Adapting to work’s hybrid future to build resilience through modernization

Unit4 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Public Sector, Global

from Unit4 Communications May 19, 2021 | 3 min read

TechMarketView’s recently published research on the Public Sector software and IT market highlights an interesting market challenge – the rapid pivot toward hybrid working.

The UK government has recently introduced a Cloud First policy. This policy requires any public sector organization to fully evaluate public cloud solutions to their IT problems before considering private cloud or on-prem options.

This policy was introduced all the way back in 2013. But it’s received a new lease of life thanks to recent updates to the government’s One Government Cloud Strategy – last updated in February 2021.

This document highlights the importance of cloud solutions to cross-functional collaboration – citing a joint technical and commercial approach to cost optimization that led to a 40% reduction in cloud technology spend for the Home Office. “Government organisations that combine functional capability can get more from the cloud, while maintaining value for money and a high standard for delivery.”

But a cloud first policy doesn’t mean a cloud first government

However, as TechMarketView notes, despite this cloud-first strategy being a matter of public policy, the current picture on the ground isn’t so clear cut.

Most of the public sector is characterized by hybrid IT environments – covering a mixture of public and private cloud, on-premises legacy tech, and Crown Hosting. And even though public cloud adoption is growing throughout the government in the UK as the natural response to the demands placed on organizations by the COVID crisis, this hybrid reality is likely to remain the norm for the foreseeable future.

Cloud growth is slowing in the central government – but ramping up elsewhere

The main centre for growth in public cloud adoption in the public sector is occurring outside of the central government. This is understandable, considering that agencies and local authorities responsible for frontline service delivery will be most in need of the kind of joined-up capability that public cloud solutions provide in order to ensure frontline service delivery can continue even as many of us work remotely for the foreseeable future.

Given the policy mandate and the service delivery reality, what should you look for in a cloud vendor?

Any providers you partner with must be able to demonstrate an understanding of the hybrid reality of your IT stack, and offer pragmatic approaches to modernizing your systems. They must also offer solutions that are tailorable to the hybrid ecosystem – preferably working according to flexible models rather than the old format of a monolithic system.

Enter ERPx

Because Unit4 has been working with UK public sector customers for several decades, we’re well aware of the kinds of challenges you face – and the kinds of systems you need to both meet them, and meet government policy requirements.

We’ve developed our next-generation ERP solution – ERPx – to satisfy the unique reality of technology in the public sector. Although ERPx is fully cloud based, it’s designed for flexibility – offering a microservices architecture that allows you to use as much or as little of the solution’s capability to do as much or as little as you need it to.

ERPx is designed with integration in mind to foster collaboration across your entire back office to precisely the degree you need it to. Enabling you to plan and build according to your strategy, at your pace, and within the limits of your budget. This means that no matter how complex your organization’s hybrid architecture might be, ERPx can comfortably integrate with it to improve your efficiency, transform your peoples’ experience of their work, and give them back valuable time to focus on service delivery.

And beyond this, our Public Sector Industry Model approach for implementation allows us to get your solution up and running in around half as much time as a standard on-prem implementation. Allowing you to realise time to value more quickly and reducing downtime for vital IT services and a smooth and seamless continuity of delivery to the citizens you serve.

Learn more about how digitization is transforming the public sector – and how new technologies like composable cloud ERP are helping organizations like yours succeed. Check out our report on the future of work and the progress of digitization in the public sector here.

Discover what ERPx can do for an organization like yours for yourself by clicking here. You can also learn more about what Unit4 can do to help public sector organizations embrace and accelerate their digital transformation to drive efficiency, value for money, and improvements to service delivery by checking out some of our public sector customer success stories here.