Globally, government leaders surveyed by Deloitte reported that they are behind the private sector when it comes to "going digital." Here's what CIOs and other government IT officials can take away from the report to aid in their own push for digital transformation.
Like most organizations around the world, governments are going digital. They're not all doing it at the same pace, though, and there are vast differences in their progress.
Read more: Government's Digital Efforts Trail Private Sector's
This article is the first in its series that examines case studies and model architecture for GaaP (government as a platform).
Governments around the world are facing competitive pressures and expectations from their constituents that are prompting them to innovate and dissolve age-old structures. Many governments have introduced a digital strategy in which at least one of the goals is aimed at bringing their organizations closer to citizens and businesses.
To achieve this, ideally IT and data in government would not be constrained by the different functional towers that make up the organization, as is often the case. They would not be constrained by complex, monolithic application design philosophies and lengthy implementation cycles, nor would development be constrained by the assumption that all activity has to be executed by the government itself.
In the United States and elsewhere, trust in government is at an all-time low, citizen expectations are rising, and government finances are under stress. The result: the gap between citizen expectations and government’s ability to meet them has never been greater. Book after book, study after study—from both the right and the left—argue that our current industrial age model of government needs to change radically.
Technologies that enable new service models for digital government must be at the top of the list for government organizations as they prioritize technology investments, according to Gartner, Inc.
Gartner has identified the 10 most important technology trends for government in 2015 in order to help CIOs and IT leaders assess critical strategic technologies and plan their enterprises' or agencies' IT roadmaps. Spending by national, federal and local governments worldwide on technology products and services is forecast to decline 1.8 percent from $439 billion to $431 billion in 2015, growing to $475.5 billion by 2019.
Read more: Gartner’s top 10 strategic trends for digital government
Topics up for discussion will range from improving government transparency such as the relationship between the authorities and its citizens using social media to environmental issues, abandoning hardcopies in favour of tablets and computers to save paper.
Read more: Governments pulling their fingers out to go digital