
Financial factors are a key priority in any digital transformation process. Guaranteeing a return on investment and ensuring great citizen experiences is crucial for Public Sector decision makers to make a business case for new technology and get it approved by senior management.
Given the greater focus on how Public Sector leaders spend taxpayers’ money, it is vital to remain on top of the newest innovations and technologies and the latest developments in the public sector that will help deliver this goal. Key to this is gaining insight on where budget savings can be made and understanding how investment in innovation can encourage growth.
Putting citizens first
A great example of this in practice is the State of
Indiana earning its taxpayers’ trust with its transparent approach to government. The State realised the possibility of solving complex issues, such as infant mortality rates and preventing fatal traffic accidents, through comprehensive data management solutions.
The State put citizens at the core of all its interactions, analysing data in real-time to identify at-risk citizens and provide better public services, better networks to work with non-profit and specialist organisations and create safer roads to reduce traffic incidents.
In the words of Paul Baltzell, CIO of State of Indiana: “To bring innovation culture into an organisation is very difficult, it’s about people, places and processes. But SAP’s Design Thinking team came in and helped us find out what it meant and what it required to get us to that point. Now the team has begun to think in new ways, they’re excited about it, they want to bring in more people, and they want to involve them.”
Making citizens feel valued
Financial concerns are particularly important to the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of
Estonia – when it balances its budget, the entire country watches. It therefore required a system that could be understood by everyone, from execs and politicians to citizens.
By implementing dynamic reporting, the Ministry was able to provide a real-time view of executed and planned budget data, and publish simple, state-of-the-art reports. This has enabled anyone in the country to understand where government money was going, and open up the budgetary debate to all citizens, making them feel valued and wanted by the state.
Improving lives with data
An equally impressive example of using data to improve peoples’ lives is
Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina. Its location at the mouth of the Rio Plata leaves the city subject to annual torrential rain which, coupled with aging infrastructure and dense population, caused a historical issue with flooding. This caused crippling clogged drains that slowed the city down, caused property damage and even resulted in lost lives.
City leaders took action and installed IoT sensors in more than 30,000 drains to measure water levels, direction and speed. They can now analyse real-time data from the sensors and use the SAP Mobile Platform to ensure maintenance crews have data at their fingertips to clear drains and prevent floods – in so doing, saving lives.
Inspiring stories
These real-life examples typify how organisations can inspire trust in their citizens and serve as inspiration to Public Sector leaders to push the case for new technology. These technology implementations across the world have inspired the launch of SAP’s Run Live Public Sector mobile app.
Download the app on
Google Play or
iTunes to stay abreast of all the latest technology news in your industry. And for more information on how SAP Public Sector helps organisations reap the benefits of digital transformation visit our
website.