Anyone who has ever undergone a major technology implementation realises, often too late, that cultural transformation goes hand-in-hand with any digital transformation. With more than 20 years of experience helping individuals and organisations achieve peak performance, including spending the last ten years in global HR Advisory roles for 麻豆原创, Michael Esau has seen and helped organisations manage a fair share of organisational changes. The most significant of those changes has likely been the way technology has transformed the way organisations operate, collaborate, and communicate.

Recently, Michael sat down with Satpal Biant, Head of Public Sector at 麻豆原创 UK & Ireland, to discuss how organisations like those in the UK public sector who are currently implementing the Shared Services Strategy, can get employees onboard from the outset and how organisations can use the process of digital transformation to their advantage 鈥� to identify outdated processes and identify where automation and collaboration can create a more productive, efficient and successful organisation.

Satpal: Michael, we鈥檝e both been in the trenches on many major digital transformation programmes in the Public Sector; from a people-perspective, what do you think is the essential starting point when guiding a customer through the 麻豆原创 transformation journey?

Michael: The most fundamental thing for organisational leaders to do is to set that North Star; to know how you want the technology to work for you and your organisation. For example, if a department is considering implementing new HR processes, it should be thinking about its end-goals like making onboarding journeys straightforward, as well as making the workplace a great place to learn, grow and perform well for existing employees.

Technology transformation should be 鈥榖ottom-up鈥� rather than 鈥榯op-down鈥�. Of course, the initial pressure to change may come from the top 鈥� the Shared Services Strategy for Government is a good example of this. But the execution of change must be done with a people-first mindset, with buy-in from all stakeholders.

So, when we look at organisational change, we work with our clients to answer four key questions:

1. What is humanly desirable? In other words, what does the organisation want to achieve and change?
2. Is what we want to change organisationally doable when considering the operating model, the proposition and the existing team and hiring requirements?
3. Is it technologically feasible? For example, is there the data integration capability needed?
4. Finally, is a transformation economically viable?

Fundamentally, organisations must be clear on the final destination – the North Star. The technology is just there to enable that change to happen.

Satpal: That organisational transformation can be difficult to navigate, especially when an organisation has never gone through such a fundamental and systematic change.

This is especially true of many public sector organisations. In the past, Government technology transformation was often focused on the front end, user-interface experience, without touching the legacy back-end systems. But now with the UK鈥檚 Shared Services Strategy, that change needs to be implemented end-to-end. How do we help customers, particularly in the public sector, feel comfortable taking that leap?

Michael: One of the key things that makes 麻豆原创 a transformation partner of choice is that we respect our customers need for consultation and flexibility. Many of our competitors offer one-size-fits-all solutions, but because our solutions are modular, organisations can 鈥� I suppose 鈥� 鈥榖ite the elephant鈥� rather than eating the whole thing at once. Their rollout is fully customisable, and they can remain agile, which is important from a proposition perspective.

Satpal: That鈥檚 true 鈥� many of our partners have told us that our flexible implementation process has helped their organisations adopt a culture of agility. People often view digital transformation as moving from fixed state A to fixed state B 鈥� which is a legacy transformation mindset. It鈥檚 actually a change from where you are now, to a position where you can be adapting to new requirements. It is a significant mindset shift though, and presumably that new mindset is a big factor in those initial discussions.

Michael: We don鈥檛 assume that customers have experienced transformations like this in the past, so we take the time to share the key considerations that underpin the change and the decisions required to get ready to execute the change 鈥�

When embarking on a change or transformation, knowing that the organisation is committed to change is super important. Needing to change versus committing fully to change are two separate things. We advise customers to identify who will be impacted by the change – which stakeholders are involved. We discuss the changes with those stakeholders, ensuring everyone understands and is committed. But we don鈥檛 stop there, we provide powerful business process intelligence to show end users how the processes they use today will change in the future, well in advance of any technology being deployed, we call this simulating the change. The benefits of this unique approach can be significant, from reduced cost on change management right through to de-risking the transformation programme.

