McKinsey research found that within the first eight weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer and business digital adoption accelerated by five years. Out of crisis comes opportunity and COVID-19 has certainly ushered in digital transformation across the public sector. The rapid shift to remote work has opened the door to greater adoption of technological changes in government. This informative article provides five technology trends to watch in the public sector.
Digital Transformation
Within recent memory, I had to migrate a government agency from a MS-DOS system. It should not be surprising that many government agencies (and their executives agree) lag behind in technology. Government has traditionally struggled with investments in technology and has run on outdated systems impacting productivity and overall mission effectiveness. The shift to telework has provided executives with a roadmap to broader digital transformation across their agencies.
Customer Experience
An Accenture study found that 64% of people prefer to engage with a digital agent if offered the opportunity. As businesses evolve to a more omnichannel and digital platform, customers’ preferences and the way they interact with government products and services are also shifting. The convenience, accessibility, and efficiency of virtual channels combined with stakeholder preferences is causing government to continue to evolve its services to meet digital demands.
IT Modernization
A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that only 11% of federal government IT systems were operating in the cloud. The pandemic has illuminated the need for greater government infrastructure and resilience. The government will seek to move from reactive to proactive through accessible data, self-service, and artificial intelligence.Â
Automation
The government is continuously being asked to do more with stagnant budgets. To maintain or increase productivity, the government will need to consider ways to automate services and manual processes to better serve customers and better enable employees to meet demands.
Digital Platforms
Agencies are increasingly adopting digital platforms in order to integrate and share information across teams, partners, and agencies. Leveraging these systems will help relate information, unlock trends, and enable the government to deliver more connected services.
While COVID-19 has undoubtedly spawned a crisis, it has also been a catalyst for technology to offer solutions to this unparalleled period.
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About the Author
Evan Piekara
With over twelve years of experience consulting and working in the government and nonprofit sectors. Evan started his nonprofit career as a member of Teach For America (TFA), where he served as a teacher, volunteer, and in operational support and training roles for the organization. He has supported BDO Public Sector in the launch of their management consulting practice and has provided strategy and operations, human capital, and information technology support to government and nonprofit clients. At BDO Public Sector, Evan led efforts building internal practice recruiting processes including interview questions, cases, and candidate evaluation criteria and developed their Graduate Advisor internship program.
