Every day is digital
This research underlines that technology and digital transformation have a key role to play in the future of local government services.
Moreover, the findings show that people living in Scotland are open to innovation and willing to embrace technology in this area.
For central and local government in Scotland, the research also makes positive reading – from policy setting to delivering council services ‘on the ground’, it’s clear that technology has great potential to enhance the local government operation.
As more devices are connected to the IoT, and as smart technologies become commonplace, the potential of the smart city will be realised.
Used effectively, data gathered from Scotland’s cities will make for cleaner, greener and safer spaces.
This will improve the quality of life for residents, as well as changing how councils use and maintain services – reducing costs, and allowing councils to analyse trends and direct resources appropriately.
The key takeaway is that while technology to better connect public services is emerging all the time, the supporting infrastructure that allows councils to roll out projects in the first instance, also needs to be in place.
The IoT requires secure, fast and reliable connectivity to support it; and the infrastructure must make it easy for new services to be provisioned – so non-tech experts can get up and running with projects immediately. Importantly, it needs to be country-wide so that all of Scotland can benefit.
The good news for those in the public sector, as well as technology developers and vendors with solutions for the local government sector, is this infrastructure already exists.
The Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN) was created to establish a single shared network and common ICT infrastructure across Scotland’s entire public sector.
Connectivity is already provided to approximately 6,000 sites across Scotland through 250 unbundled exchanges and over 7,000km of fibre network – this includes 50 per cent of local authorities, a further 52 member organisations. 3,000 NHS sites and 22 NHS Health Boards.
SWAN can help local councils to build an IoT network at rapid pace, and ultimately help to deliver the digital experience that citizens will expect in the future.