Over 500 employees from Newport City Council have ditched on-site storage and have instead moved the council’s financial systems onto the cloud, in an attempt to reduce costs.
With the looming cost-of-living crisis and the nationwide goal to reduce carbon emissions and level up more deprived areas of the United Kingdom, local councils are likely to be under increased pressure to make money go further, so cutting costs in departments such as finance looks like the way forward.
Robert Green, Assistant Head of Finance at Newport City Council, said:
“Quicker processes and better decision-making by the council internally and with local suppliers through tools like procure-to-pay, will help free up the time of hundreds of council employees and managers allowing them to focus on front-line support work.
A cloud-based system is a massive leap forward for us in terms of functionality. Having smarter systems that communicate between themselves in real-time and an interface that all users can navigate with confidence will significantly improve decision making.”
The transferring of systems onto a cloud-based system also proves the importance of online collaboration, as we move out of the Covid-19 pandemic where the majority of the country were forced to work from home. By moving systems online, you are able to reduce the cost of storage, improve the productivity of the workforce and become more adaptable should another event such as the previous pandemic happen.
This manoeuvre is just one of a series of modern adaptations that have been undertaken by Newport City Council as they also look to make resident access easier, allowing them to pay online, fill in forms online and generally becoming the first point of contact for anyone looking to seek information from the council.
Should other councils decide to take up this online approach, there is not only an opportunity to modernise the public sector and reduce spending, but also to create provision for any future outcomes that will require a switch back to either fully home-based or hybrid working.
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