techUK sets out recommendations to support adoption and scaling of Intelligent Automation in Central Government
Read techUK’s Industry Perspective: Intelligent Automation in Central Government
techUK’s Tech & Innovation Programme has joined forces with the Central Government Programme to launch its first-ever Industry Perspective on Intelligent Automation in Central Government. This paper is a culmination of techUK’s Intelligent Automation Campaign which took place in the first half of 2021.
With case studies from leading industry suppliers such as UiPath, CGI, Workday and BJSS, this paper outlines how Government and Industry can work together to promote and scale adoption of Intelligent Automation (IA) across Government Departments.
techUK members, many of them leaders in the field of Intelligent Automation, recently met to share their experiences of working with 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.
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.
The pandemic has thrown into even sharper focus the imperative for a public sector that must operate differently. It is increasingly recognised that government services are enhanced by supportive Intelligent Automation (IA) technologies which are a powerful tool for enhancing the citizen experience and the efficient inter-workings of government processes, delivering immediate impact with impressive payback. What’s more, IA can enhance legacy IT, by enabling the expansive legacy infrastructure to be adapted to ongoing and future challenges. UiPath fully supports the six recommendations put forward in the techUK paper and endorse the view that IA should become a strategic pillar of local and central Government IT systems roadmaps. UiPath’s approach to building integrated IA programs that supports the Public Sectors’ delivery of these important recommendations.
Over the course of the pandemic, organisations have experienced first-hand how Intelligent Automation leads to faster and better business outcomes with less risk. This, in turn, has led to increased uptake in a positive shift that looks set to continue beyond the end of the pandemic and far into the future.
Laura Foster
Laura is techUK’s Associate Director for Technology and Innovation.
Jill Broom
Jill leads the techUK Cyber Security programme, having originally joined techUK in October 2020 as a Programme Manager for the Cyber and Central Government programmes. She is responsible for managing techUK's work across the cyber security ecosystem, bringing industry together with key stakeholders across the public and private sectors. Jill also provides the industry secretariat for the Cyber Growth Partnership, the industry and government conduit for supporting the growth of the sector. A key focus of her work is to strengthen the public–private partnership across cyber to support further development of UK cyber security and resilience policy.