Embracing Secure Document Sharing in The UK Public Sector

In theory, any solution that enables a more agile public sector, placing it in a better position to share knowledge and serve its citizens with maximum efficiency, has to be welcomed - and certainly, there's no question that cloud computing and secure document sharing has been recognised for its relevance to present governmental anxieties.
This is an era, characterised by monumental national deficits, in which public sector organisations have been increasingly asked to do more with less. They have been urged to reduce their operational budgets, while not letting up on the quest to provide a more "joined-up" government experience to citizens.

Much emphasis has been placed on how the reduction of bureaucracy and costs doesn't have to compromise the work of central government departments, local authorities and other public bodies. Or at least, it doesn't when such organisations embrace cloud services bringing such benefits as secure file sharing, to make sharing of confidential documents and files easier, and one unified space for team collaboration and project assets consolidated in one place for more effective management.
Has secure document sharing won favour among public sector organisations?
Certainly, governments are showing a greater inclination to a cloud first approach, mindful of ever-pressing financial pressures and the maturing of the technology. Just such a policy was announced for public sector IT by the British government in May 2013, with the launch of an expanded supplier framework called G-Cloud, intended to push public sector departments into considering purchases of IT products and services through the cloud before any other option.
Similarly, a cloud first model has been adopted by the US government, while private cloud approaches and secure document sharing tools have been pursued by France and Singapore. Such steps to facilitate implementation need to encompass the removal of cultural barriers and the providing of information to dispel the understandable fear and uncertainty that can surround cloud services for public sector bodies.
Recent research has shown the extent to which the European public sector has already embraced secure file sharing, with 47 per cent of public sector workers sharing critical documents via the cloud - a higher percentage than any other sector. Meanwhile, the cloud is also being used to enable mobile access to documents by 71 per cent of respondents.
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Do barriers still exist to more widespread secure document sharing adoption?
Few doubt the extent of the ambition to get the right cloud computing technologies into the hands of public sector workers to the ultimate benefit of both they and other citizens. The EU, for example, recently cited an ambition to invest in cloud computing to create 3.8m jobs by 2020. Less worrying than the scope of efforts to equip workers with the latest secure document sharing solutions, are signs that some are struggling to extract the maximum value from such technologies.
83 per cent of public sector workers have said that some of the latest devices are accessible to them, but that back-end legacy systems are compromising their ability to make the most of them. It suggests a need to pay as much attention to the processes underpinning employees' day-to-day activities as to the actual technology, as public sector bodies continue to discover new ways in which secure document sharing can add value to their operations.
What does the future look like?
With the launch of G-Cloud 4 in 2013, which according to Matthew Finnie (the CRTO of Intergroup) has "broadened the scope of IT selections for the public sector, just as we have seen with other versions" The future is looking exciting. G-Cloud 4 includes clearer instructions for new suppliers who would like to submit their services to the programme, as well as pre-populated data within the submission portal for existing providers.
Add to this the democratization of predictive intelligence within most cloud and secure document sharing solutions and you can expect to see some huge productivity improvements and cost savings in the very near future. The future of most businesses lies in their ability to effectively manage and make sense of their 'big data' and the winner of the cloud services race will be the ones who capitalize on this opportunity.

Rashme Kour is a senior software developer in united states. She is passionate towards writing articles on latest technologies and it's upgrades. Right now she is doing a research work on Secure File Sharing & Data Collaboration . Rashme openion on Why Should Companies Invest in Enterprise-grade Secure File Sharing?. Rashme gives Six Reasons to Use Secure Document Sharing Instead of Email .