Download Evidence - Mobile UK

The Mobile Broadband Group
www.mobilebroadbandgroup.com
Labour Party’s Digital Government Review
Input from the Mobile Broadband Group
12th June 2014
Labour Party’s Digital Government Review
Input from the Mobile Broadband Group
The Mobile Broadband Group (MBG) is the group through which the UK’s mobile network operators (EE,
Telefonica UK [O2], Three and Vodafone) work on a broad range of public policy and regulatory issues. As
such, we welcome the opportunity to contribute to the Labour Party’s Digital Government Review.
Introduction
A confluence of circumstances in recent years has presented the UK’s government with a ‘once in a
generation’, opportunity to transform the delivery and efficiency of public services through greater use of
technology, particularly mobile technology:
1. Significant, ongoing investment in mobile infrastructure by the UK’s network operators
2. Rapid adoption of smart phones, tablets and the mobile Internet by the UK public
3. Decisions by policy makers to reduce public deficits and debt, while trying at the same time
meeting public expectations of better public services
These events provide an exceptionally fertile context within which to effect change in ‘Digital
Government’.
There are already good examples of the successful implementations of mobile solutions, delivering
efficiency gains and improved services and that the public sector is thinking seriously about how to make
further improvements.
Nevertheless, there are still significant barriers to further adoption that need addressing if the full
potential for transformation, particular as a means of extending participation for hard to reach
communities and groups, are to be realised:
1. Governments’ poor record for delivering IT projects on time and on budget
2. Skill shortages
3. Attitudes to flexible working
4. Mobile optimisation
5. Concerns about security
Recommendations
1. Capture best practice to improve performance on IT projects
It is apparent from the focus on digital government around the world that there are successful
projects being established. For example, in the UK, the majority of tax returns and car tax
renewals are now done online. It seems to be the case, though, that there are insufficient
resources being devoted to capturing, evaluating and disseminating information about these
positive outcomes.
The government should devote more resources to capturing this vital information, with a view to
improving outcomes from IT procurement projects. A future Government should note that digital
Government can also be extended piecemeal, through the gradual rollout of code, apps and
extension of service, it does not have to depend on big bang rollouts which often are costly and
do not work as anticipated. There is much that Government can learn from how leading digital
business and communication companies roll out digital services.
2. Develop the digital skills base
The Government must continue to place emphasis on developing the UK’s digital skill base, where
there remains a shortage of appropriate skills. It can leverage the education, public and private
sector to deliver more education and training.
We would hope that a future Labour government would take forward the work of Go ON, and
others, in looking at how to stimulate both the supply side and demand side of online use. As Go
ON has shown, the average online household saves over £400 a year as compared to a house
hold that is not online.
There must also be continued efforts to get everyone on-line (although, it is worth noting from
Ofcom’s recent survey that the proportion of over 65s now online has risen 9 percentage points
to 42% in 2013/14, largely driven by greater use of tablets)1.
Digital by default should continue to be a prime driver of the uptake of digitised services,
however sufficient resource to enable users to be taught how to access digital services, must be
built into the rollout of new digital services if they are to be effective and not alienate or exclude
more vulnerable members of society.
3. More emphasis on productivity growth in the public sector and more flexible working practices
The private sector has strong commercial incentives to be more productive. With the public
sector accounting for a significant proportion of GDP, there is much to be gained from the public
sector being more productive too.
1
Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes Report 2014
In order to accelerate improvements, the public sector will have to attract a strong cadre of
digitally skilled employees to act as catalysts to change. In addition to financial incentives, this
cohort will demand a flexible, mobile work-style that is less hierarchical than today’s public
sector.
There is growing evidence that a more flexible workforce can be more productive, particularly
among younger members of the workforce, who want to work on the move.
Digital Government must about both serving the public better and working more cost effectively
and productively.
4. Mobile optimisation
The public sector must take advantage of ever improving mobile networks, devices and
applications to work more productively and make services available to the public on the basis of
‘anytime, anywhere’. All public facing service web-sites should be mobile optimised.
Currently few Public service or Governmental sites are optimised for mobile, particularly those
which generate the most traffic (such as Job Centre Plus, the NHS). There are significant
productivity and other time and cost saving advantages from enabling users to access services on
the move or through a mobile device, where that is the users only or primary means of accessing
digital services. Moreover if the Government wants to encourage digitisation of other services, it
must demonstrate leadership, and this includes in optimising mobile access to digital services.
5. Security concerns
The public wants to be confident that our persons and our national infrastructure is protected
from attack. At the same time, people do not want to be subjected to unwarranted surveillance.
The Government will have to work towards the goal of providing this assurance.
