Relying less on paper and moving to digitized information is a long term aspiration of public sector organisations, but progress has been slower than in the private sector. In this feature Jason Howard suggests a data management approach to overcome the barriers that are impeding transformation.

From internal government processes to IDs and passport requests, to claims and benefit management to medical records; the public sector, perhaps more than any other sector, is inherently paper heavy. However, paper has become a less viable and cost-effective medium for governmental services. It’s expensive, takes up too much space and raises security issues. The need to store more data, the need to provide information more quickly and the drive to cut costs with looming budget cuts, are resulting in a triple-pronged assault on the accumulation of paper records.

To rid itself of the weight of paper and become fit for the future, the public sector needs to focus on redesigning services and transforming its delivery, making the best possible use of digital advances. This realisation is nothing new. The public sector has been adapting itself as part of a government led digital transformation initiatives.

The digital revolution has created a new generation of people who want ever more accessible, portable, flexible and customised products, services and experiences. They expect to move seamlessly – in real time- between the physical and virtual worlds. In response, many public sector organisations are looking to become “digital by default”. The NHS for example, is working towards a deadline to be paper free by 2018 as set by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in 2013.
Public sector organisations even beyond healthcare are looking to reduce operating costs, improve staff productivity whilst enhancing the citizen experience and perception. This is one of many catalysts for public sector organisations to respond by making the move to paper-free and digitised through using computers and tablets instead of paper. Agencies and departments must also provide accurate access to information that already exists and that means digitising, organising, sharing and archiving billions of paper documents.

The paper free deadlifts

Just with actual weights, the move to digitize the public sector is not without its challenges. The public sector is embracing this opportunity to improve productivity, enhance customer experience and reduce operating costs. This move however, is likely to reach several barriers to success:
– Existing Systems
The existing architecture of the systems and procedures that are already in place provides a challenge for those looking to modernize and reform. It is essential for agencies and organisations to truly understand the business processes that are already in place to understand how these can be built upon and reformed. In the UK many criticise the government’s previous “Connecting for Health” initiative, which aimed to digitise medical records, for failing for taking a top down approach to data and not paying sufficient attention to existing systems before trying to create new ones.

– Budget
Public sector spending is subject to a lot of scrutiny. In the UK for the fiscal year ending in March 2017, the current budget deficit is estimated to be £19 billion. This means organisations and agencies are under pressure to deliver results while cutting costs and are faced with further looming budget cuts. This has an understandable impact on all processes, and can be a challenge to implementing new technology.

– Privacy
The difficulty of protecting individual privacy can be a huge barrier to e-government implementation. As the government is responsible for large quantities of citizen data, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, employment histories, medical records and property records it is crucial to protect individual’s privacy. When tasked with the prospect of digitising records it is necessary for public sector agencies to factor in the legal and cultural understandings of what constitutes privacy.

– Security
Perhaps even more importantly than protecting individual data privacy, ensuring any e-government initiative is completely secure is a key priority. This means protecting all the information and systems against any unauthorized access or modifications. Security policies and standards that meet citizen expectations and government policies are an important step toward addressing this challenge. There are a number of tools and processes available to help fulfil the necessary security goals of digital transformation, including digital signatures, encryption, usernames, passwords, customer unique numbers, bank account numbers, and others being transmitted over the
Internet and stored electronically.

These challenges are not however, insurmountable. For many public sector organisations, the solution lies in implementing a suitable information management solution. While traditionally document management is about streamlining processes, improving information flow and communications and eliminating paperwork, it also has benefits in terms of costs and impacting on the overall modernisation of the public sector.

Healthy practices for the NHS and beyond

Ensuring the information management system that is implemented is fit for purpose is key for digitally transforming any agency, trust or organisation. In the instance of the public sector, it must first capture, organise, share and archive billions of paper documents which already exist. Breaking this process down into two simple steps will make this daunting task a more manageable weight for the public sector to lift.

1) Document Entry
The goal of digital document entry is to transform paper documents into an electronic format as quickly and easily as possible. Manual data entry is prone to errors, and human errors overall are among the main reasons for data quality issues. Therefore, it is key for the public sector to automate where possible and ensure its trusts and agencies are utilising the right solution to support data capture process. Scanning solutions can either be centralised or distributed, a decision which is dictated by what fits best with the current infrastructure within the department or agency.

2) Software Support
Following the process of digitising and capturing data, it is vital that there is a solid software solution to support the back end. The public sector can capitalise on solutions that are intelligent enough to sort information at source and direct it in the right way, whether it is within the NHS filing a prescription request or updating medical records or a local government office processing information regarding an individual’s council tax.

With digitisation comes access to huge, ever growing databases of information. Whether this is about the state of the health of the general public or insight into streamlining processes, this will have broader advantages beyond increased efficiency and cost savings for the trusts. Within the NHS this wealth of data will allow problems to be spotted before they occur, and remedies – either medicinal or educational – to be prepared in advance.

Avoiding drowning in all of the data generated as a result of going paper free, and harnessing it to public’s advantage is one of the biggest challenges facing the public sector in the digital age. While many question the disparity between the digital transformation of the public sector compared to the advance of the private sector, this in fact gives the opportunity to learn from the errors and successes of the private sector front runners. With document management solutions available offering cost savings and improved efficiency, the public sector can look to a brighter, digitised future.

Jason Howard is Northern Cluster Manager at Kodak Alaris.