Majority of austerity is still to come – how the public sector can respond

According to a Guardian article, quoting the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the UK is to date less than half way through its austerity programme, with sweeping cuts to public sector and local government still to come.

bigstock_Budget_cuts_7711121Obviously this is due in part to the slower recovery, but with  the ring fencing of health, education and international aid, other Government departments will need to bear the brunt of the cost savings that need to be made.

Of course there is every likelihood in the run up to an election that this budget cutting will get political.  But this does not help the hard pressed finance departments of local or national government, trying to balance the books whilst facing a continuing reduction in real spending.

Fortunately business automation can help any local or national public institution to significantly mitigate the risk to frontline services by reducing costly business administration through more effective back office processes.g_cloud

Recently Readsoft received a Government Procurement Service G-Cloud contract to supply UK public sector organisations with Readsoft Online.  This cloud based service has an immediate and lasting impact on the cost of business processes, particularly within the Accounts Payable function.  This means that public sector organisations can rapidly transform the finance function into a best in class operation, using secure and seamless cloud services.

Not only does this make the finance function more efficient, it also cuts dramatically the physical reams of paper that clutter desks, further reducing costs.magnifying_glass_coin

So whilst difficult decisions will need to be made in the future about how to fund services, public sector organisations that work with Readsoft can be sure that they are not spending any income inefficiently – driving more budget to font line services.

Redirect savings to front line public services with ReadSoft Online

ReadSoft, a specialist in the delivery of business automation to manage and improve back office processes, has received a Government Procurement Service (GPS) G-Cloud contract to supply UK Public Sector organisations with ReadSoft Online. Government organisations using this cloud-based solution for automating end-to-end Accounts Payable (AP) processes can drive new efficiencies, improve operations and make faster savings that can be diverted to front line services to better support local communities.

Public sector organisations seeking to quickly move complex or distributed finance processes to the cloud have, with ReadSoft Online, a self-contained low risk solution that requires no hardware, no software to install and no need for maintenance, or upgrades. ReadSoft Online, is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud-based solution that fully automates the end-to-end AP process with approval workflow and online document storage for cost-conscious, efficiency-seeking public sector organisations seeking a proven, fully scalable, user-friendly solution for automating invoice processing.

Simon Shorthose, Managing Director, ReadSoft UK says: ReadSoft has a long history of supporting local authorities and public health services to improve paper and electronic processes through automation. With this G-Cloud contract we are able to bring new efficiencies and advantages to finance departments enabling them to focus on delivering public service rather than be bogged down in slow, costly manual AP processes.”

The government mandated ‘Cloud first’ policy helps public sector organisations to access cloud IT services from contracted suppliers, such as ReadSoft, to drive efficiency and improve delivery. Avoiding risk and encouraging a structured and robust overhaul of operations, G-Cloud contracts support redesign, not closure; ensuring key services are protected while reducing overall costs to the taxpayer.

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