From shared services to smart government

Scotland’s public sector stands at a point of transition. Pressures on public finances, demographic change, rising expectations from the population and rapid advances in digital technology are converging to challenge how services are designed and delivered. Against this backdrop, digital transformation has moved from being a policy aspiration to an operational necessity. Indeed, when the Scottish Government unveiled its public service reform strategy in the middle of 2025 it said that digital transformation would be at its heart.

“Together we must be willing to be brave, to challenge ourselves to ensure we are delivering what the people of Scotland need and deserve,” First Minister John Swinney said at the time. “We need to take risks, to offer trust and give permission to act. That is a commitment from Scottish Government to our partners.”

Global technology firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is helping shape that transformation. The IT and consultancy group has been embedded in Scotland’s digital public services ecosystem for the past 10 years, with its longstanding relationship with the Improvement Service seeing it work alongside all 32 of the country’s local authorities.

“The Improvement Service is the go-to organisation for local government improvement, delivering national applications and technology platforms,” says Gopalan Rajagopalan, Country Head of TCS Scotland. “Each of the 32 local authorities tends to do things their own way when it comes to launching digital public services, but the idea of the Improvement Service is to see if they can create a shared services model across them all. We’ve been working with them on that.

^{Gopalan Rajagopalan, Country Head of TCS Scotland}

“As one example, there’s legislation in Scotland that requires all the local authorities to maintain a database of out-of-control dogs and to keep the streets safe but all 32 different authorities were doing it in different ways. There was a need to create a common database that would bring it all together and share that information with specific agencies, such as Police Scotland, so that if there was an incident, they were alerted to that. We created that for the Improvement Service and it was an example of shared services that shared data across local authorities. It’s been a huge success and has been rolled out and is being used by all 32 authorities.”

Similarly, Rajagopalan says, around 25 Scottish councils are also using Parent Portal. Initially planned to make it easier for parents to interact with their children’s schools for information, reporting absences, permission slips, and data updates through a web portal and mobile app, Rajagopalan says it has had the unintended positive consequence of also making teachers’ lives easier too.

“Ultimately, it actually ended up benefitting the teachers because it reduced the amount of paperwork and administrative work they had to do,” he explains. “Again, this was a case of how you create a common means of interacting with schools, but across different local authorities.”

The Covid-19 pandemic proved to be an inflection point. Lockdowns forced public bodies to digitise processes at speed, often under extreme pressure. The National Entitlement Card, which provides free bus travel to those under the age of 22 and the over 60s, presented a challenge because, as Rajagopalan says, until that point users had to go into council offices to fill out forms to get one. When it became clear that the entire process would have to be online, TCS supported the Improvement Service in building the platform, demonstrating how technology could enable policy delivery at scale – and how TCS could help deliver it.

“We’ve got a strong track record of doing some very innovative work in the Scottish public sector,” Rajagopalan says.

TCS’ influence in Scotland predates its public sector work by decades. The company has been in the country since the early 1980s, supporting financial services institutions during a period when Scotland was establishing itself as a major centre for banking and insurance technology. Many of these customer relationships have lasted not just years but decades. TCS has also worked with major utilities in Scotland to support digital change and improve how essential services are delivered.

“TCS’ business resilience and longevity come from its ability to stay abreast of technology change, continually investing in building capabilities in newer technologies, and creatively harnessing the power of those technologies in tailor-made ways for our customers” Rajagopalan says. “We have adapted global best practice and experience to serve local needs.”

We've got a strong track record of doing some very innovative work in the Scottish public sector

This is also true of TCS’ investment in research and innovation in Scotland. “We have established an Innovation Lab along with Standard Life and Fintech Scotland that is focused on financial well-being, enhanced services for vulnerable customers and engaging women in finance.” Rajagopalan says, “TCS is also a strategic partner to the National Robotarium, the Centre for AI and Robotics in the Heriot-Watt campus in Edinburgh.” 

These investments have allowed TCS to infuse innovation in their business products and services delivered to their customers. 

The economic impact of all of this is clear. Within Scotland TCS employs 4,200 people, many of whom bring specific skills and experience in, for example, insurance sector legislation. A report from independent consultancy Oxford Economics and TCS found that the company’s economic reach goes far beyond those 4,200 people, though, noting that for every 100 workers employed at TCS, a further 90 jobs are supported across the economy. That means that in Scotland the company’s activities supported 8,000 jobs in the 2024 financial year.

Looking to the future, Rajagopalan says TCS’ ambition is to extend its reach across the public sector in Scotland, with much of that supported by artificial intelligence. 

“The world is undergoing a seismic shift, where data, AI, and human creativity converge to redefine the very fabric of how businesses operate and how societies function,” he says. “AI and GenAI are no longer emerging technology – they’re the engine of global transformation. To truly adopt an AI-enabled data landscape, organisations must reimagine their future through the lens of intelligence, automation, and insight.

“AI benefits organisations by driving growth, boosting efficiency, accelerating innovation, and enhancing customer experiences through automation, predictive insights and personalised augmentation. Other key advantages including faster time-to-market, improved productivity, optimised costs, and the ability to create hyper-personalised customer service offerings.”

For TCS, artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging technology but a core strategic focus. The company has established a dedicated AI and Service Transformation unit, upskilled much of its 600,000-strong global workforce, and formed partnerships with leading technology providers including Microsoft, AWS, Nvidia, and Anthropic. 

The goal, Rajagopalan says, is to become the world’s largest AI-led technology services company – and help transform Scotland’s public sector along the way.

“With regards to Scotland’s public sector reform strategy, we endorse the views set out in the strategy that the public services system must be efficient and effective, joined up, prioritise prevention, empower people and communities, and be fiscally sustainable,” he says. “We strongly believe that technology in general and AI and data in particular has a role to play in this regard. Our investment combined with experience and track record in digital public services in Scotland, working with the Improvement Service, will allow us to take on the challenge of addressing the outcomes spelled out in the public sector reform strategy.”

One recurring criticism of public sector digital reform is speed. Procurement cycles are slow – risk aversion is high. Rajagopalan believes this can be addressed without sacrificing accountability.

“TCS’ point of view is to encourage a move away from the traditional view of databases, algorithms and applications serving industry value chains powered by human employees. We want to switch to using data, models, and agents to serve reimagined value chains where humans are in the loop,” he says. “In today’s digitally connected world, investing in your own company’s core capabilities alongside the ability to form partnerships with organisations, start-ups, and academia, and leverage this growing ecosystem is at the heart of innovation.”

By creating a connected system of collaborators and bringing public bodies together, TCS is focused on supporting and accelerating the government’s digital transformation ambitions to benefit the people of Scotland both now and in the future. 

This article is sponsored by TCS.

www.tcs.com