The other part of driving customer success is by looking 5 years ahead. A major piece of advice to all of our customers is to work backwards from the desired outcomes. How will the organisation know it is making the desired progress, is moving the needle in the right areas and progressing as planned Advising customers to think about the change considerations and rigorously applying them, is vitally important to the attainment of any change programme.

Satpal: Ensuring that buy-in, again, from the bottom-up is so critical to a successful transformation. Some of our customers choose to capture employee sentiment in tools like 麻豆原创 Qualtrics throughout their technology change programme as well. This is a powerful way to reduce resistance to solution adoption that can hamper implementations, and ensure employee satisfaction with their day-to-day technology and IT support processes. Our collective experiences over the last few years has also made that stakeholder commitment easier in some ways as most people know that a cloud transition can enable new, better ways of working. 麻豆原创鈥檚 transformations not only change the emphasis of work 鈥� building processes around collaboration and communication 鈥� but also enable hybrid working. It鈥檚 easier to secure staff buy-in because they realise it will enable them to do all the things they could do before, but with less complexity and with new capabilities to manage data and stay secure, as well as to work more flexibly.

Michael: The transformation can be an empowering and a positive cultural change. A lot of public sector organisations have technology that can鈥檛 be operated remotely, meaning large groups of people always had to be in the office. By enabling people to work remotely you are challenging existing practices and preparing leaders for the future of work, by helping them build trust with employees who have been given greater flexibility and freedom.

Satpal: 鈥nd using technology to lay that foundation for agility and embracing the future of work is often the real North Star in all of this. We鈥檝e always been about people, process, outcomes, and working backwards from what the customer wants to achieve. Technology is almost the easiest part because culture sits around that. But the role of the leader and the employee in the long term? That is the most important success factor, and that is why we spend so much time coaching organisations to feel confident in their motivations and goals.

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Likewise, some (primarily front-office) functions have transitioned to the cloud while others (usually back-office) are still running with on-premise, legacy systems, adding to the Government鈥檚 Technical Debt.

This siloed approach has fostered inefficiencies, increased complexity and has hampered organisations鈥� ability to share data with each other. It has also made it difficult, if not impossible to track end-to-end processes across the Government due to differences in the way data is captured and held.

These problems have only been exacerbated by the pandemic as home working and isolation measures have created a greater reliance on digital services. This in turn has placed additional stress on civil servants who are constantly required to learn new skills to engage with and deliver citizen services, and potentially move across departments within the Civil Service to support with capacity.

Announced in March 2021, the Government鈥檚 Shared Services Strategy for Government is designed to address these problems. It will consolidate digital services across five multi-department shared-services centres, categorised as 鈥楧efence鈥�, 鈥極verseas鈥�, 鈥楽ynergy鈥� (previously called 鈥楧elivery鈥�), 鈥楳atrix鈥� (previously called 鈥楶olicy鈥�) and 鈥楬MRC-led鈥�. The Strategy provides a roadmap for more streamlined and harmonised services featuring cloud-based modern ERP systems that are user friendly and easily integrated. 聽, the Director General, Government Business Services: “[It] will allow the Civil Service to deliver insights; continuously improve to drive down costs; develop accessible, intuitive, and useful systems for civil servants; and innovate and embrace competition.鈥�

The Government has high aspirations for its digital transformation strategy 鈥� and rightfully so. Over the past decade, private enterprises have recognised enormous efficiency, integration and cost-saving benefits from similar cloud-transformation programmes. However, there are some considerations, unique to the public sector, which public sector change leaders must address before embarking on what will ideally be a long-term partnership between the organisations and the technology providers chosen to deliver results.

1. Accept that change is inevitable

鈥淚f it鈥檚 not broken, don鈥檛 fix it, right?鈥� In this case: wrong. One of the key challenges that public sector organisations will likely face in their move to a Shared Services model will be leaving behind familiar systems that have been highly customised to meet their organisation鈥檚 perceived needs.

