INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGIES
Digital Transformation still failing to deliver
Unit4, a leader in enterprise cloud applications for people-centric organisations, has announced the 2025 State of Digital report into Digital Transformation in the UK public sector. It surveyed senior and mid-level management and was conducted by Vanson Bourne as part of a broader study of trends across Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. In comparison to the last survey in 2023 it is evident that the public sector still has yet to significantly realise the benefits of Digital Transformation: in 2025 only 16 % have fully implemented strategies across their whole organisations versus 23 % in 2023.
Respondents’ frustrations about their IT systems include:
• Seventy percent struggle to access data in real-time and compared to 2023 there is an increase in having to manually export data: 50 %( 2025) vs 40 %( 2023)
• Sixty percent say transforming back- office applications will not deliver expected interoperability
• Fifty-three percent are not completely confident Digital Transformation will be delivered within budget and 45 % admit it will not be delivered on time, while 59 % do not feel it has achieved value for money.
“ At a time when the UK public sector is facing huge pressure to reduce costs but still improve citizen services, it is imperative that Digital Transformation strategies show tangible benefits in the shortest possible time,” said Mark Gibbison, AVP Global Public Sector and Higher Education, Unit4.“ This is no easy task given the complexity of existing IT systems, but there is positivity when it comes to organisations remaining committed to modernisation. Now is the time for senior leaders to provide clear guidance on strategy, because implementing more innovative, cloud-native applications will empower employees to be more agile and scale services rapidly while driving cost-efficiencies.”
What is the state of Digital Transformation in the UK public sector?
Despite slow progress, UK public sector organisations are not giving up on Digital Transformation and still believe in its value. Most survey respondents( 89 %) remain positive about the future of the public sector and 74 % expect to complete their change strategies in two years versus to 49 % in 2023. Eighty-five percent say connected back-office systems and shared data will have a positive impact and 40 % are already adopting Artificial Intelligence( AI), showing a willingness to innovate. However, they also highlight a range of obstacles, including:
• A significant increase in red tape – 41 %( 2025) vs 28 %( 2023) – impacting services and targets
• A quarter say they are majorly impacted by ongoing challenges from the COVID 19 legacy
• Changing priorities( 41 %) and leadership resistance to transformation( 37 %) remain the two biggest challenges in 2025, but worryingly the biggest increase is in organisations that do not plan well for change, so they do not know how to react – 31 %( 2025); 24 %( 2023). �
30 INTELLIGENT GOV. TECH www. intelligentgov. tech.