ERP presents a solution to continuing data compatibility challenges for the public sector
The latest State of the Digital Nation report highlights that the Public Sector historically experiences disruptions and challenges and today is no different – with digital transformation projects delayed or stagnated by both external and internal factors.
One of the most important themes emerging from this research is that data compatibility remains a key issue for the public sector.
It’s also become a larger issue as time has gone on, with more than a third of organizations in 2023 saying it requires wholesale improvement.
In this blog, we’ll explore why this is, and how you can go about securing the compatibility and interoperability your organization needs to effectively deliver services.
What is data compatibility?
- Data compatibility refers to the ability of different systems, applications, or databases to effectively exchange, process, and interpret data without errors, inconsistencies, or loss of information. It ensures that data remains accurate, accessible, and usable across various platforms and formats.
- Data compatibility in the context of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) refers to the ability of an ERP system to seamlessly integrate, process, and exchange data across different applications, modules, and external systems. It ensures that all data remains accurate, consistent, and usable across various platforms, with a single source of truth.
With our research showing public sector organizations are facing increased pressure to deliver productivity savings, data compatibility is critical for the public sector to utilize raw data by turning it into insights and information to use for planning and decision-making.
Click to read 21st-century shared services for the public sector (Gated)
Why is data compatibility a challenge?
Outdated legacy systems hamper an organization’s ability to be agile, adaptable, and accurate, and struggle to effectively satisfy true notions of data compatibility – some challenges include:
- Siloed Data - Data siloes mean that data often is gatekept by specific teams, there may even be separate external systems that handle certain data independently. Along with data security issues and inefficiency, this becomes a problem.
- Data Integration - When legacy systems lack modern APIs or struggle to communicate with newer cloud-based platforms, integration becomes an issue.
- Finding a single source of truth - Additionally, data silos often emerge when different departments or applications operate in isolation, making it difficult to share information and maintain consistency across an organization. Without a single source of data truth, it's hard to make fully informed decisions that are useful to all teams and departments.
- Accuracy - Errors, duplicates, and missing values can disrupt synchronization between systems, and inconsistencies in naming conventions and data keying lead to confusion and inefficiencies.
- Data security - Security and compliance requirements add another layer of complexity. Different regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA, may dictate how data is stored and shared. But, with multiple systems that are fragmented, data is often shared manually between peers, which exposes sensitive data to cybercriminals.
- Scalability – With an increasing volume of data or growing fragmented systems, organizations may struggle to maintain consistency across this level of data generation, especially for growing organizations.
- Upgrade maintenance – With multiple systems, upgrading even one could result in data compatibility issues. This becomes an issue as an organization grows and its data needs grow. Upgrading and maintaining so many systems can result in unmanageable workloads.
Why is data compatibility important for the public sector?
Unit4’s State of the Digital Nation, when compared with 2021, shows data compatibility across some applications has actually decreased. In 2023, 35% say data is compatible across some applications, compared to 53% in 2021.
Although there is a decrease in manual data entry, in 2023 there is still more than a third (36%) saying data is manually keyed/entered by someone from paper to software systems, while 42% say data is manually exported from one system and then imported into another system. This presents a huge challenge for data compatibility.
Central Govt has the biggest problem with manual data entry (49%) and manual exporting of data (54%), followed by healthcare (50%), but the situation is much more positive in local government, where 53% report no duplication of data across apps.
Couple this with the fact that more respondents in 2023 have told us that compatibility of data across applications and departments requires wholesale improvements (29% in 2023 vs 16% in 2021), it’s clearly something that needs addressing.
Regionally, Canada (41%) has the highest proportion demanding wholesale improvements to data compatibility followed by the UK (35%). Curiously, Sweden has the smallest proportion suggesting a need for wholesale improvement despite having potentially the worst problems with manual data entry.
54% also state that they need greater access to real-time data in order to be able to manage operations and ensure a good standard of service delivery and cost control – data compatibility will be key.
Overall, there’s a greater degree of pessimism about the promise of transformation in this area. Fewer are confident that transformation will deliver interoperability, which suggests data needs to regain its position at the heart of transformation projects and technological investment.
In 2023, 43% were completely confident in transformation, compared to 48% in 2021, and adoption of data management tools remains the top way to address data compatibility - 52% say they are in adoption mode of data management tools.
How can Unit4 help your public sector organization achieve your data compatibility goals?
Unit4’s ERP system provides a Cloud platform that integrates data between ERP data (Enterprise Resource Planning), HCM data (Human Capital Management), and FP&A data (Financial Planning and Analysis). This triple-value data platform provides Public Sector organizations with everything they need to reimagine operations.
Our Public Sector software rapidly improves collaboration between your HR, Finance, Procurement, and Project teams and provides real-time insights to support effective planning, informed decision-making, and achievement of organizational goals, providing benefits such as:
- Saving time and costs for a higher ROI
- Supporting your unique journey with a modular approach that matches your pace
- Delivering resilience and agility on a flexible platform designed to facilitate change
- Getting you up and running fast with industry-specific models and short onboarding times
- Seamlessly integrating data across all your applications
- Increasing forecasting accuracy to improve strategic planning
For a full appraisal of everything covered in this blog, consult the full public sector State of the Digital Nation Report, or our datasheet with the data compatibility highlights - talk to sales to learn more about how Unit4 can help you.
