Four key takeaways from the Foreign Office Future Report and how technology can help
Over the last decade, government departments and other public sector organisations have undergone a radical transformation. With greater focus on reducing budgets and improving service delivery, the government has sought to create a smarter, more flexible and citizen-driven public sector.
Just as government has transformed, so too has citizen expectation. With the rapid rise of technology – from mobile phones to laptops and tablets – and digital services such as online shopping or banking, citizens now expect to be able to access many public services on the move and 24/7.
But, how do you meet the growing needs of citizens and the changing digital landscape with reduced resources and budgets?
These are the same questions that former ambassador Tom Fletcher asked in last month’s report Future FCO.
Examining the processes and structures of the Foreign Office following the outcome of the Spending Review last November, Fletcher identified a number of key digital and organisation changes that would help the Foreign Office transform and deliver better services.
While many of findings and recommendations focussed on responding to international challenges, a greater focus on smarter, more flexible ways of working, better cross-departmental collaboration and more data driven policies and services were highlighted as key to the department’s transformation.
As other departments and organisations seek to transform, we take a look at some of the key findings in Fletcher’s report, and set out how the right technology can help.
1. Getting the Data Right
As the government pursues its Digital by Default agenda, ensuring departments can access, analyse and share data is a high priority. So much so, that in 2015 the Government Digital Service introduced a government data programme tasked with transforming how government uses data.
However, like many other departments, the FCO has yet to fully benefit from the data available, with Fletcher’s report highlighting that the department is “not yet in a position to ‘mine’ even its own internal data for insight”.
With both the amount and the sources of data constantly increasing, departments need to ensure they are able to analyse and decipher data effectively. But this is not a one-man job. In order to fully maximise the potential insights data could provide requires the whole department to get on board.
Creating a data-centric office culture is the first step towards introducing data-driven decisions. By putting data at the centre of all you do, understanding the patterns and trends becomes much easier.
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2. Introducing Greater Flexibility
With the introduction of programmes such as The Way We Work (TW3) programme – which celebrates and promotes examples of smarter working across government – and the Government Hubs Strategy – which aims to create a more modern, collaborative civil service by introducing cross-departmental office hubs – ensuring greater flexibility in the civil service has been a focus for many departments.
According to a study by Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), 92% of Britons who are currently working would be able to manage their time more effectively, thus allowing them to devote extra time to work tasks, if they had the flexibility. In our recent eBook on flexible working we found that approximately 14.1 million people in Britain want flexibility in their working hours or location.
Introducing flexible working hours and the ability to work from any location, therefore, could help improve government efficiency as well as respond to a growing desire among the workforce.
But it’s not just employees who can benefit from greater flexibility. Introducing more flexible ways of communicating with officials can streamline workloads and introduce greater efficiency.
According to Fletcher’s report, moving towards virtual ‘campaign teams’ comprising both London officials and employees in post oversees could help the department respond to the changing diplomatic landscape more flexibly and efficiently.
But shifting to a more flexible, project based workforce requires the right tools to ensure officials can communicate quickly and securely.
Recommended by Fletcher, Office 365, WhatsApp and Skype for Business give departments the tools to digitally store and share documents, make video calls and hold web conferences securely.
To find out more about how Microsoft can help deliver flexible working, download the Flexible Working eBook.
3. Getting the right devices
Introducing more flexible working environments doesn’t just rely on moving to the Cloud or using different software. Getting the right devices is also important.
Making sure officials have the right tools to hand to communicate – be that a laptop or notebook or a mobile device – is integral to streamlining processes and ensuring efficiency.
As Fletcher notes: “We want our staff away from their desks, using state of the art devices and a range of off the shelf applications to help them engage and influence.”
But it’s not just about ensuring you have the right devices for employees. Making sure you have the right systems in place to make sure the sent to and from those device remains secure is also key.
Here Microsoft can help. The mix of Office and Windows provides the freedom, but you want the security/peace of mind of an Enterprise Mobility Management solution.
It is only when services and devices are used together that they bring a new level of value to our customers. Simply put, the sum of the solutions together is greater than their parts.
To see an example of this, find out how Surface can transform the way you work.
4. Cross-departmental collaboration
While introducing greater flexibility will help transform work place initiatives, a key driver behind programmes such as TW3 is enabling greater collaboration across government, and the wider public sector. As chief executive of the civil service John Manzoni wrote in a blog in April, “the future of the Civil Service has to be more collaborative than the past”.
This was highlighted by Fletcher who said the FCO must improve its ability to communicate and collaborate with other departments. Yet often there are key barriers to collaboration – high among which is the use of incompatible IT systems and data silos.
While GDS are creating universal IT frameworks, this is still a challenge for the FCO and the review recommends exploring “the feasibility of a single One HMG overseas IT system, instead of each government department using incompatible IT systems.”
Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics are two key tools that can help departments connect and collaborate easily.
Using Microsoft Office 365’s OneDrive for Business, multiple team members can work on a document simultaneously and remotely, while tools such as Dynamics CRM can help department manage contacts, events and stakeholders – all in the Cloud.
To find out more about how tools such as Dynamics CRM can help cross-departmental collaboration, download our whitepaper Dynamic Business for Smart Government.
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To find out more about transforming with technology, join our webinar on 16th June on Delivering the Government Hubs Strategy.
