O2 launches vision for digital public sector

O2 today marked its ambition for the public sector IT market with the launch of a new approach to help public sector organisations connect their staff, citizens, assets, IT systems and communications.

Joined Up Public Services brings together the best of O2’s digital capabilities to enable the public sector to increase efficiencies and collaboration, save money, support citizen engagement and empower staff through technology.

The new approach will focus on three core service areas. The first of these, Joined Up Citizen, launches today and will cover:

• Citizen and Community Engagement – helping public sector organisations open up new channels for communication and engagement, allowing them to get closer to the people they serve and encourage local economic development

• Empowering employees – helping public sector organisations ensure that employees have the right tools and information available to them at the right point in time, in order to help engage citizens more effectively, and deliver better outcomes

• Digital services – helping public sector organisations harness the power of digital technology to develop better, more efficient ways of working, without compromising quality of service. This could include building a better approach to managing daily operations of a community or enabling citizens to complete more routine transactions through digital channels

Billy D’Arcy, managing director, O2 Public Sector, commented: “Digital services hold the key to helping the public sector make crucial savings – whether through policies and devices to empower staff to work more flexibly, or a mobile app to make it easier for local authorities to engage with communities. We have created Joined Up Public Services to help our public sector customers tackle some of their toughest challenges, by putting digital services at the heart of every solution.

He continued: “O2 has a proven track record of helping some of Britain’s biggest private enterprises transform the way they work through technology. We’re also responsible for the digital services of over 23 million citizens, every day. Because of this we believe we’re perfectly placed to understand the challenges faced by public sector organisations to deliver day in, day out. It’s this experience that allows us to bring a unique perspective in helping our public sector customers deliver great service through technology.”

The new approach comes after the creation of O2’s dedicated Public Sector business division and following its accreditation to a series of lots on the Government’s Public Services Network (PSN) in July 2012.