Services seek to save billions with IT in 2015

Strategies that save money and improve service eyed by a range of service organisations

Online and digital are key approaches targeted by a range of public sector organisations and charities for 2015 with a view to cost reduction and improved services, a vendor survey has confirmed.

According to vendor Goss Interactive, which asked individuals at 362 organisations in its second annual Channel Shift survey about their savings expectations for next year and then added up their answers, perhaps as much as £5bn could be saved through a range of strategies – including moving public services online.

"The combined pressures of deep budget cuts and the move to digital by default have led to a sharp increase in channel-shift strategy adoption," according to the report. "This year, 58 per cent of respondents say an organisation-wide channel shift strategy is in place, up from 39 per cent in the last survey."

The average potential saving per organisation for 2015 was estimated by survey respondents as £1.75m, up from £694,000 in the 2014 poll. Responses from all survey respondents were added together to give the potential £5bn saving, a Goss spokesperson confirmed to ChannelWeb.

Goss's results include responses from 68 charities, 67 housing associations, and 227 public sector organisations (111 local authorities; 52 NHS Trusts or other healthcare bodies; 46 education-focused organisations; 46 non-departmental public bodies; and 27 central government organisations including the House of Commons, Defra, and the Department of Work and Pensions).

According to the Goss spokesperson, the range of organisations chosen represented bodies that deliver public services.

In the report, Goss explains its "channel-shift" concept as a strategy for moving as many customer interactions as possible to cheaper channels while improving services and the user experience. Often this will mean an IT-based channel, such as online, or mobile – but it is also about redesigning processes to make them more efficient.

"Most often these will be digital channels, but channel shift also acknowledges that some customers can't or won't access services in this way," it said. "Organisations need to radically rethink every aspect of their operations for a digital, mobile and social age."

Goss Interactive is a Devon-based software developer which focuses on content management systems, marketing platforms, analytics, processes, and social media management offerings.