Commenting on the recent launch of Policy Exchange's Technology Manifesto, Co-CEO of Outsourcery Piers Linney says the report makes important references on the need to use data more effectively to improve public services.
"The public sector contains a huge number of organisations with many different purposes and as a result has come in for a lot of criticism for being too siloed in how it operates," he said.
Encouraging government organisations to collaborate more and share services has been a central thrust of Cabinet Office strategy for some time, and the ability to do this rests on how data is stored, used and shared between public sector bodies.
There are a number of projects currently taking place within the industry in order to enable this collaboration. UK-based Cloud Services Provider Outsourcery, for example, is currently in the final stages of development for a cloud platform, in partnership with Microsoft and Dell, that will be accredited to carry secure and classified government documentation.
At a local level, work to increase collaboration is leading to the development of smart cities projects - where significant quantities of data are being shared and analysed to develop more effective services across municipal areas.
Outsourcery aims to drive this through every aspect of the business, from basing its headquarters in Manchester, to hosting industry functions in the region like the 'Digitally Enabled Smarter City' event, in order to promote discussion around how to achieve greater collaboration for public services.
Linney added: "I am supporting Manchester, where my company Outsourcery is based, to develop a 'smart' city approach so we can replicate the achievements seen in other cities where data has been used to build and develop more effective public services.
"While the success of shared services initiatives must be driven at the local level, to reflect local priorities, recommendations like those in Policy Exchange's report should be considered by central government to foster innovation and speed up thinking in this vital area."
Outsourcery was recently accepted to CloudStore, the Government's G-Cloud 5 framework, to offer its cloud-based services to the public sector.
Linney added: "While the power of technology to improve our lives is incredibly exciting, it is also important that we remember that much of the data held by the public sector is directly linked to an individual citizen.
"Understanding and respecting data privacy in the context of delivering public services is therefore an important step to achieving greater collaboration.
"Points raised in the recent manifesto recommend new ways to involve the public in how their data is used. Getting the balance right on privacy is as important as establishing the technology that would enable this to happen".