Former Dragon Den star Piers Linney, Co-CEO of cloud computing firm Outsourcery, has been chosen as one of eight new SME representatives to sit on techUK’s Public Services Board.
The Board brings together senior leaders from technology companies of all sizes, with digital transformation of the public sector central to its agenda. Through effective and early engagement with the government and strong leadership on critical policy issues related to public services transformation, the PSB seeks to drive improved efficiencies in the public sector through the adoption of new technologies.
Commenting on his election to the PSB, Linney stated: "Traditionally, uptake of new technologies among public sector bodies has been slow. Being part of techUK’s PSB provides an excellent opportunity to use Outsourcery’s knowledge and experience to help bring positive change, in terms of technology adoption, to the UK public sector. I am looking forward to helping drive techUK’s agenda forward, by promoting better use of technology as a way of improving public services.
"Since its introduction in 2012, the G-Cloud has been an important initiative in easing procurement of technology-based services for public sector bodies, alongside initiatives likes 'Cloud First’ and 'Digital by Default’. However, uptake of cloud technology on the whole is still relatively low, particularly in local government. Plainly, the industry should be doing more to promote the benefits of cloud but also to meaningfully address the perceived barriers to adoption in the public sector, to ensure swift, trouble-free uptake of new technologies. The PSB plays a central role to helping us achieve this,\" he continued.
Linney believes that SMEs such as Outsourcery are in a strong position to deliver technology solutions to the public sector, facilitating a more flexible and efficient approach.
"In the past, it was considered the norm for larger companies to implement several bureaucratic layers when arranging service contracts in the public sector,\" he added. "
"For SMEs like Outsourcery, this is neither straightforward nor desirable: instead, smaller companies can implement services quickly and effectively, which will encourage a more consistent approach to technology adoption in the public sector.\"