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Ovum: E-government is so passé; try digital government

Ovum: E-government is so passé; try digital government

As Ovum analyst Al Blake asks, ‘Does the world need any more ‘fix my pothole’ apps?’

Al Blake, Ovum: 'Agile government IT organisations require agile supporting business processes.'
Al Blake, Ovum: 'Agile government IT organisations require agile supporting business processes.'

Most governments have already picked the low-hanging fruit of single-function ‘fix my pothole’ applications, and will need to stretch higher to deliver integrated, citizen-focused services, reports Ovum.

“First-generation e-government initiatives focused on automating existing government processes,” says Al Blake, principal analyst, public sector at Ovum. “We are now seeing a shift to rethinking the business of government and linking processes to deliver a digital experience.

Blake added that in most cases the technically easy options have been delivered, asking: “Does the world need any more ‘fix my pothole’ apps?”

While ‘evidence-driven policy’ has often been an aspirational goal, a number of technical developments are bringing it closer to reality, notes Blake. “The increasing availability of massive processing power, coupled with intuitive end-user interfaces and ‘pay as you go’ delivery offerings, puts analytical capabilities at the fingertips of policy-makers and planners that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. This is a real game changer.”

Al Blake
Al Blake

There is not much point in having an agile IT unit if your procurement, recruitment, and budgeting processes still take months

Al Blake, Ovum


Blake, the author of Ovum’s 2016 Trends to Watch report on government technology, lists some of the market trends public sector CIOs need to prepare for:

Read more: Doing business with Damon Kelly of Enlighten Designs: From psychology to information technology

  • Many agencies are moving past e-government, automating existing processes, and toward digital government, where new processes of government are developed.
  • Cost-effective end-user analytics tools can make evidence-based policy achievable.
  • Agile government IT organisations require agile supporting business processes.
  • Citizen identity is critical to seamless digital government services

Related: NZ government to deliver an ‘Amazon-style’ experience for citizens - GCIO Colin MacDonald

The report highlights that responding to the demands of citizens and politicians for faster results requires organisation-wide change.

“There is not much point in having an agile IT unit if your procurement, recruitment, and budgeting processes still take months,” says Blake.

Critical to the delivery of next-generation seamless services is solving the digital identity challenge, an issue closely linked to culture, he adds.

Many countries, with a history of paper ID systems, cannot understand what the fuss is about, “while others have been politically burned trying to introduce such systems and have to manage citizen suspicion and pushback. Countries that resolve that challenge sooner will move ahead of the pack in digital government,” concludes Blake.


Send news tips and comments to divina_paredes@idg.co.nz

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