GPSJ - SPRING 2025 - Flipbook - Page 37
IT & IT SECURITY
GPSJ
Public Sector Digital Workplace: Complexity
costs and the case for simplification
By Erik Nicolai, CEO, Workspace 365
Imagine starting your workday
in the public sector: battling
through a maze of outdated
systems, juggling incompatible
platforms, and spending far
too much time navigating
digital tools. From document
management to HR systems,
procurement tools to internal
comms, digital sprawl is the
invisible time-thief, and it costs
more than mere minutes.
Over 25% of UK government
digital systems are now
considered outdated. In a
rare admission of the scale of
the problem, the Department
for Science, Innovation and
Technology recently revealed that
failures caused by legacy systems
cost taxpayers an eye-watering
£45 billion annually.
Outdated systems are
holding you back
When technology drives
talent away
This fragmented tech environment
isn’t just inconvenient. It makes
basic tasks harder, demotivates
employees, and adds friction
across every work昀氀ow. In an
overstretched public sector, every
wasted minute matters, and so
does every lost employee.
Employee retention, often viewed
as an HR concern, has become
a digital issue. Our research
found that 24% of employees
would consider leaving their job
due to overly complex internal IT
systems. A further 35% said they
might look elsewhere. Combined,
nearly 6 in 10 employees are at
risk of walking away, not because
of the work itself, but because the
tools aren’t up to the task.
Big budgets, slow progress
These systems aren’t just old,
they’re obstructive. As Swagath
Bandhakavi noted in Tech Monitor
(January 2025), “Many public
sector organisations continue to
rely on outdated legacy systems,
which can signi昀椀cantly impede
digital transformation e昀昀orts.
These systems often lack 昀氀exibility,
have high maintenance costs,
and can be vulnerable to security
threats.”
This is especially alarming
given the scale of the UK public
sector’s digital investment. Annual
spending on digital technology
exceeds £26 billion, and the sector
employs nearly 100,000 digital
and data professionals. Even
conservative National Audit O昀케ce
estimates place digital spending at
a minimum of £14 billion per year.
And yet, despite this investment,
the pace of transformation often
lags behind the urgency.
Productivity su昀昀ers when
tech Is fragmented
IT simpli昀椀cation in the UK
Public Sector
At Workspace 365, we wanted to
quantify the true cost of this digital
friction. In our 2025 survey of over
1,000 employees working in UK
organisations with 250+ sta昀昀, the
message was clear: fragmented
technology is hurting productivity.
59% of respondents said their
organisation should prioritise
simplifying the digital workplace
to improve output, a 昀椀gure that
rose to 65% among employees in
large organisations with more than
5,000 sta昀昀.
Workplace Insight notes that while
the UK government has rea昀케rmed
its commitment to becoming a
tech-昀椀rst public sector, major
barriers remain: widespread skills
shortages and persistent reliance
on legacy infrastructure continue
to slow progress. The £2 billion
earmarked for IT upgrades in
the NHS is a step forward, but in
many areas, transformation is still
playing catch-up.
A signi昀椀cant 60% of healthcare
professionals we surveyed believe
their organisation should invest in
simplifying the digital workplace to
improve productivity.
An impressive benchmark
Still, change is underway. The
Digital Development Strategy
2024–2030 sets the vision for
modernising infrastructure across
the public sector, incorporating
cloud services, AI, and digital
public infrastructure to enhance
service delivery and e昀케ciency.
Complementing this is the
Government Cloud First policy,
now in its twelfth year, which
mandates public bodies to
consider cloud solutions as
their default. Today, around
60% of public sector IT systems
have migrated to the cloud, an
impressive benchmark even
compared to private sector
adoption.
The savings opportunity and
real-world results
The Ministry of Justice o昀昀ers
a compelling example. By
moving to the cloud, they’ve
streamlined operations,
improved collaboration, and
reduced reliance on legacy
tools, demonstrating the tangible
bene昀椀ts of simpli昀椀cation in action.
More than half (56%) of
healthcare employees told us
they desire a centralised location
for accessing tools, applications,
and documents without the need
to switch systems. According to
Public Technology (Feb 2025),
full-scale digitisation of the public
sector could unlock savings and
productivity gains equivalent
to 4–7% of total public sector
spending. It’s a staggering 昀椀gure,
and it points to one conclusion:
digital transformation isn’t just
an e昀케ciency play. It’s one of the
most powerful levers available
to modernise and reform public
services.
A simpler, smarter
workplace
Getting there means taking
deliberate, strategic steps.
Successful organisations are:
• Conducting digital
audits to assess the current
digital landscape and identify
bottlenecks. This allows for more
e昀昀ective use of resources by
pinpointing problematic systems
and manual processes. The
insights also support strategic
planning, enabling evidence-based
digital transformation aligned with
agency goals.
Digital audits also support risk
mitigation by identifying security
vulnerabilities and compliance
risks early, helping reduce the
chances of data breaches or
regulatory penalties.
• Implementing cloud-昀椀rst
procurement policies enables
agencies to quickly adapt to
changing demands without
heavy infrastructure investment.
They can reduce upfront costs
through pay-as-you-go models,
and deploy services faster. This
approach also supports better
collaboration across departments
and contributes to sustainability
goals by minimising reliance on
physical data centers.
• By connecting data
and work昀氀ows across
departments, agencies can
eliminate redundant processes,
improve accuracy, and detect
anomalies more e昀昀ectively.
Automation also ensures
consistent compliance and
reduces duplication, waste, and
fraud.
By creating a cohesive digital
workplace focused on ease of
use, public sector organisations
can make better-informed
decisions, reduce duplication of
e昀昀ort, and deliver services with
greater con昀椀dence, speed, and
consistency.
GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR JOURNAL SPRING 2025
37
