Denmark is one of the most digitally advanced countries in the world, but further digitalization is necessary if the public sector is to meet the challenges of the future. That was the starting point when Christian G. Koch-Bentzen, Business Group Lead at Microsoft, welcomed everyone to a morning "Out in the field with the public sector".
The future public sector will be far more data-driven in all areas than it is today, and technology makes it possible to rethink the way we deliver public services. These were two of the main points when Maria Damborg Hald, Director of Public Sector at Microsoft Denmark, and Bo Moller, Business Applications Industry Lead at Microsoft, presented three pressing challenges that the public sector is currently facing.
The first challenge is increased pressure on public budgets and demands for efficiency. In the future, the public sector must be able to deliver efficient processes, and this requirement will not disappear. The second pressing challenge that the public sector is facing is a historic shortage of labor. Therefore, optimized workflows, digitalization of processes, and automation are more relevant than ever before.
The final challenge is attracting and retaining labor: The public employees of the future will not sit and work in Excel sheets, but have clear expectations of the tools available in their work. And if you want to attract – and not least retain – skilled employees, the public sector must begin to implement more modern platforms, explained Maria Hald Damborg.
The potential benefits of improved digital support in the public sector will include simpler and more efficient workflows, better integration in system support that reduces complexity, and improved opportunities to collect and use data.
"We in the Surveillance Department have a vision that we should gather our work processes and data in one place. In this way, we can standardize and streamline our surveillance, so that we work the same way across and ensure that data is consistent," says Sacha Hvitfeldt Kofod."
As a good example of digitalization in the public sector, the Environmental Agency's Surveillance presented an ongoing digitalization project that Delegate is a partner in.
Sacha Hvitfeldt Kofod, Project Manager at the Environmental Agency, and Delegate's Principal AI Specialist and delivery responsible for the project, Erik David Johnson, presented the main lines of the collaboration and the upcoming solution on the day.
The Environmental Agency monitors everything from streams to nature and various species, and Surveillance is divided into a total of five units across Denmark. There are therefore many different people and interests to accommodate when developing and implementing a new surveillance solution:
"We in the Surveillance Department have a vision that we should gather our work processes and data in one place. In this way, we can standardize and streamline our surveillance, so that we work the same way across and ensure that data is consistent," says Sacha Hvitfeldt Kofod."
The vision is to use Field Service in the Dynamics platform to support all surveillance work processes and integrate relevant data through the database. The final solution will make it easier for individual field employees to take the right samples, in the right places, and ensure that they have all the necessary information at hand. The first phase of the project will go live in a few weeks.
As a final item, the attendees were given the opportunity to try Microsoft's HoloLens2. With HoloLens2, you can collaborate with colleagues even if they are located somewhere else, and using an overlaid holographic canvas, you can easily solve specific problems in real-time.
For example, an employee with no prior experience can be guided by their colleague to safely and correctly change a cable, without the colleague being physically present. The employee in the field simply puts on the HoloLens2 and can then receive step-by-step help to solve the problem, right now.
The technology can be beneficially used in many different industries, and HoloLens2 is already being used by a number of private companies around Denmark – however, not yet in the public sector.
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