Historically, it was so true that it became its own cliche. Local Government’s functionality is a hindrance to the sector’s transformation aspirations- a frustrating, closed and siloed complex of technologies. However, Placecube , alongside its Local Government customers is rewriting the narrative at the coding level, with measurable results at the Macro-level. Read on to find out more…
What is Placecube?
The founder of Placecube, Jason Fahy has over 30 years of business experience both in the UK Public Sector and within the Global Corporate Economy. He is leading Placecube from its roots in the system integrator sector 19 years ago to becoming a cutting-edge Software as a service (SAAS) based subscription provider. It has partnered with a significant number of Public Sector organisations and Local Government authorities.
Jason commented, “Placecube’s mission is to give our subscription customer easier access to open digital platforms that make life simpler with reusable open-source modules (Cubes) that are built to open standards and communicate through an open application programming interface (APIs)”.
Key to this innovative approach is the modular use of reusable code, Cubes, to save time and money, and reduce the risk for Enterprise, the Public Sector and not-for-profit organisations.
How does Placecube work?
Placecube makes it simpler for organisations to create digital services, integrate systems and personalise user experiences with Digital Place, the open digital platform. This results in improved outcomes for the end-user as well as delivering efficiencies. The attractive software model has won Placecube contracts in the UK and Europe.
Placecube works with and enables its partners to design, build, automate, and grow their digital platforms through the build-up of Cubes or modules. Cubes are catalogued as either ‘Experience’, ‘Feature’, ‘Service’, ‘Community’, or ‘Integration’ or connecting cubes. From this menu of options, a bespoke offering can be formulated. The support offered by Placecube can be tailored to meet the in-house team’s expertise, needs, and demands. As such, development is very much a co-creation experience between the customer and Placecube.
Placecubes’ ethos easily aligns with Public Sector values, striving always to ‘Do the right thing’, an important goal for both Public and Private sectors in the current socio-political climate.
As Jason added, “We work with our Public Sector customers to co-create open and connected platforms and to accelerate their digital journeys through reuse. We work collaboratively, ensuring that our clients never pay twice for the same development. We differentiate ourselves through our actions and behaviours”.
In line with the public sector duty under the Equality Act 2010, Placecube is a dedicated diverse and inclusive employer. The team’s diversity reflects the diversity of the communities it serves. This culture is embedded at every level of the organisation and motivates all that they do.
Each feature of Placecube is supported by a bank of experts, experienced in digital services as well as social and community sectors to ensure the coordination of both elements of Placecube’s fundamental operation.
What does Placecube’s offering mean for the consumer?
All of the council partners in Placecube’s current project have adopted Placecube’s Digital Place for Local Public Services, an open digital platform and SaaS offering that provides councils with several integrated digital services designed by the Local Government for Local Government.
Core components to support digital services include case management, customer contact management (CRM), low code form builders, and workflow and local government-specific page templates. The offering also embeds the powerful Liferay DXP platform, enabling full code development.
This all means that the Local Government can consolidate and level up its offering to service users. Open Place Directories provide comprehensive and up-to-date and updateable detail of relevant services offered at the Place level, with positive health and social care outputs for residents. Connected Data relating to services, communities and Place offer coordinated responses to a range of possible eventualities, including Climate Emergencies.
With a transparent costing model, and around the clock platform support, organisations can focus on providing and maintaining high-quality client-facing services. As service provision continues to be digitised, it will be interesting to monitor Placecube’s consolidation as a leader in this field.
