Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2012/01/23/public_sector_research/

Public sector imperatives

Sneak peek of poll results

By Dale Vile, Freeform Dynamics

Posted in Legal, 23rd January 2012 12:44 GMT

Reader Research We’ve just had a little look at the results so far from our currently running public sector poll.

As a reminder, the aim of the exercise is to flush out insights, tips and tricks that can be of use to those involved in reporting and performance management in a public sector environment.

The poll so far is confirming the need to have your act together here. The top three imperatives cited across the 80 or so public sector entities that are represented in the poll so far are to save money, increase service levels to citizens, and demonstrate that you are doing so. No surprises there, but it highlights the significance of what we are instigating. Knowing what to measure and having the right monitoring and analysis systems and processes in place is pretty much essential for all three of the imperatives that have come out on top.

One of the other big things that’s emerging from the study is that bean counting is generally covered a lot better than service effectiveness, i.e. while public sector entities often (though not always) have a reasonable handle on what they are spending, visibility of what they are delivering for that money and how efficiently is frequently lacking.

But the point of this is not to beat people up on the shortcomings; we want to identify some of the more common underlying problems and constraints, along with options for making things better based on readers’ experiences.

We’re already starting to build a picture here, but we could do with more data. So, if you are involved in public sector IT, or have anything to do with reporting or analysis of performance in a public sector environment, we’d appreciate you contributing your own thoughts and insights by clicking here.