Public institutions were never designed for speed. They were designed for stability – managing risk, enforcing accountability, and coordinating at scale across sprawling bureaucracies. But today, the pace and complexity of public sector demands have changed. Local councils are expected to coordinate across housing, health, and social care in real time. Government agencies need to respond to crises, policy shifts, and public scrutiny with the agility of a startup, all while operating under intense budget constraints. At the same time, public trust in institutions continues to erode, fuelled in part by fragmented communication, opaque decision-making, and slow, siloed service delivery.
Even in the UK, which is often praised for its public services infrastructure and spends roughly $1.2 billion on cloud solutions, manual processes still cause inefficiencies, and many services still lack effective digital pathways. In the US, which is currently embarking on a nationwide infrastructure upgrade, more than 80% of government departments say siloed, fragmented data is holding them back. Public services are so intertwined, but digitally speaking, they’re often treated as entirely separate functions which creates a headache for government, and a headache for the people the government is there to serve.
Against this backdrop, the conversation has had to move on from digital transformation to digital cohesion. The UK has arguably made the most progress in this regard. This year, the government unveiled a new paper called “A Blueprint for Modern Digital Government” which sets out its long-term vision for digital public services and positions government as “the digital centre” of public infrastructure. All in all, more than 50 government services in the UK are now using GOV.UK’s “One Login” for authentication and identity verification, with more than six million citizens now registered. This cuts out a lot of the administrative burden placed on public sector workers, but it’s only just scratching the surface of the real challenge.
The risk of siloed systems
Public sector service delivery rarely falls within one department. Effective coordination depends on multiple agencies with different mandates, processes, and priorities. When these groups rely on fragmented communication channels or disconnected systems, delays and duplication are inevitable and in high-stakes moments, the consequences can be severe.
In 2023, Storm Babet brought record rainfall and widespread flooding across parts of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and the East Midlands. Hundreds of homes were inundated, rail lines were closed, and thousands of residents were left without power. In the aftermath, Derbyshire Council issued a report assessing the public sector response, revealing that much of the collaboration between departments was done via manual forms, emails and phone calls. The incident highlighted the need for secure, centralised collaboration platforms that could streamline multi-agency decision-making under extreme pressure.
The need for cross-departmental collaboration
The most urgent challenges facing government – homelessness, digital inclusion, environmental resilience, infrastructure development – cannot be solved by one agency alone. They demand cross-departmental input and yet, traditional tools and workflows rarely support this. Information gets lost in email threads, ownership is unclear, and progress stalls as departments retreat into isolation.
Collaborative platforms offer a practical way to cut through this fragmentation. By giving multiple agencies, a shared digital environment to co-manage tasks, align timelines, and document decisions, they provide the structure needed for coordinated delivery.
From workflow optimisation to cultural changes
The value of collaborative digital platforms isn’t limited to workflow optimisation. They also help reshape how public institutions operate at a cultural level. When transparency is built into the tools themselves, it changes how teams communicate, how decisions are surfaced, and how work is distributed. Information is no longer tied to job titles or departmental silos – instead, it’s accessible to those who need it, when they need it. This kind of visibility encourages shared responsibility, reduces duplication, and allows contributors at all levels to engage meaningfully with a project’s progress. In environments where work is often reactive and process-heavy, structured collaboration introduces a level of clarity that makes proactive coordination possible.
Over time, this shift in practice opens the door to more adaptive ways of working. Departments can iterate on service delivery, respond to citizen needs in near real-time, and integrate feedback loops into traditionally rigid systems. We’ve seen this in initiatives like participatory budgeting, agile digital service rollouts, and collaborative urban planning, where multiple stakeholders, including the public, can engage through secure digital channels. When collaboration is embedded into the foundation of public sector operations, innovation and resilience become more than just pie-in-the-sky policy goals.
