across your community and for your residents.
- Determine best practice approaches for communication in your department and execute the technology to make it happen.
- Bring remote and regional expertise, ensuring you have boots on the ground to deploy services that meet stakeholder needs and set your council up for success.
By working with Nexon to provide the resources you need, you will do more with less.
Get in touch to engage our team for an expert assessment of current vs future state requirements. Whether it’s cloud, productivity, teamwork, communications or security, our team will put you on the right track.
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