A Digital Foundation is a journey, for everyone

Before you begin, know where you’re starting from. For example, Isle of Wight council began its digital reset journey by interviewing stakeholders across the organisation. They wanted to see how existing digital technology was used. This identified gaps and shaped the scope for improvement.

A good starting point.

Whatever the output of such scope setting, remember, your digital journey must include people consuming your services, not just those delivering them.

Think of the family living in hard-to-reach locations, the elderly folk not using the latest tech or visually impaired people requiring specialist support…

Consider how they can interact with your digital services now, and in the future. You will need to prioritise and build your digital foundation incrementally.

At your own pace.

See what approach - cloud, on-premises, or a mix of the two - gives you the best foundation on which to launch digital initiatives.

The City of Aberdeen in the UK uses chatbots to answer questions from the community.

It responds to 200+ queries per day relating to garbage collection, council tax, road and lighting issues and education, freeing staff to deliver value adding initiatives.

For any authority striving to deliver on their own digital agenda, Dorset’s Chief Executive has this advice:

“Listen and involve citizens, your elected members, and staff at every state. They'll work with you to shape things that work.”

Building your digital foundation is a culmination of people, processes, and technology coming together for a common purpose.