As appeared in The Mandarin February 2022

In 2022 Australia will reckon with several of the biggest obstacles it faces. An upcoming federal election, a shift in the standard daily operations in the wake of the pandemic, and an economy that hopes to reinvent itself over the next decade. While these changes could prove challenging for some of the public sector’s grant-awarding agencies, there is a silver lining.

At least according to one leading consultancy Brooke, the digital transformation agenda will be brought forward, pushing organisations to accomplish something they might not have been able to otherwise.

The push for transformation will go hand-in-hand with the federal government’s plan to make Australia the leading digital economy by 2030.

With these opportunities in mind, Brooke is working in partnership with its public sector clients to play its part in Australia’s economic transformation whilst ensuring the sector is more auditable, transparent and built to serve than it has been in the past.

Complex changes made human, delivering trust

With over 10 years of experience consulting across a broad range of challenging problems businesses face, Brooke is already helping transform the public sector. The consultancy firm manages and solves pain points for its public service clients in various areas.

Brooke specialises in implementing business wide change through digital transformation, delivering solutions that solve customer service and service delivery problems through to operational challenges, all of which requires a deep understanding of its client’s needs and a unique approach, helping them stand out.

“At the heart of our digital expertise is our human-centred design approach,” says Brooke managing partner Bruce McGregor. “We help our clients drive digital transformation from the needs of the people and the business into the technology, rather than vice versa.”

McGregor says Brooke embraces a philosophy around fitting people with technology — rather than the other way around — coupled with the belief that the results should benefit the client and employees who use the system and the end-user.

As with its people-first ethos, Brooke’s approach to designing its client’s systems also focuses on quick and efficient implementation.

“The uniqueness of most companies, especially those in the public sector, is the way they work together,” McGregor says. “Therefore, we start with people and we finish with people. Understanding how they want to work and how we can then create a system to support their circumstances.”

Brooke sees its partnership with Salesforce as crucial to its work with the public sector, crediting its success with a public sector client because the solution’s integration was seamless.

Clients are ready to ensure no stone is left unturned

With extensive experience delivering digital transformation in the public sector, Brooke helps its clients think differently. It works flexibly with its clients through a collaborative approach to deliver outcomes that benefit all key stakeholders.

Recent clients have seen transformations reduce time in application processing, improve the quality of data received from form submissions, eliminate manual processes in favour of an automated workflow, and ultimately deliver improved customer service experiences.

For Brooke’s clients involved in the grant funding process, they are providing solutions ready-made for the new digital economy, focused on delivering transparency of process and building trust in the solution.

Brooke has previously been able to implement a single source of truth for its clients, integrating several systems with overlapping data and minimising the chance for data errors.

Clients welcome Brooke’s intentional approach, crediting the consultancy for figuring out the right problem to solve while also providing a timely solution that works right away, and for the long term.

A unique approach to problem-solving

Creating a unique solution allows organisations to become more efficient and encourages them to do better — a clear focus for much of the public sector this year.

The public sector can improve the transparency of grants, the way in which they’re awarded, and several other vital areas within public departments. These include tasks such as software licensing, complaint management (guaranteeing they’re dealt with appropriately), and department investments, ensuring accountability across all of these complex areas.

Brooke partners with Salesforce to provide solutions that address those challenges, with public sector organisations front of mind.

Salesforce’s Public Sector Solutions (Salesforce PSS) product supports an organisation’s digital transformation to uniquely fit its mission, rather than making its mission fit the software.

“We have deep specialisation in how to achieve the best results from the public sector solutions software, spanning design, development, implementation and change management,” Brooke’s Bruce McGregor says.

McGregor adds that Brooke is able to leverage Salesforce PSS as a useful solution by working with both business-minded and system-focused stakeholders to provide a configuration that’s specific to the clients’ needs.

“That’s where the value is created, by understanding both worlds and creating an optimum that’s able to work for both.”