Tightening budgets, the Welfare Reform and changes to business rate policy are all increasing the pressure on councils to redirect resource from teams already over capacity to front-line, business-critical tasks.

Revenues and benefits departments in particular face a significant challenge. Universal Credit, for example, has created a sharp rise in the number of complex enquiries employees have to handle, resulting in departments becoming increasingly stretched.

At the same time, last October’s announcement that authorities can keep all revenues earned through business rates by 2020, together with the exemption of 600,000 small firms from next April, has placed significant pressure on maximising receipts.

A recent joint paper between the Local Government Association, Solace, Socitm and the Local CIO Council stated that greater digital innovation is needed to increase efficiencies so more resource can be redirected to where it’s most needed.

While digital by default is making a difference across front-line services, new approaches are also needed in the back-office where much of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked.

Following the example of the private sector, it’s in this arena that Robotics Process Automation (RPA) is set to play a leading role.

To summarise briefly, the technology works by interacting with back-office systems in the same way humans do. It uses software to replicate high volume, repetitive tasks, such as signing people up to council tax direct debit and applying discounts to customers’ accounts, by following rule-based business processes.

Findings from one of our local government partnerships show that RPA could represent a significant step forward for councils, proving back-office processes can be delivered with 100% accuracy and time savings of up to 80%.

Not only does this mean mundane work can be redirected so council staff can focus on helping citizens and improving collection rates, but it reduces the time employees spend contacting residents to resolve errors that result from processing information through poorly integrated IT systems.

This can make a significant difference across revenues collection, a critical aspect of local government finance. It can also be introduced across other departments which also have a high proportion of repetitive processes, for example in human resources, accounting and finance and payroll.

The challenge for local authorities is that budget and citizen demand is only going to grow, and it’s innovative solutions such as RPA that councils will need to introduce if they are to deliver the services that citizens will demand in the future.

Debra Maxwell is CEO, CRM & public sector, at arvato UK & Ireland