Why the next phase of Digital Transformation begins with data infrastructure: A point of view paper by Patrick Smith EMEA Field CTO, Pure Storage EMEA

Transitioning to citizen-centric service delivery, Brexit planning, implementing new digital services and adopting an evidence-based policy development are all transformational undertakings for the UK government and its departments. Thankfully, they all have one critical success factor in common: data. It is the fuel of digital transformation and without fast, always-on access to data, everything will stall. By everything, we mean all data-driven ambitions from the development of new models of service delivery that improve the quality of public services and reduce operating costs to using data, analytics and AI to deliver faster, and more informed decisioning into the hands of all frontline and strategic civil servants for the creation of evidence-based policy.

The digitalisation of services has already gone a long way to cutting operational costs and improving the efficiency of service delivery, but this is only a fraction of what can be achieved through digital transformation. Putting many public services online does go a long way to positioning citizens at the core of government, yet there is much more that can be achieved to improve outcomes. We recently surveyed government IT leaders to understand their views on the progress being made and what factors are putting the brakes on transformation. Some findings from our 2018 report called Smart Government – The Big Balancing Act, highlights the situation.