Dale Peters joins PublicSectorViews team

We are delighted to announce that Dale Peters has joined TechMarketView as a Principal Analyst. Dale has joined our highly respective PublicSectorViews team. Dale Is a respected expert on public sector technology, having specialised on the education sector since 2002.

He joins from RM where he was Head of Corporate Development, responsible for market intelligence and research. Prior to his time at RM, Dale also has many years of experience in in public sector-focused agency-side research and consultancy roles. His full biography, and contact details, can be found here.

Here, in the his first UKHotViews article for TechMarketView, Dale gives his opinion on the current state of the UK public sector software and IT services (SITS) market, the biggest challenges facing ICT suppliers, and where he will be focusing his attentions over the coming months:

Analysing UK public sector opportunities

It’s certainly an interesting time to be joining TechMarketView. Driven by financial pressures, technological innovation and a changing political landscape, it has been a turbulent period for public sector SITS suppliers and we know there are plenty more challenges to come.

As discussed in UK Public Sector SITS Supplier Landscape: 2016-17, it is a market of two halves—central government, local government and education will remain tough, whereas health, police and defence are set to grow. Overall, we are predicting a 0.8% real terms decline in the market over the period 2015-19.

Suppliers will certainly be under greater pressure from their customers to reduce costs, but they are also likely to benefit from public sector bodies becoming increasingly reliant on digital solutions to achieve efficiency targets. Opportunities will appear throughout the sector and suppliers will need to be smart about where to focus their attention.

For some time, we have been highlighting the benefits advanced data analytics can bring to the public sector. As mentioned in our Public Sector Opportunities Bulletin - June 2016, NHS England has partnered with IT suppliers to establish a series of Test Beds designed to better identify and support patients. We have also heard Theresa May (who was at that point still Home Secretary) call on the police to make better use of predictive analytics in crime prevention—the Metropolitan Police Service, Kent, Greater Manchester, West Midlands and West Yorkshire Police have all trialled this technology in recent years.

In our UK Public Sector SITS Market Trends & Forecasts report we discussed how the education sector is particularly data rich, but relatively poor at utilising this data to its full potential. The higher education sector is increasingly adopting analytics to improve student satisfaction and learnings outcomes, and we expect this to continue to be an area of growth. Over the next few weeks I will be taking a closer look at the use of analytics in education, opportunities for suppliers and potential future developments in this space.

2017 is going to be a fascinating and challenging year for the UK public sector. Georgina, Tola and I will be working together to monitor changes in the market and assess the implications for SITS suppliers.

Posted by HotViews Editor at '14:36' - Tagged: publicsector