Background
1. Ongoing investment in mobile infrastructure
Since the launch of mobile cellular services in the UK in 1985, the UK’s mobile operators have invested
£billions in network coverage and capacity, at times accounting for around 3% of all fixed capital
investment in the UK in a given year. This investment has greatly enhanced the productivity and
competitiveness of the UK economy. As of 2013, Ofcom has reported that second (2G) and third
generation (3G) mobile coverage is as follows:
Mobile coverage in the UK2
2G*
3G*
Premises
94.1% 79.7%
Geographic
62.4% 21.0%
Roads - A&B
77.0% 35.0%
Motorway
99.0% 76.0%
*signal from all operators
The mobile operators’ current focus is on the build-out of fourth generation (4G) mobile coverage.
In a report commissioned by EE, carried out by Capital Economics (CE) and published in April 20123, CE
estimated that the mobile operators will spend around £5.5 billion on upgrading networks to 4G. The
public announcements already made by the operators about future investment plans would appear to
validate this number. As Ofcom points out in its 2013 Infrastructure Report:
“Under the terms of its licence, O2 is required to roll out 4G indoor coverage to 98% of the UK population
by 2017 and at least 95% in each individual nation. We expect that other mobile operators will seek to
match O2’s indoor coverage commitment, meaning the large majority of consumers will be able to access
4G services in their home. Vodafone has said it intends to achieve similar levels of coverage by 2015 and
EE has declared that it will achieve 98% premises coverage by the end of 2014. Three has plans to cover
98% of population by end of 2015.”
Capital Economics states that ‘mobile operators will have the potential to provide internet connectivity on
a par with fibre optic broadband’ and that, while the benefits will take some time to feed through, ‘the
eventual boost from 4G to national GDP will be in the order of ½ a percent’.
It is of course very important that the Government aspires to ensure that the public sector will benefit
from this critical infrastructure investment in mobility as much the private sector will.
2
3
Ofcom Infrastructure Report, 2013
Mobile Broadband and the UK Economy, Capital Economics, April 2012
2. Rapid adoption of smart phones, tablets and mobile infrastructure
It is very widely known that adoption of mobile is now almost universal, with around 82 million
subscriptions in the UK. The Ofcom Infrastructure Report 2013 describes the situation thus:
“Use of mobile services is widespread among consumers; consumer research in Q1 2013 found that 94% of
UK adults used a mobile phone and 53% of UK adults accessed internet services on their mobile phone.
Furthermore, 15% of homes are mobile-only for telephony. There has been increasing take up of
smartphones; smartphone sales made up almost three-quarters (74%) of handset sales in Q1 2013, when
51% of all UK adults owned a smartphone.
Among mobile internet users take-up is even higher, with 96% of users owning a smartphone. Household
take-up of tablet computers (such as an Apple iPad or Google Nexus) has undergone an even sharper rise,
more than doubling over the past year, rising from 11% in Q1 2012, to 24% in Q1 2013.”
Increasingly members of the public expect to be able to access goods and services through a mobile
Internet portal or App. This is perhaps well illustrated by the growth in the numbers of people now
accessing Facebook from a mobile, accounting for 556m active daily users, 73% of the total.
Similarly, on e-Bay, for the year ending December 2012, its mobile commerce volume totalled $13 billion
in 2012, up more than 120 percent from the prior year while mobile payment volume for PayPal totalled
$14 billion, up more than 250 percent from the prior year.
Similar trends are emerging in mobile banking and other branches of e-commerce. People are becoming
ever more used to, and thus expectant of, mobile internet on the move.
This has been brought about through a combination of more powerful devices and more extensive and
powerful mobile networks. Through the use of mobile optimised web-sites and Apps, providers have also
been able to make the provision of services on mobile more intuitive and accessible.
When designing public services for delivery on mobile, providers must always take a fresh look at how the
user experience can be optimised on a smart phone or tablet.
3. Deficit reduction following the global financial crisis
The necessity for those nations that suffered from the financial crisis to reduce deficits and national debt
provides the exceptional context for driving through transformational change in public services delivery,
reducing costs and improving effectiveness, in the face of a naturally cautious and risk-averse
procurement environment in the public sector.
It should be noted, also, that the IT sector in general and the mobile sector in particular is a key growth
segment and contributes considerably to the exchequer.
Since 2000, the mobile operators have paid £25bn in spectrum auction fees, in addition to approximately
£50m in annual licence fees (which are proposed to rise considerably).
The industry employs 35,000 people directly and supports a further 21,000 in the supply chain and
generates over £4billion of gross value added4.
The mobile industry is not only a growth industry in its own right and but is also growth generating for
other sectors in the economy.
Economic policy that enables the sector to flourish will thus have beneficial knock-on effects in the wider
economy, with a concomitant beneficial effect on exchequer receipts.
Mobile Government in practice
Many – perhaps most – Governments around the world are looking at
a) How to engage with their citizenry better by providing mobile access to public services
b) How to make the public sector workforce more productive and services more cost effective by
introducing a mobile ‘workstyle’
Only a few examples are set out here for illustration. In assessing possibilities and priorities for
‘mobilisation’, it is important to note:

The private sector is increasingly offering a mobile workstyle (including Bring Your Own Device –
BYOD). Not only can this be more productive, employees often prefer it. If the public sector is
going to compete in the labour market and attract the calibre and skills that they require, the
public sector will have to do the same.

Cost savings from ‘mobilisation’ can occur across a broad range of costs such as substitution of
desktop hardware, reduction in office space and other facilities, reduction in carbon footprint
(power use)

Productivity gains can be derived from more data capture on the front line, reducing data input
error, duplication and bureaucracy (e.g. social worker case loads)

Public/private partnerships are another source of innovation and investment (for example the
GSM Association’s project on Identity Assurance has the potential to facilitate a number of public
services to be delivered more efficiently and securely5.)
Some examples of mobile government in practice

4
Reducing ‘did not attends’ (DNA) in the NHS. Text messaging is now employed in some NHS Trusts
to send appointment reminders, with a view to reducing the number of those missing
appointments and the consequent waste of time and resources. (e.g. In Portsmouth NHS Trust
Capital Economics, April 2012
http://openidentityexchange.org/sites/default/files/Andy%20Rudd%20GSMA%20%20Mobile%20and%20Identity.pdf
5
the reduction in DNA has created 2,281 additional first appointments, 8,310 follow up & 10,657
overall which is 2.5% of the overall outpatient appointments in one year)6

California Department of Rehabilitation – 25 mobile applications deployed to 2,000 field officers
monitoring clients on parole, saving $10million over 3 years.7

Co-ordinating efforts to get young people into employment and/or training
Reading Borough Council has developed an App to assit young people navigate the 190 schemes
available to them to assist them finding training and employment. With assistance from a mobile
operator, and getting young people involved in the project, RBC were able to develop a service
that the client base really valued and used, through the technology platform of choice. RBC has
seen the value of using technology as a driver for process change. Similar approaches will be
applied in other segments, such as adult social care.

Worker empowerment at South London and Maudsley NHS foundation Trust (SLaM)
SLaM has been able to use technology to improve patient recovery rates and general wellbeing,
while at the same time reducing pressure on hospital capacity.
SLaM has extended informed patient treatment out into the community, with easy to use mobile
technology, with secure end to end delivery. Their investment in technology has removed the
need for many care providers to have an office base, by capturing patient data once, during on of
58,000 home visits. Physical estate has been reduced by 30% while upping the quality of care.

