Industry
Public Services
Forward-thinking government for citizen-first services
Highlights
- The public sector’s digital transformation is a purpose-driven journey to create a next-gen government that is resilient, sustainable, equitable, and, above all, citizen centric.
- Digitalization will affect just about everything governments do. Digital technologies are likely to alter the very purview of government and public service agencies and rewire their operations for good.
- The success of a next-gen government lies in how comfortably citizens can avail of the services they need and if the engagement experience is seamless and cohesive.
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Introduction
Decades of commercial interaction with the private sector have set high digital expectations among citizens across the globe.
The widespread adoption of technology by businesses has led people to expect similar experiences from the public sector. And governments are responding by leveraging digital technologies to enhance their services.
However, the progress of digital transformation varies widely across nations. What is noteworthy in this digital transformation journey is that despite the unique challenges that governments face, they have been able to successfully provide a user experience that meets the lofty expectations of citizens and matches the performance benchmarks of the private sector in many areas.
In this paper, we discuss the current state of the public sector’s digital transformation journey with guidance on what is necessary to achieve a fully implemented next-gen government model. We also discuss examples and ways to replicate the digital successes of high-achieving nations in countries that are still at the beginning of digital transformation and understand the purpose or ethos driving digital change in governments to provide valuable insights and ascertain what needs to be done next.
The success of this model depends on how well digital technologies are able to transform intractable practices into highly responsive, agile processes, and if the public appreciates this change and embraces it.
Government as a digital journeyman
Governments around the world are trekking the digital highway with varying degrees of success.
A notable fact is that governments started the entire digital expedition in the first place. It was in the 1960s when the US Defense Department developed a decentralized command and control network named ARPANET or Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, which was the progenitor of the internet and the World Wide Web.
Despite being instrumental in initiating the digital revolution, the public sector has fallen behind in digitalization. However, it is now making a swift comeback to reclaim its position as a leader in this field.
India has made great strides toward its digital transformation. The Digital India program has been underway since 2015. It is centered on three keys areas: digital infrastructure as a utility for all citizens, governance, and services on demand, and digital empowerment of all citizens. The Indian government has created a deep digital infrastructure built using the India Stack model, a set of open application programming interfaces that offer digitally accessible goods and services in many domains across the country.
Looking at the European Union (EU), Estonia is a particularly good example of a digitally advanced public sector. Estonia’s use of modern information and communication technologies has placed the country at the forefront of states aiming to modernize their public sector and provide transparent governance.
Numerous online public services are available or coming to Estonian citizens and residents, including digital identification, digital signatures, electronic tax filing, online medical prescriptions, and internet voting. These services offer users and public officials efficiency in terms of money and time saved. Some examples to note: selling a car in Estonia can be done remotely in less than 15 minutes; filing an online tax declaration takes an average person no more than five minutes; and participating in elections by internet voting takes 90 seconds on average. Overall, Estonia’s digital transformation rate is at a high 90 percent.
Taking a deeper dive into the EU, the eGovernment Benchmark 2022 Insight Report highlights EU governments’ digital gains and degree of digital readiness. These governments can be regarded as public sector technology leaders, with widely available digital services that are user centric, transparent, technologically sophisticated, and cross-border accessible. However, in contrast, many of the remaining EU governments might be considered as technology laggards, garnering less than an 80% digital achievement ranking. The EU27+ overall performance averages 68%.
The United Kingdom government is one of the most digitally advanced in the world. They have developed the internationally renowned gov.uk and have opened its code, which other governments can reuse. The Government Digital Service (a unit of the United Kingdom's cabinet office) has led the digital transformation of government and, again, is a model that can be replicated.
Many departments have started to transform how they deliver services, improving citizens’ experience. In the next stage of digitally-enabled transformation, the government has envisioned transforming the citizen-state relationship–putting more power in the hands of citizens and being more responsive to their needs, transforming government services, and making the government a digital organization.
Australia’s digital journey is also advancing, and the Australian government is committed to positioning people and businesses squarely at the center of digital transformation. The goal is to establish a digitally empowered government that effectively uses data and digital tools, providing a seamless experience for citizens seeking information and help from public sector agencies and departments. To accomplish this mission, the Australian government has developed the Data and Digital Government Strategy as the first blueprint for using and managing data and digital technologies through 2030. The plan is being implemented within the purview of the Australian Public Services, which is tasked with executing a wide-ranging digital system encompassing all the public sector.
Digital transformation must prioritize citizens by providing them with a seamless, omnichannel experience of government. Cooperation between different agencies and departments should be considered when designing digital solutions for public use.
The next-gen government
A next-gen government encompasses a public services sector that is citizen-centric, data-driven, and democratically administered.
