Public sector digital transformation has been a slow and challenging process. Exacerbated by a lack of funding, many agencies struggle to maintain legacy IT infrastructures or upgrade them
Add varying citizen expectations, departmental silos, and excessive bureaucracy into the mix, and it soon becomes clear why the public sector digital transformation lags behind its private counterpart.
In some guise or another, digital transformation has been a recurring theme in the public sector for decades.
However, partly too because of the nature of government work, there are typically multiple stakeholders involved and agreements on how best to proceed with digital initiatives are not easily or quickly arrived at.
As a result, public sector workers (and citizens) become frustrated by the sluggish progress made with the adoption of new technologies, such as cloud computing.
Why public sector digital transformation projects fail
Though often cited as key, budgetary constraints are only one of many reasons why public sector projects fall flat. Indeed, others are arguably far more damaging.
The first reason is a lack of clear vision and leadership. With public sector digital transformation, there’s more at stake than simply improving internal efficiencies or productivity.
Successful projects must be guided by a clear strategy that aligns with government priorities and the needs of citizens, which means they require strong executive oversight and leadership from the top down.
Successful projects require strong executive oversight and leadership from the top down
However, in practice, this oversight and leadership often involve too many players. Coupled with bureaucratic demands, even procurement frameworks for new technology become labyrinthine in their scope and accessibility.
Fear of the unknown is another reason. Given that much of it is private and sensitive, public sector agencies are understandably anxiously protective over the data they hold.
The problem is that this protectiveness can deter agencies from exploring the likes of cloud migrations for fear of security breaches or how to digitise procedures that, for so long, have remained manual.
Public sector digital transformation is too slow-moving
There’s no measured way of putting it; traditional digital transformation methodologies are slow. Throw a slow process into a slow-moving sector, and it’s easy to see how frustrations reach boiling point.
Like their private sector peers, the public sector needs technology that delivers quick time to value and a level of usability employers and end-users can access. If neither is forthcoming, enthusiasm for the process rapidly slumps.
Another problem is legacy tech. As it is so embedded in everyday processes, public sector leaders are reluctant to make large-scale changes to their legacy tech, its many limitations notwithstanding.
This is partly because government agencies must derive maximum value from their legacy systems while upgrading to new technologies. Where an upgrade takes too long or expert support is lacking, legacy tech ensures the door to digital transformation remains locked.
Government agencies must derive maximum value from their legacy systems while upgrading to new technologies
End consumer value is another reason why public sector digital transformation is lacking. The public sector is under constant pressure to prove that it allocates taxpayer money in a way that is demonstrably for the broader benefit of the citizen.
Although digital transformation projects undoubtedly lead to efficiencies that benefit citizens, while they are ongoing, it is harder to evidence. Where a public sector body is faced with the prospect of a digital transformation initiative that may take many months, resistance often follows.
Rediscovering the pandemic momentum in the public sector
The COVID-19 pandemic taught us many lessons about the nature of work and our capacity for change. In few areas was this evidenced more than with the rapid and wholesale transfer to digital across sectors of every type – including the public sector.
However, as COVID’s momentum slowed, so too did public sector digital transformation initiatives. To reignite the impetus, agencies must rediscover the urgency that saw internal politics and bureaucracy give way to the rampant digitisation that brought many closer to a future-proof status.
Key to this is educating the public sector on approaches to digital transformation that can be completed in a fraction of the time more traditional methods have been known to take. It also depends on a degree of acceptance as to where the direction of travel is headed.
The world is becoming more digitised with each passing day, and preserving manual, paper-based systems to cater for a minority of citizens is preventing the transition to faster, more responsive, and more efficient systems.
Accordingly, investing time into bringing all demographics up to speed with changing processes will prove a superior use of resources than maintaining those out-dated systems that so stubbornly prevent the public sector from achieving true digital transformation and better services for all.
This piece was written and provided by Mike Kiersey, Head of the EMEA Technology Organisation, Boomi