Data gathering for Network Rail
Network Rail is building up a complete and accurate asset register for its entire infrastructure and
equipping its staff with the skills and technology to record and maintain that information. Up to
13,000 track workers are being equipped with [ruggedized] iphones or ipads with access to
tutorials, manuals and guides. Track side workers are also using the camera to take GPS location
stamped photos and share them with engineering colleagues for efficient and timely decision
making. A connected workforce is more productive. The mobile equipment is seen as becoming
indispensable, as crucial as ‘hard hats and hi-viz jackets.’
It is apparent from the focus on digital government around the world that there are successful projects
being established. It seems to be the case, though, that there are insufficient resources being devoted to
capturing, evaluating and disseminating information about these positive outcomes.
Overcoming barriers
On a positive note, the UK is deemed to rank 7th of 140 countries in terms of its agility and readiness to
adopt technology to enhance the productivity of its industries8. There is also a generally positive attitude
and appetite for more flexible working practices, particularly among younger workers.
6
7
http://www.healthcare-communications.com/visageimages/pdf/Portsmouth_Case_Study_Updated_Jul_12.pdf
Citrix webinar presentation
Nevertheless, there remain some important barriers to innovation and to developing a more mobile and
productive workforce:
-
Concerns among managers about working away from the office, out of sight (and also concerns
among employees about always being contactable)
-
Concerns about data security on mobile device
-
Cost of equipping workforce
-
Shortage of appropriate skills in the workforce (it is estimated that the economy is likely to
require as a minimum 745,000 additional workers with digital skills in the next 5 years9
None of these problems are insuperable. In many cases it is a misconception that the cost of equipping
the mobile workforce is prohibitive. Investment payback can be cash flow positive in a very short time,
particularly when employees self-supply the mobile hardware (BYOD), and significant savings can be
made on hardware, office facilities and travel. Forward thinking organisations are developing modern
social contracts with their workforce, which allows them to be more flexible and responsive, without
being ‘always on’. The same goes for security on remote devices, with secure VPNs and private Cloud
services. In many ways, devices can be more secure than paper being taken out of the workplace, in that
they can be remotely wiped and disabled (e.g. a social worker’s case notes).
There is undoubtedly a shortage of appropriate digital skills in the workplace. Government, the private
sector and the education sector must work together to remedy this issue. A productive and skilful
workforce will be a source of comparative advantage for the UK, as will the efficient and effective delivery
of public services.
8
World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2012-13
http://cdn.news.o2.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/The-Future-Digital-Skills-Needs-of-theUK-Economy1.pdf
9
The Call for evidence seeks specific views on the following questions, in respect to a culture change and
skills refresh at all layers of Government:
1. How would you define the culture of Digital Government? What skills do the employees,
organisation, and partners of a Digital Government require? How do those skill requirements vary
across the public sector?
The public sector appears to be taking Digital Government extremely seriously. The Digital
Government strategy, headed by the Cabinet Office and involving all government departments is
a major undertaking.
When considering the ‘future of work’, though, a broad consensus exists on a number of
developing trends. The future workforce will:
-
Draw talent from an increasingly globalised labour pool
-
Be less hierarchical and organisations flatter
-
More flexible (both organisationally and geographically)
-
Be more customer centric
-
Be more mobile (‘work used to be considered a place’)
2. How would you rate the current situation against those requirements?
A report carried out by the Royal society for the Arts in 2013 indicated that Central Government is
a leader when coming to offer flexible10 working conditions11.
However, the public sector remains relatively hierarchical and, because of its size, less flexible
and agile than is optimal.
There is plenty of scope to be more customer centric, so that public services are accessible to the
public anytime, anywhere; services can be better optimised to be consumed on mobile devices.
There is also an opportunity to cut down on duplication and bureaucracy by capturing data closer
to the front-line, though equipping more field workers with mobile devices and applications (e.g.
social workers).
10
A type of working arrangement which gives some degree of flexibility on how long, where and when employees
work. The flexibility can be in terms of working time, working location and the pattern of working.”
11
http://www.thersa.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/1526708/RSA_Flex_report_15072013.pdf
3. How do we bring about the necessary culture change and develop new skills across all
government organisations?