The strategic concepts driving next-gen government are resilience, sustainability, equity, and accessibility, which should guide governments to create dependable, safe, and lasting systems that do not overtax resources and provide universal access and unbiased processes and services. This model of government has at its core digital technologies that can facilitate enhanced decision-making and planning within governing bodies. It aims to:
Provide a seamless, comprehensive, connected, and unified experience of public services to all citizens and people involved in the community
Improve the accessibility of government processes and transforms the ways public services are delivered and regarded by the public
Deliver public information and services in a transparent and widely equitable manner rather than a confounding and prohibitively difficult way
Mold its digital base for easier, improved, and increased information and communication flow between government sectors and citizens
Empower personnel to better administer and deliver information and services to the public with ease
Impact of transformation for different sectors
Digital technology is set to change the very purview of government and public service agencies and affects all aspects of governance.
The aspects include public services, law enforcement, education, healthcare, housing, transportation, traffic control, weather reporting, climate adaptation, to name a few. Let’s look at how it is being done, and what’s possible in near future:
Enhanced citizen services:
Citizen engagement: Conversational and generative artificial intelligence (AI) will be a game changer for how citizens interact with governments. Every interaction between a citizen and their government can be saved, logged, and kept fully transparent. Citizens can engage with officials and access all government services on their mobiles. Citizen engagement coupled with data analytics can enable public sector institutions to better understand the needs and behavior of citizens.
Services across the citizen lifecycle: The citizen lifecycle covers all the major lifecycle touchpoints in which a government is typically involved, such as birth registration, education, driver licensing, public certifications, marriage, property purchase, business start-up, medical and social welfare needs, retirement, and death certification. Digital platforms using data innovatively and front-ended by design-thinking-influenced interfaces can ensure citizens do not need to navigate an alphabet soup of agencies and regulators across local, state, and federal jurisdictions. Automated systems can reduce physical interactions, eliminate paperwork, and enable proactive and predictive public services delivery.
Safe and seamless access to public services: A unique digital identity for every person can encourage easier social inclusion by providing citizens with seamless access to public services and the digital ecosystem. A single digital identifier-based system can personalize public services using predictive algorithms.
Digital access for all: Going beyond information or records retrieval, digital access includes tools that proactively provide information such as emergency notifications, school closure notices, and more, and can enable interactive exchanges, such as for remote work, telehealth and monitoring, and virtual classrooms. Importantly, digital accessibility should be designed to be inclusive of all segments of the population, including people with special needs, so that everyone has equal access to all available information and services.
Transformed public services:
Healthcare: Digital health monitoring systems and electronic health records can make integrated healthcare possible. Remote and virtual patient care will be possible. This can make quality services outside of a hospital setting available to many, thus reducing the pressure on hospital facilities while driving up the accessibility of good healthcare. AI can help reduce clinicians’ workload, and bots can reduce waiting time for patients, facilitating more easily obtainable quality healthcare for all. Technology-led connected networks of hospitals can be made available to citizens through a single comprehensive process. Technology-driven integrated care can deliver personalized care models to an aging population based on the unique profiles of individuals.
Quality education: Digital technologies make educational and cultural offerings readily accessible, easily available, and adaptable to changing circumstances. Hybrid learning models and virtual resource centers can make the world’s top teachers reachable by students from anywhere and can shift the focus away from in-person instruction as the norm.
Smart cities: Digitalization is creating smart cities that will interconnect municipalities, locally and globally. With the integration of internet of things (IoT) sensors, data can be analyzed to inform officials and citizens about the conditions of public services, such as transportation, energy, infrastructure, and others.
Transportation: Driverless technology will affect public mass transit as well as private transportation on public roads. Autonomous vehicles will have many social benefits, such as reducing traffic congestion, noise, and pollution.
Social services and pension management: Social service agencies and public human resource offices manage many benefits for millions of claimants. Digital technology such as intelligent automation and AI can streamline the processing of benefits claims, thereby reducing backlogs, efficiently managing cases, and identifying and preventing fraudulent claims.
National security responsibilities:
National defense and local policing: The advent of IoT-enabled systems and services has paved the way for their use in aiding national military forces. The technology has immense potential to enhance border security through highly efficient monitoring tools. In addition, digital technologies can assist in a wide range of public safety and security services, including policing, traffic monitoring, and safety functions.
The power of digital resources will form the backbone of a public services sector that strives to be forward-looking and flexible. A fully ready next-gen government will be technologically equipped to empower people with greater means to influence their life and significantly improve many conditions for all humanity.
Transition to transformation
Governments must shift their thinking, priorities, processes, and culture to move from becoming digital to being digital.
