Creating digital communities with the Improvement Service in Scotland.
The Challenge
Its partners in the public sector are facing a complex landscape of tightening budgets and increasing demand, making the role of IS more important than ever. So when it came to helping partners collaborate and share best practice, IS knew that it needed to go digital. As Mike McLean, programme manager, knowledge and collaboration at IS, explains: “The Improvement Service wanted to create an online environment where we could encourage innovative groups, local authorities, other public services, new communities and teams of employees to work together in new ways to share knowledge, control costs and offer increased flexibility — but above all to improve productivity. ”
Key Challenge
How to encourage new users to participate and share best practice on a new collaboration platform.

The Solution
The Result
While the platform is already a success, there is still much more to come. Next, McLean says, IS will aim to encourage the use of the platform by community groups to reflect the ever-increasing trend towards decentralisation and community empowerment. McLean continues: “The Placecube team have actively listened to our feedback and have created a development plan that will allow us to respond to and fulfil our users’ needs. For example, we’ll shortly be rolling out the ability to run webinars from groups which can then be stored in the library for re-use.” For Jason Fahy, Chief Executive of Placecube, this platform is a perfect example of how public-private partnerships have the power to create strong digital communities and drive digital transformation. He says: “I think there’s an understanding that digital transformation, far from being change for change’s sake, is about building something better.”