Digital Disruption in Public Sector: doing more with less
I recently had a chance to sit down with Derrick McCourt – General Manager, Public Sector, Microsoft UK – to talk about how digital technology is impacting the public sector, both as a call for change and as an opportunity to transform. While the whole conversation was enlightening, here were some standout moments for me from our chat.
First, the idea austerity cuts across the public sector. As Derrick points out, “every one of our customers is facing disruption, of some type, it varies from sector to sector. Everybody is certainly expected to do more with less.” A second, related point that stood out was the importance of digital literacy in the UK, and the staggering gap we face in the number of technical graduates we produce compared to other economies such as Poland, India and China.
Perhaps the most intriguing bit of our conversation was the discussion was the awareness (or often lack thereof) of digital transformation with senior management. In many ways it serves as a dividing line between public sector executives who will be successful with digital transformation and those who will struggle. As Derrick notes, “part of the job that we do is supporting Chief Digital Officers, CIOs, to get access to their board… and support their chief executives to understand the power of digital and its ability to help them transform. Genuinely, if you have a CEO who is a digital leader, we’ve seen quite incredible things happen with the customer.”
