The expectation that everything changes for the better after New Year is, sadly, not always true. The problems that existed in December will still be there in January.

The turning of the year does, however, give us the chance to reflect on what has happened and transform these learnings into actionable improvements. Here’s what we’ve learned from 2020:

Yet another year of driving efficiencies

For the public sector, the need to drive efficiencies has featured in the top priorities for many years now and 2020 was still the same. However, the direction to do this came as a result of the pandemic rather than Number 10. Reallocation of resources and staff sickness meant that many teams were operating at vastly reduced numbers. Once again, using innovative solutions to work smarter and cut back on manual tasks remained a priority.

Government borrowing is at an all-time high and we can expect this theme to continue as it looks to recoup some of the money it has lost. Now is a good opportunity to be proactive, evaluate your processes, and identify areas where efficiencies can be gained and value increased.

With the right systems in place, flexible working has become a reality

Everyone has had different experiences thrust upon them in 2020. For some, the daily commute was eradicated and, with it, came a renewed appreciation of time. Others have seen themselves having to juggle their normal full-time job with a new full-time teaching job. What is common for all of us though, is that time is finite; the pressure to work more efficiently wherever you are is now entrenched.

Many analysts predict that home working, in some capacity, is here to stay. Those processes relying on shared spreadsheets and antiquated communications have been exposed, leaving their users without a solid platform to build on to meet their continually growing pressures.

Connectivity and collaboration is vital

Tools such as Teams and Zoom have been essential to communication in the 2020 workplace. Just having these tools though doesn’t mean your organisation are amazing remote communicators. For remote working to be effective, it is imperative that your business-critical solutions have collaboration built into their heart. Teams that use cloud-based services with intrinsic automated collaboration tools have been able to adapt the quickest. This allows them to pick up others’ work, locate where things are and view what’s happened so far at a glance.

Using a purpose built service makes a fundamental difference

Over the last year, eCase has become even more critical to how Information Rights teams operate. Existing users of eCase who have seen workloads surge, have been able to excel during the pandemic, whilst many more organisations have turned to eCase to compensate for reduced resources and the ability to work flexibly.

Speak to us today to see if we can help your team thrive during 2021.