Improvement Service announces four ‘technology partners’ to work on digital public services

Digital online identity verification - Image credit: Pixabay

The Improvement Service (IS) has announced four ‘technology partners’ to supports its work on digital public services and online identity verification.

The four companies will work on myaccount, a single sign-on for online services used by public bodies such as councils and the NHS, and its digital public services platform.

Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), an Indian multinational IT, consultancy and business solutions company, has been chosen as the technology partner for IS core applications and services.

It will act as the managing agent for the cloud hosting provider and other third-party software licence providers delivering IT applications and services.

It will also coordinate innovation activity involving other partners. 

Brightsolid, a Scottish cloud solutions company that has been working with IS since 2013, has been awarded a new contract to migrate services onto the next generation of the cloud. 

Edinburgh-based Wallet.Services, a graduate of the Scottish Government’s CivTech accelerator programme, will test opportunities and applications for using blockchain in public services.

The fourth partner, Yoti, a UK-based digital identity platform, will look at the potential of its free app to let Scottish residents prove their age and entitlement, both online and in person.

This could include proving who they are to businesses without showing paper documents, verifying age or eligibility for local or concessionary services or age-restricted items, logging into websites more securely without password and being able to confirm the identity of others they meet online.

The new contracts will begin this month.

The local government improvement body said the appointments would help maintain current myaccount services while also developing new services and technologies to meet future need.

Among the aims are increasing the number of participating organisations and registered users on myaccount, which had 500,000 accounts in June 2018.

Sarah Gadsden, IS’s interim chief executive, said: “As we continue to evolve our multiple award-winning myaccount service and our broader digital offer, we are committed to providing a reliable and secure service and exploiting new technologies and innovating to meet our partners’ requirements.”

The digital services are funded as part of a three-year memorandum of understanding between the Scottish Government and the Improvement Service and IS will continue to work with the Scottish Government and others on online identity assurance (OIA) as part of the Scottish Government’s OIA programme.

The programme aims to develop a secure mechanism for a member of the public to prove their identity online to access public sector digital services, as set out the Scottish Government’s digital strategy.

Cameron Walker, head of operations for myaccount at the Improvement Service, said: “We value our reputation as a competent and trusted provider, and we value the role our partners have played in this success. 

“We look forward to working with our new partners as we implement a number of exciting new developments in 2018/19 and beyond.”