The private sector has strong commercial incentives to be more productive. With the public sector
accounting for a significant proportion of GDP, there is much to be gained from the public sector
being more productive too.
In order to accelerate improvements, the public sector will have to attract a strong cadre of digitally
skilled employees to act as catalysts to change. In addition to financial incentives, this cohort will
demand a flexible, mobile work-style that is less hierarchical than today’s public sector.
There is growing evidence that a more flexible workforce can be more productive, particularly among
younger members of the workforce, who want to work on the move.
Digital Government must about both serving the public better and working more cost effectively and
productively.
4. What timescale would be feasible and desirable to undertake this change?
The mobile sector did not exist on any scale 30 years ago, the Internet 20 years ago and social
media 10 years ago.
‘change’ is the context of the modern workplace, and so it would be a mistake to consider a
culture change project to have a ‘beginning and an end’. All successful organisations are
recognising that an ability to be nimble and cope well with change are key success factors.
5. Does the central government approach of fostering a culture of generalist skills create a barrier to
the required change?
Clearly there needs to be an adequate pool of talent that are capable of recognising the
opportunities for improving public service delivery and productivity that are thrown up by new
technologies and services and of driving the adoption of a more digital approach. However, a well
trained generalist workforce should be well suited to adopting new work styles, providing
organisational inertia does not weigh them down.
6. What opportunities and/or barriers do the structure of local government or non-departmental
public bodies present?
A report prepared by Deloitte “Upwardly Mobile, Refining business mobility in Britain”12 makes
some interesting and relevant observations in relation to this question.
The report’s central point is that the UK economy, both private and public sector, have
surprisingly slow in adopting mobile technology to improve productivity in the workplace and
that barriers have mostly been cultural rather than technological.
12
http://files.ee.co.uk/business/upwardly-mobile.pdf
The report is based on research among public and private sector workforce. It identifies that the
younger (so called ‘generation y’), more digitally aware, members of the workforce will expect to
be able to work in a more free flowing, productive environment.
7. What are the barriers to attracting and retaining specialist digital skills in the areas of
government that require those skills?
It may be that the public sector does not have to acquire digital skills, in the sense of directly
employing those with the requisite competence. Indeed a more modular approach of buying in
skills, as changes circumstances demand, may be more efficient and flexible.
The public sector will have to decide which competences are necessary to develop in house and
which can be bought in as required. Where the skill is being grown in-house, it is likely that there
will be a need to offer a work environment that is competitive with the aspirations of ‘tech-savvy’
– flat, flexible and mobile.
Where there is very clearly scope for improvement in the public sector is for it to be a more
effective purchaser of digital skills, whether through direct employment or an outsource model.
There have been a number of large IT projects that have gone over budget and time and not met
specification.
8. What great examples currently exist of where the necessary culture change or skills refresh has
been achieved, either in government or in other organisations?
9. What external organisations could support the necessary changes?
The key themes driving change are that organisations should be flatter, more responsive, more
flexible and mobile.
The mobile operators work with and promote a broad ecosystem of entrepreneurial developers
and have extensive experience of delivering mobile solutions in both the public and private sector
(for example the provision of mobile data to law enforcement).
10. Should the way government policy is set and implemented change in line with the move to Digital
Government?
11. Will deploying effective digital services in the future require a more agile or open approach to
policy development?
10 and 11 taken together
The basic structure of policy development should not change; consultation must be thorough,
and new policy properly thought through. The risk of erroneous intervention remains high.
Nevertheless, the opportunities presented by new technologies such as social media present all
organisations to engage directly with their customer base are enhanced enormously.
Improved possibilities for data analytics are also cited as potential channels for identifying issues
more quickly and targeting solutions more precisely and cost effectively.
There is of course widely expressed concern about the potential for an excessive intervention by
the state into personal lives. The commercial use of personal data will be determined the EU Data
Protection Directive. It is essential that the law governing the state’s use of personal data reflects
people’s expectations of transparency and proportionality, so that there is optimal use of data in
the future.