Bristol, UK, December 13 2011, UNIT4, the world’s leading provider of business software for Businesses Living IN Change (BLINC™), today published a market report undertaken by Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) which outlines the current software priorities of regional and local governments worldwide. It finds that public sector organisations are under huge pressure to radically change their structures, the way they operate, their legislative compliance, their cost base and the services they deliver.
The report is based on TEC software selection project data and interviews with IT managers and C-level executives at government sector UNIT4 clients in Western Europe and the US. It highlights three key initiatives that public sector organisations should consider:
- Moving more of their software to an on-demand model
- Selecting business software that is architected specifically to support on-going structural and operational change
- Adopting new forms of collaboration with other public sector organisations.
The report reveals how public sector organisations are being forced to consider replacing their business software because of the inability of existing legacy ERP to support changes such as new reporting requirements. Legislation like mandatory publication of all county/city spending to the public and stricter private data and communication security standards are forcing local and municipal authorities to look for new technology solutions.
TEC’s data also reveals trends related to particular requirements governmental organisations are looking for in their software. These include the ability to configure the user interface and perform drill-down, multiple record-searching parameters, cross-departmental shared functionality and integration with other applications as well as rule-based architectures allowing user control of structures and workflow without the need for code level programing.
“The government sector is still struggling with out-dated systems that are costing tens of thousands every time an organisation wants to respond to a particular business change scenario,” said Darren Hunt, Director at UNIT4 Business Software Ltd. “Although few admit it publicly, the sector has become reliant on such a small set of ERP vendors that they are locked into slow and inflexible systems that are not helping users or citizens. Such systems are exorbitantly expensive to run, mostly because specialist IT consultants have to be called in every time even the smallest systems change is required. The biggest single challenge that governments face is change – not technical change (such as updates, upgrades, new functionality etc) but business change. They operate the most diverse of organisations in the most dynamic business environment; technology should facilitate adaptability but the government sector remains at a substantial disadvantage to the commercial sector due to past technology decisions.”
Government organisations are still reporting a lot of the same functional requirements they have always had, and the report shows how they are being prioritised. However, it concludes that new organisational structures mandate a change to the way they operate in the form of shared or collaborative services supported by modern, flexible software.
The TEC market report titled: “Changing Trends in Regional Government Enterprise Solution Requirements”, is available to download here.
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About UNIT4
UNIT4 is a global business software and services company aimed at helping dynamic public sector, and commercial services organisations to embrace change simply, quickly and cost effectively in a market sector it calls 'Businesses Living IN Change' (BLINC)™. The Group incorporates a number of the world’s leading change embracing software brands including Agresso Business World, our flagship ERP suite for mid-sized services intensive organisations and Coda, our best-of-class financial management software.
In the UK we focus strongly on the public sector, where we are the leading provider of ERP systems to local government and post 16 education organisations, as well as having a considerable presence in the emergency services and health sectors. We also focus strongly on professional services organisations and a range of commercial sectors including Financial Services, Retail and Media and Publishing. Overall we aim to be the UK’s foremost business software company, providing solutions that transform the delivery of public services and comprehensively support commercial organisations in their ability to adapt and prosper in rapidly changing environments.
With operations in 17 European countries, as well as 7 countries across North America, Asia Pacific and Africa and sales activities in several other countries, its revenue was €421.7 million in 2010. UNIT4 is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands and has over 4,000 employees. It is listed on Euronext Amsterdam and is included in the Amsterdam Midcap Index (AMX). For more information on UNIT4 or any of its operating companies, please visit the website at www.unit4.com, follow us on Twitter @UNIT4_UK
