Respondents indicate that majority of services to be available through online channels by end of the decade
Almost two-thirds of public services will be delivered digitally before the end of the decade, according to the results of a survey run by digital platform company Goss Interactive.
Its questioning of 406 senior managers from 294 public sector organisations revealed that they expect the percentage of their services to be delivered through online self-service channels to increase from 26% this year to 62% by 2019.
This year’s figure shows a sharp increase from the 19% registered for last year’s survey, with organisations expecting to save an average of £900,000 each over the next 12 months through digital self-service, and 56% of them already having a relevant strategy in place.
Just over half (54%) are adopting an evolutionary approach to the shift, moving services one at a time with each department selecting its own technical solution. The rest are going for a revolutionary approach, deploying a single digital platform for all services.
Budgetary challenge
Rob McCarthy, chief executive officer of Goss, said: “The public sector must take action now in order to meet the budgetary challenges it’s facing while keeping the vital public services it delivers operational.
“The next 12 months will be crucial. If EU funds for local government are not completely replaced, budgets will likely come under even more pressure, so councils need to start radically revolutionising their approaches to self-service so they can start realising savings quickly.”
