With all the cold weather, rain and winds that have brought flooding and talk of us catching the tail end of America’s ‘Polar Vortex’, it may seem strange that here at Zipporah we’re looking further into this exciting New Year, and to the (not much) warmer times of Spring and Summer.
Why I hear you ask? Just trying to use optimism to get to through the inevitable snow and ice which we’ve become accustomed to at the end of January? Well not exactly… Through the Half Term, Easter and summer holidays, many authorities across the UK will be launching their exciting event programmes, and more than ever will be using Zipporah’s Events Booking Solution to do so.
The Zipporah system has been in use for some time by a number of councils across the UK to handle their courses and events, including Chorley Borough Council to deliver its busy schedule of events within the Get Up and Go programme.
We also work with the London Borough of Hillingdon, who run their extremely popular “FIESTA” programme through the system. This programme has a wide range of activities, for the sporty there are courses in sailing and Brazilian soccer skills whilst the creative can try their hand at fashion designing and photography. For the budding performers there are courses in musical theatre and street dance and for those that fancy trying their hands at their chosen careers they could give motor mechanics or politics a go. Whatever it is, there is something for everyone which can all be booked via the Hillingdon website driven by the Zipporah system.
And with the London Borough of Enfield and Brighton and Hove City Council just two of the more recent authorities to choose Zipporah to help them manage their busy event schedules, why not find out from us in the Business Development Team why our comprehensive system can help your authority out too?
Jordan Burnell
Business Development Executive
Zipporah Ltd is an established and leading supplier of online solutions to both public and private sector organisations. Our products include E-Booking, E-Commerce, Leisure Management, Queuing, Scheduler, All in one and One Stop Shop Applications – working to streamline processes, reduce costs, improve profits and optimise service management, facilitating a faster, more effective and efficient approach to business operations.
Thursday 16 January 2014
Friday 10 January 2014
What will 2014 hold for Public Sector?
2013 for the local government was particularly tough with the spending review revealing further cuts taking £2billion out of local authority budgets in 2015-16. But despite austerity cuts over the past couple years, the vast majority of councils performed well against tight budgets. So now the pressure on local government is not only to sustain the savings’ levels but to deliver even more efficiency and productivity in 2014. How authorities are going to meet these steep demands and what will New Year bring for public sector?
Digital by default agenda is certainly the way forward to unlock further savings and transform services to benefit citizens and service itself. In 2013 many case studies emerged showing how local councils turned around their services by use of the latest technology. Zipporah itself was involved in deployment of many projects, which resulted in a great deal of savings for all of our clients. Some of these were replacements of existing IT applications, or installations to replace manual systems . As some of the frontline services are leading this change, others are yet to be “digitalised” as such the transformation is likely to accelerate over the coming year, resulting in more services becoming available online directly to public.
The last quarter of 2013 saw also the launch of G-Cloud iv, the latest iteration of the Government’s procurement framework which aims to simplify the way in which public sector procures digital services. This was a highly anticipated milestone for many SMEs including Zipporah, and with CloudStore infrastructure in place we hope to make our solutions more accessible and cost-effective to the local authorities in the UK. For the local authorities an ability to reduce procurement cost coupled with the growing desire to work with SMEs which are seen as agile and flexible means the G-Cloud iv success stories are likely to emerge this year.
2014 is also likely to bring a breakthrough in the use of mobile and BYOD policies in the local government. Mobile first strategy has been already taken seriously in public sector with the growing number of responsive websites and the increased demand for mobile-friendly applications throughout 2013. BYOD in particularly, has gained many enthusiasts over the past year, but only few authorities have ratified policies validating use of BYOD. This is likely to change in 2014 as the Local Government Association and the Cabinet Office are in continuous dialogue on how BYOD could be utilised to generate savings and boost productivity.
Although the new year will certainly be tougher, with the local elections on the horizon and more budgetary challenges to overcome, 2014 will certainly be an exciting one to watch. Follow our blog closely to stay up to date with the latest news from the world of local government and Zipporah.
Digital by default agenda is certainly the way forward to unlock further savings and transform services to benefit citizens and service itself. In 2013 many case studies emerged showing how local councils turned around their services by use of the latest technology. Zipporah itself was involved in deployment of many projects, which resulted in a great deal of savings for all of our clients. Some of these were replacements of existing IT applications, or installations to replace manual systems . As some of the frontline services are leading this change, others are yet to be “digitalised” as such the transformation is likely to accelerate over the coming year, resulting in more services becoming available online directly to public.
The last quarter of 2013 saw also the launch of G-Cloud iv, the latest iteration of the Government’s procurement framework which aims to simplify the way in which public sector procures digital services. This was a highly anticipated milestone for many SMEs including Zipporah, and with CloudStore infrastructure in place we hope to make our solutions more accessible and cost-effective to the local authorities in the UK. For the local authorities an ability to reduce procurement cost coupled with the growing desire to work with SMEs which are seen as agile and flexible means the G-Cloud iv success stories are likely to emerge this year.
2014 is also likely to bring a breakthrough in the use of mobile and BYOD policies in the local government. Mobile first strategy has been already taken seriously in public sector with the growing number of responsive websites and the increased demand for mobile-friendly applications throughout 2013. BYOD in particularly, has gained many enthusiasts over the past year, but only few authorities have ratified policies validating use of BYOD. This is likely to change in 2014 as the Local Government Association and the Cabinet Office are in continuous dialogue on how BYOD could be utilised to generate savings and boost productivity.
Although the new year will certainly be tougher, with the local elections on the horizon and more budgetary challenges to overcome, 2014 will certainly be an exciting one to watch. Follow our blog closely to stay up to date with the latest news from the world of local government and Zipporah.
Anna Mazur
Marketing Executive
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