Purpose should drive strategy and tactics. Smart inter- and intra-connectivity is vital for accessibility, openness, and inclusivity. Data analytics must be applied to big datasets to manage public infrastructure and services in real time. Next-gen governments should collaborate with other entities and organizations to share data and information over digital networks. This will help leverage the wealth of knowledge and intelligence produced by the digital ecosystem for the mutual benefit of all partners.
To achieve digital capabilities, governments must determine the required digital architecture, platforms, and software. Here are a few methods that can be used to understand what is required and how to achieve it:
Assess the current situation: Evaluate your digital maturity and identify high-priority goals and achieved milestones. Stay informed, determine your capabilities, and enhance your staff's skills.
Classify the initiatives:
Optimize: Improve processes, modernize legacy systems, migrate to the cloud, use intelligent automation, follow agile methodology, and optimize infrastructure services.
Transform: Reimagine systems and processes, establish digital identity management, synthesize insights and data, and create an agile workforce.
Collaborate and scale: Enhance channels to build a smart government that includes innovation-led community services, such as healthcare, transportation initiatives, educational opportunities and outreach, and other citizen-centric services.
Prepare an IT strategy:
Cloud: Cloud technology can break down organizational silos and foster collaboration among different government sectors. Silos form in organizations when information, resources, and organizational intelligence are not proactively shared. Cloud also enables citizens to access information easily through a central portal and can speed up operations.
Data: Opening information channels to citizens and government employees has immense benefits. It promotes inter-agency collaboration and reduces redundant data collection. Also, it makes it easier for citizens to navigate government bureaus.
Analytics: Governments can use algorithms, cloud technology, and AI solutions to analyze large datasets, rendering complex decision-making easier. AI solutions can provide greater accuracy and insights into critical matters.
Cybersecurity: IT-strategy must prioritize security, resilience, and sustainability. The public sector's digital transformation focuses on citizen-centric capabilities, but accessibility increases security risks. It is crucial to be aware and take necessary measures to ensure system safety.
IoT: IoT and smart sensors have a vast range of applications beyond well-known ones like transportation and healthcare. They can be deployed in remote locations for flood monitoring, earthquake forecasting, wildfire warnings, wildlife habitat monitoring, and more.
Maintain good administrative and operational practices:
Budget or seek adequate financing: Set up a budget sufficient to fund each step of the digitalization journey. Budget planning can be structured and segmented to match a timeline or schedule for reaching particular milestones.
Build and manage an ecosystem: Governments need inputs from technology partners, SMEs, startups, and academic institutions to become a peer contributor to the digital ecosystem. This integration is important for successful digitalization efforts, enabling people to experience their government as part of the digital ecosystem and a portal to other ecosystems.
Create and maintain operational efficiency: Understand governance operations and functions in the digital matrix, utilize digital technology for better access and services, maintain systems, and respond to issues promptly.
Engage the citizenry: Gather citizen feedback, especially when launching new systems or applications, and enable reporting from multiple digital devices. Data analytics can help gauge user response and measure satisfaction while demonstrating government's commitment to transparency and inclusion.
Challenges and risk factors
Digitalization offers several benefits, including easy access to data, efficient public services, and improved quality of life.
However, there are considerable challenges and risks involved. Governments face common hurdles in adopting innovative technologies, and digital technology carries inherent risks for any entity. Governments' risk aversion adds complexity to the transition to digital capabilities.
The digital transformation process poses significant challenges for the public sector, both before and after digitalization, such as:
Budgetary constraints
Legacy systems, policies, and processes
Bureaucratic, procedural, and political encumbrances
Scale of operations
Risk aversion
Skills gap
Changing expectations
Governance and protection of data
These challenges need to be addressed and overcome to ensure a successful digital transformation and to provide high-quality digital services to the public.
The potential of next-gen government
Digitalizing government services can turn alienating encounters with government centers into an inviting experience.
Such experiences foster trust and appreciation, resulting in positive, responsive, and transparent governance that empowers citizens.
The success of a next-gen government will ultimately be judged by how well and consistently citizens can get the help and services they need and if the process is experienced as a cohesive one. Although recognized measures and metrics can objectively ascertain the effectiveness and quality of public sector websites and portals linking multiple platforms and channels, it will be the user’s subjective experience that will be the ultimate arbiter of any system’s design success. For the digitalization transformation to work for them, the users have to feel good about the journey from beginning to end, regardless of the types and numbers of touchpoints and stations that must be traversed to get to their destination.
IT service providers who understand the goals of public sector digital transformation and remain cognizant of government operations can help clients achieve a successful digital journey. This journey will enable public service entities to deliver better government services using smart, next-gen approaches and technologies.
