techUK, the tech trade association, has launched its ‘Industry Perspective on Intelligent Automation in Central Government.’
Once considered a ‘nice to have’, the use of intelligent automation to replace repetitive and time-consuming manual work has become a critical tool for the public sector to keep pace with high workloads, the added difficulty of Covid-19 and added pressure to the workforce.
techUK members, many of them leaders in the field of intelligent automation, recently met to share their experiences of working with the government to automate processes and services.
The resulting briefing paper outlines six recommendations from industry to ensure meaningful adoption of intelligent automation solutions:
- Recommendation 1: Undertake deeper engagement and collaboration between government and industry through a specific Intelligent Automation Forum, in order to shine a light on the possible.
- Recommendation 2: Knowledge sharing tools and platforms, such as the government’s Automation Register, should be more visible and accessible, both within government Departments and within the supplier community.
- Recommendation 3: In order to move away from point based, tactical solutions and achieve a sustainable approach to automation, appoint a strategic sponsor within each government Department’s leadership team. Convene a forum of these sponsors to develop conversations based around strategic value, rather than technical problems, within Departments’ executive suites.
- Recommendation 4: Engage industry to support the consolidation of the Department Automation Blueprints to create a coherent, integrated and well scoped programme of activity.
- Recommendation 5: Leadership must establish and reinforce the expectation that automation will augment the workforce, enabling employees to spend more time on strategic initiatives, instead of mundane tasks.
- Recommendation 6: Ensure appropriate funding is place in the next Spending Review to support the adoption and scaling of automation.
With cases from leading industry suppliers, the paper also showcases what effective deployment of intelligent automation looks like for central government across several different Departments, underlining the importance of the six key recommendations.
Commenting, Associate Director of Public Sector at techUK, Henry Rex said:
“Intelligent automation has been instrumental for government Departments in their response to the Covid-19 pandemic and now this technology has the potential to drive recovery and resilience in the coming months and years.
“As usage continues to scale, it is important that we continue to facilitate even greater collaboration between government and industry in order to drive further adoption.
“We hope the recommendations in this paper will showcase how to increase collaboration and support for automation.”
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