Aspects of Digital Change

Book excerpt: Digital change is a notoriously difficult endeavour to undertake. The public sector has engaged in many projects to embrace digitalisation. These include projects in health and social care, the benefits system, EU farm subsidy payments and child support payments, to name a few. Project timescales and budgets are over-run and aspects of the projects are sometimes abandoned with many millions of pounds sunk. In the private sector, companies such as Amazon use ‘test and learn’ approaches to build technology platforms that deliver real person-centred services. What is the difference between the Amazon approach and the failures we see in the use of public money? This book addresses this question beginning with examples of the development of technology in a range of industry sectors. It tells the story of what was learned over eight years in developing and selling digital platform technology into health and social care. By capturing the understanding gained from the experience, the book will enable the reader to become aware of why eCommerce and other digital platforms are flourishing in our private lives, whilst our experience of health and care remains rooted in the distant past.