Waterstons unveil the future of technology for the public sector

Representatives from fifteen North East councils gathered together in Durham last week to hear how modern technology can be used to increase efficiency, improve collaboration, benefit the environment and cut costs within the public sector. 

Business and technology experts from Durham based IT consultancy Waterstons and Microsoft addressed the conference on topics identified by members of the Society of IT Management (SOCITM) as being of key strategic importance to public sector organisations in the area.

The delegates learned how virtualisation technology could save the council's money, reduce the amount of space they need to store IT equipment, improve the flexibility and responsiveness of their IT departments, offer a robust business continuity solution and benefit the environment through a reduction in energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Waterstons’ technical director, Andrew Kershaw, commented: “Servers worldwide currently gobble up an amazing 120 billion kwh of electricity each year, which is equivalent to 1% of global energy consumption or 14 medium sized power stations.  By embracing virtualisation technology, this figure could be reduced significantly, which would make a really positive impact on the environment around us.”

The council representatives also heard about mobile working.  Waterstons’ senior consultant, Paul Devenney, explained: “There are many benefits to be gained from utilising modern communication and collaboration technologies for workers on the move.  This can be as simple as giving employees the ability to work on the move, but also includes giving council workers who are out in the field mobile PCs or digital assistants on which they can record data, which is then synchronised with an office system, allowing repairs to be scheduled or benefits to be approved almost instantaneously.  This as you can imagine will improve efficiency within the council, reduce the need to travel and also improve the services offered to citizens.”

Ken Walker, an Assistant Director at Darlington Borough Council, with responsibility for ICT, was there on the day and said “Some of the larger councils in the area are leading the way and have already adopted these technologies, but Waterstons have demonstrated today that councils of all sizes can benefit.  The public should see a big impact over the next few years as councils utilise technology to become greener, more efficient and most importantly offer a better service to our citizens.”

Pictured: Waterstons' technical director, Andrew Kershaw, who spoke at the conference.