ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL

across a typical council footprint .”

Needing to champion flexibility , security and innovative thinking , Essex County Council has turned its attention to digitisation with notable success .

But how does the local authority meet the demands of a disruptive tech landscape whilst also staying within a council ’ s ever-tightening budget ?

“ I think it can be a challenge but at the council we all believe that we can make services more efficient using technology ,” says Kitcat . “ Demonstrating that can be quite hard , but the theory is if you make the service more user-friendly , efficient , quick and online , you will manage demand better and reduce spending .

“ The citizen won ’ t see this , but in the background our aim is that we ultimately want to move to a standardised cloud-based approach which should simplify our technology estate ,” he adds . “ We should have simpler but better systems which will save money . On top of that it will also improve productivity and collaboration because if you ’ re using cloud-based

JASON KITCAT , EXECUTIVE DIRECT

142 June 2018