Digital adoption imperative for modern governance

2020 accelerated the pace of digital adoption as government organizations adjusted to the new ways of working. In 2021 and beyond, digital will continue to be the topmost priority for public sector agencies. Let us explore the five must-haves for government organizations to accelerate digital transformation and deliver a superior citizen experience.

Modern Governance with Cloud

Cloud-first technology will be a key enabler in establishing digital governance, making document-centric processes and communications more efficient. Government agencies are yet to leverage the full potential of cloud and still rely on existing IT systems that get outdated every few years. Cloud will enable them to leverage agility, resilience, and scalability in their operations that are hard to replicate through their existing on-premise systems.

Furthermore, the cloud will help the public sector to:

• Provide uninterrupted, secure services.
• Save costs on running and maintaining data centers.
• Identify infrastructure needs objectively.
• Seamlessly transit from a physical to a remote working environment.
• Enable whole of government (WOG) initiatives by using economies of scale, thereby saving money and effort.

Digital Workplace with Content Services Platform

Today, citizens want to engage with public services swiftly through remote, omnichannel mediums. Digital workplace would empower public sector employees to be more responsive to citizen services and efficiently manage administrative tasks in a touchless, paperless environment.

This can be done through an enterprise content management (ECM) system. The public sector can implement a modern ECM system to manage their content lifecycle, through intelligent capabilities for document capture, management, storage, retrieval, and disposition. ECM would allow government organizations to access real-time information, enabling smarter decision making and better citizen delivery.

Enhance Citizen Experience with Low Code

A low code platform can help public sector enterprises meet citizen expectations and provide them with rapid and responsive service delivery. It can enhance citizen experience while optimizing costs, accelerating digitization, and fostering enterprise-wide innovation.

With an agile, low code foundation, government agencies can orchestrate end-to-end operations that connect both frontend and backend systems. Furthermore, the point-and-click configurability allows administrative departments to rapidly develop high quality, secure, and user-friendly applications.

Additionally, low code platforms can be used to:

• Modernize legacy systems
• Reduce IT dependency by transforming employees into citizen developers
• Increase implementation speed with ready-to-use application templates

Innovation and Interoperability with New-age Technologies

In the years to come, different ministries, public administrations, and public agencies will have to operate closely in tandem for delivering efficient citizen services. Therefore, interoperability between them would be crucial for providing efficient civic services.

Modern technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, mobility, robotic process automation, and cloud, can be leveraged to foster innovation and digitally connect various government departments to enable agile governance.

Security and Privacy with Compliant Tools

In recent years, breach of data, cybersecurity, and access management have become a major cause of concern in securely sharing customer data. Government organizations have imposed regulations and stricter privacy laws, i.e. Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), giving individuals more power over how their information is obtained, protected, disclosed, and ultimately archived.

Government organizations will need to leverage technology to enable reliable and flexible security measures for ensuring privacy and cybersecurity, maintaining confidentiality, and allowing authorized access.

To Conclude

Government organizations globally need to take care of the above considerations while amplifying their digital initiatives to ensure effective service delivery while enabling transparency and accountability.

Arpan Bansal, Associate Vice President, Global Head –Government Practice - Center of Excellence & Delivery, Newgen