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Freitag, 22.11.2024
Transforming Government since 2001

Public Services

  • AI is changing everything – including making public services more efficient

    Smart city initiatives powered by AI are turning urban centres into models of sustainability and efficiency

    In this age of rapid technological advancement, we find ourselves navigating an era marked by groundbreaking innovations. At the heart of this journey, artificial intelligence emerges as the driving force. It is fundamentally altering the way businesses and governments function around the globe, laying the groundwork for the future. Just look at the anticipated impact.

  • GB: Is the PSN really a shortcut to shared services?

    In austere times, the sharing of services – from back office processes to communications infrastructure and software – is viewed as a simple way to cut duplication and generate efficiencies.

    But cost-cutting aside, the take up of shared services may get a further boost from the PSN (public services network). It is anticipated that as many as 80% of public sector employees, or four million individuals, will be using the PSN by the end of 2014, and the two key frameworks that govern the network of networks are expected imminently.

  • GB: South West England: Cornwall: Call to scrap plans for privatisation of services

    Councillors have called for the scrapping of plans to transfer public services to a new private company.

    A motion is set to go before full council on Tuesday urging Cornwall councillors to kill off the controversial shared services project.

    Cornwall Council aims to create a joint venture company with a private partner which will be responsible for services including libraries, benefit payments, IT and payroll. The new firm would also provide call centre and back office services for health organisations in Cornwall.

  • GB: Will Connect Digitally wind up - or enter shared cloud future?

    One of the most successful government-backed initiatives to promote e-services, Connect Digitally, is to be wound up next week, when its funding comes to an end. However talks are underway about possibilities for follow-up activities building on its success, UKAuthority.com has learned, with one spin-off project featuring shared services and cloud computing already pointing the way to possible new sustainable e-service models'

    'Connect Digitally', formerly the school eAdmissions national project set up in 2004, is a central-local partnership funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and led by Hertfordshire county council. Its focus is online school admissions and automated application for free school meals, helping achieve electronic service take-up rates in some areas of 80% or higher, the level at which the government considers services to be "digital by default". More recently its work has widened to boost take-up of all online public services.

  • India: Public pressure for change

    One of yawning gaps in governance is the lack of meaningful citizen-government interface from one election to another. But the growth of organised voluntary activity is enabling concerned citizens to channelise private initiative to meet public goals.

    Indian democracy is moving to another level, with its citizens demanding their own space in an increasingly DIY (do-it-yourself) world. Two impulses have contributed to this change: one is the failure of the government to deliver on its promises and the other is its inability to meet its development goals in certain spheres. It is here that civil society groups have stepped in to enhance the democratic potential of the state, leading to new and innovative models of citizen participation.

  • Public-private partnerships pose opportunity for DPI and national digital ID initiatives

    Public-private partnerships (PPPs) may play a critical role in the development of a national digital identity infrastructure around the world. Digital transformation initiatives and the rollout of digital public infrastructure (DPI) in Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia show a government-led push for a shift to digital services, but involving the private sector might be key to accessing the resources needed to establish a comprehensive DPI.

    The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are a set of aims for 2030 designed for developing nations to achieve equitable economic, social, and environmental sustainability. While DPI is tied to many of these goals, and SDG 16.9 explicitly sets out to provide a legal digital identity for all, public finance is stretched thin between these objectives, climate change obligations and other serious humanitarian concerns across the Global South and other regions. Public finance alone will likely not be able to fund a robust DPI for the nations that could benefit most from it.

  • UK: Leicestershire post offices get web kiosks for e-Government service delivery

    Leicestershire sub-post offices are piloting a scheme to provide customers with access to a wide range of online information and services, including jobs, pension and childcare.

    BT is installing "Community Point" information kiosks in 50 sub-post offices in the county in partnership with the National Federation of SubPostmasters and Multimedia International Services Limited.

  • Why AI is powering a revolution in public sector services

    Microsoft’s Didier Ongena explains how generative AI, digital twins and the cloud are helping governments and city leaders to optimise operations and deliver better services to citizens

    Every public sector employee in the UK spends more than eight hours per week managing data and performing routine administrative tasks, according to Microsoft’s 2024 Harnessing the Power of AI for the Public Sector report. The research shows that 45 per cent of respondents are “drowning in unnecessary administrative tasks”, with 55 per cent saying this workload negatively impacts their ability to get on with the day job, and nearly half indicating it compromises the quality of service they provide and limits how long they can spend directly interacting with the public.

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