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Unlocking digital advantage in government: Four ways to make progress

July 17, 2023

A new report on ‘Unlocking ‘Digital Advantage’ in Government points to four key steps organisations can take to tackle challenging barriers to progress

Speak to any senior executive in virtually any organisation today and unlocking digital advantage will be pretty high up their to-do list.

It is also a priority in government, as the public sector eyes up new ways to drive innovation, deliver process efficiencies and increase productivity. Yet here’s where the challenges begin, because any new initiative must first gain public support to be assured of success.

That means government organisations must work extra hard to ensure data is handled ethically, compliantly and securely. It’s easier said than done amidst skills shortages, budget constraints and concerns over strategic direction.

A new report on ‘Unlocking ‘Digital Advantage’ in Government from BAE Systems Digital Intelligence highlights how these people, data and technology challenges are proving challenging barriers to progress—and what could be done to correct course.

Breaking down the barriers to government digital transformation

There appear to be challenges in every aspect of government digital transformation that impacts its ability to use technology to deliver significant progress and change. Those identified most clearly in the report include:

The lack of a clear strategy, cited by 41% of respondents
Budget constraints (48%)
Slow adoption of new technologies (43%)
An inability to innovate: 96% say at least some improvement is necessary
Cyber risk management: 76% believe an improvement or overhaul is needed to become more security savvy
A shortage of digital-centric skills (46%)

Strategy is a particularly acute problem

Although the British Government released an updated National Data Strategy in December 2020, many of those government decision makers we spoke to claim a lack of strategic focus as a roadblock to progress with digital transformation.

This echoes a parliamentary report from December 2021,[1] which argues that too few government leaders have sufficient knowledge to drive projects, that there’s no clear plan to modernise legacy systems.

Skills are another long-term challenge. Even with adoption of intelligent automation, experienced analysts must be found to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) and, in some cases, interpret its output. Skills shortages and gaps can delay critical technology upgrades and even expose government to cyber threats. Tackling this challenge will require making better use of existing talent and improving the pipeline of skilled apprentices and graduates.

The quest for digital advantage

There’s no doubt the public sector wants to drive digital advantage to unlock greater efficiencies and insights. 80% of those we spoke to said this was “crucial” or “very important” to their organisation, as a way to improve efficiencies and citizen services. A backdrop of geopolitical and economic uncertainty and stagnant productivity growth makes the case for digital investment even more compelling.

Failure to optimise these investments could have a serious knock-on effect for the government. Respondents believe it may delay innovation, lead to disconnected services and even hamper Whitehall’s ability to solve key societal challenges.

The four key steps to drive progress in digital advantage

The good news is that despite the challenges ahead, there are ways to overcome them and unlock digital advantage. The report highlights four key steps to drive progress:

Improve cross-sector collaboration, especially with SMEs
Break down informational silos across ecosystems to make more intelligent use of data and enhance agility
Increase access to STEM talent by working closely with the education sector to create a pipeline of skilled professionals, and providing a more meaningful career path for existing workers
Focus on smaller, more frequent iterative advances to meet grander organisational goals

Half of the respondents we spoke to believe their organisation can be “completely mature” in a decade’s time. The timeline could be faster still if they’re able to leap the bureaucratic roadblocks that so often slow government innovation. But the prize on offer is too big to ignore.

According to one estimate, there could be a £100 billion dividend for the public sector if it’s able to unlock data insight to improve problem solving and decision making.[2] What happens next will be crucial.