It’s been a week of historic developments in the world of connectivity and cloud, one which has been trail-blazed by an unlikely tech hero.
As collaboration between employees and flexible working become increasingly prevalent themes among organisations of all shapes and sizes, the DVLA and HMRC have inadvertently found themselves in the unlikely position of pioneers of change.
Sharing a technology-led news agenda with Apple is never bad for kudos and, whether by accident or by design, HMRC and the DVLA told us more about technological bravery in the UK than Apple CEO Tim Cook ever could.
For, in the week the Apple chief bestowed yet more gadgets and gizmos into the hand of its ever-increasing fan club (namely a new music streaming service, the launch its own mobile payment service and an obligatory operating system upgrade), the paper driving licence joined the tax disc and the Dodo in the annals of history and HMRC told us they were switching Microsoft for Google.
Whether it be digital natives streaming a Dr Dre-endorsed music service to a shiny new iPhone6, the tax office deciding they have the required faith in the cloud to entrust video-conferencing and file sharing, or the DVLA reducing the admin with an (almost fully-functioning) digital service for licensing ? in just a matter of days the full-scale impact of Superfast Britain* and the opportunities it provides were there to be seen in all their glory. Alive, well and spreading at pace.
Awareness is now building of the benefits and opportunities that digital services enable. Superfast connectivity and the myriad of cloud-based applications – typified by HMRC – show the faith that is now entrusted from delivery through to data protection. It also indicates that we are wise to the operational cost-savings that such acceptance brings, only a cynic would suggest otherwise.
While it is widely accepted that it is only a matter of time before the cloud and connectivity tipping point arrives and more organisations join the digital journey, this week?s advancements brought genuine surprise.
Public sector luddites stealing a march, eh? Now that’s progress.
*The Superfast Britain scheme has now ended as the funding pot has been exhausted