Public Sector | Read the latest blogs, news and views from Infomentum.

Imagine a cold December day. The elderly lady had been saving on gas for months to finally heat her home on Christmas Day. Living in her small social flat, she silently endured the chill because she struggled to afford both food and warmth, determined to remain independent.

Overview of Smart Sensors

IoT-powered smart sensors are revolutionising how local councils and housing associations monitor their managed properties. The wide range of data, including temperature, pressure, humidity, light and motion, is sent to devices like smartphones, tablets and back-end servers, providing real-time measurements, analysis and visualisation. Glasgow City Council, Stirling Council, Leeds City Council and Riverside Group have all jumped on the IoT bandwagon, recognising the potential for improved health and safety compliance, better services for residents and cost savings on proactive maintenance and repairs.

Recently we attended and exhibited at the Government ICT, one of the most significant IT Public sector events in the UK. When listening to the keynotes and speaking to IT leaders from a variety of governmental bodies, the issue of citizen data sharing often came up. And no wonder, by leveraging its data organisations can provide betters service to the citizens, improve outcomes and drive efficiencies.

Never as a society have we been as open as we are today, though it’s a movement that has seemingly bypassed the public sector. In the third and final blog post in our series around thinking smart in the public sector, we look at the main challenges and barriers when it comes to data sharing. We also suggest ways and methods of how the UK public sector can embrace a mindset of collaboration for a more positive future for all.

After years of austerity, the public sector is crying out for solutions that can help solve its issues quicker and more cost-effectively. Yet, while there is a multitude of choices available in the form of digitally native businesses, they’re not being considered as credible options. This post will examine why is it so difficult for the public sector to engage with SMEs?

Never has there been so much pressure to do more with less. Nowhere is this more acutely felt than in the public sector. For an element of the UK economy not widely renowned for a track record of innovation and prudent purse string management, that represents somewhat of a major challenge. Yet finance is not the only issue. There are other pressing concerns: how to best use and share data, engaging with local SMEs and disruptive technology companies and re-calibrating the public sector approach to operations in a digital and social age. We’ll be looking at all these topics in our forthcoming blog series. Naturally, that means we’ll be kicking off with cows in Norway.

Our lives might be going digital, but what does that mean for the physical environments in which we live, work and play? Whether checking air quality or preventing street violence, what is the public sector doing to harness new technologies that deliver a better citizen experience; not just in interactions with services, but in the infrastructure that supports our lives? From housing to transport, how are these connected communities being brought to life by Edge computing and IoT in the UK?

In the second of our series on the public sector, digital transformation and Smart Lives, we are looking at cloud computing. At a time when government organisations struggle for funding, digitalisation offers a way of delivering services to users in a more cost-effective manner. Cloud is the foundation of that transformation. As a concept it has been talked about for over a decade yet adopting it can be a challenge for cash-strapped public services. What stops the sector from accelerating cloud use to unlock its benefits?

Public services, like many sectors, are wrestling with how it can make the most of the opportunities on offer through digital transformation. Over the course of the coming weeks, we’ll look at some of the most common challenges faced by the public sector. Our blogs will cover why government has been slow to adopt digital transformation and move to the Cloud, how Edge computing and the Internet of Things can be integrated into everyday life, and what 'Smart Lives' really means. Today, we are considering identity verification, and whether it is the future of the public sector’s digital transformation.

Who are you? Can you prove it?