However, even without the Shared Services Strategy, most legacy systems being used in the public sector today are already aging and out-of-date. Many organisations still don鈥檛 have a clear pathway to the cloud for their back-office systems. Existing systems need to be replaced to keep pace with technological advancements and to benefit from next generation, modular cloud ERP platforms, processing capabilities, automation and cybersecurity safeguards. Some vendors may compare moving to a new ERP system to a simple upgrade. In truth, completely new systems and processes will need to be put in place, data will need to be migrated and the user experience will change, for the better.

Because of this, it may be easier and more cost effective for organisations to move to a new technology vendor to support the transformation programme, rather than remain with an old provider that doesn鈥檛 provide the right level of technology capabilities, services or support.

2. Focus on value over price

In the past, traditional public sector procurement methods have been primarily based on a very simple evaluation criteria: Allocate a high percentage of marks to the lowest price.

This approach has historically not delivered the best outcome for customers, resulting in delayed projects or solutions that don鈥檛 meet the full scope of the requirements. 聽These ill-conceived projects then must be managed through change control, leaving behind a trail of higher costs and at best strained and at worst completely broken relations between the customer, ERP provider and system integrator, in the courts and for all to see in the public domain.

Moving forward and when transitioning to the cloud, we all need to consider an alternative approach to procurement, by adopting a commercial model that makes all the parties work together with a common goal and shared governance. A commercial model where all the suppliers are more accountable and have 鈥榮kin in the game鈥�.

The best outcomes occur when all parties are prepared to engage in a spirt of openness. Where the ERP vendor can really get to understand the business pains relevant to each department and structure a commercial model that is linked to deliverables, outcomes and benefits. Mitigating risk and delivering a much greater return on investment and faster time to value.

3. Embrace and simplify working with commodity cloud hosting providers

While public sector organisations will always want the assurance of working with an experienced ERP vendor, they should also benefit from the flexibility and economy of scale that come from working with the some of the most innovative dominating cloud services 鈥� known as commodity cloud hosting providers or hyperscalers. In fact, many public sector organisations are already working with commodity cloud hosting providers; it makes sense for them to choose a partner who will continue to leverage and scale the exiting relationship.

There is incredible power behind the innovation and sustainability that commodity cloud hosting providers鈥� data centres deliver, which means data centre resources are easily accessible, cost effective, reliable, and scalable. That scalability means having an ERP partner that can grow with the organisation, deliver on a multi-cloud strategy for its ERP business applications or adapt to new requirements are strategically important considerations. This is especially essential in a fluctuating world.

4. Think adoption not adaptation

The civil service is not a single employer; individuals are contracted to their department. As policies and processes have diverged from organisation to organisation, so too have technology processes, as they have been customised to meet the specific needs of its users and department.

At first glance, the shared services strategy seems to put paid to the ability of organisations to use programmes customised to their organisation. Yet, while it鈥檚 true that the Strategy will emphasise common data standards and greatly increased data sharing across departments, a next generation, modular cloud ERP system will still allow departments to configure their solution to a way that works best for their organisation, while still working within the frameworks of the larger organisation / cluster.

5. Choose secure in-country services

The public sector has tight regulatory requirements which increasingly require secure in-country cloud services. This allows organisations to support the UK鈥檚 Critical National Infrastructure in areas such as healthcare, transport, education, policing, central and local government, and utilities.

The impact of this can鈥檛 be overstated. By modernising and transforming systems through cloud transformation, services are simplified, unnecessary costs removed, and capacity is created for staff, such as frontline workers, freed up to carry out crucial roles 鈥� without being waylaid by cumbersome and time-intensive administrative systems. In addition to driving significant efficiencies, harnessing public cloud with sensitive data will facilitate better insights, driving faster and improved decision making to transform citizen services.

The Shared Services Strategy is an ambitious undertaking but one that is both achievable and beneficial to everyone involved 鈥� the Government, the civil service and citizens. It has unlocked an unprecedented opportunity to rethink how the Government interacts with its citizens and points the way to a more enabled, empowered and ultimately progressive future of government services. We at 麻豆原创 welcome the Strategy and look forward to the opportunity to partner with you in delivering a successful programme.

Satpal Biant, Head of Public Sector, UK & Ireland

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