Embracing Digital Transformation in Government: The First Steps to Success

While the case for change may be clear, the idea of transformation is faced with inertia and anxiety. More than 85 percent of public sector organisations surveyed globally by Deloitte identified culture as a constraint to digital transformation, with agility, entrepreneurial spirit and technological literacy identified as the three skills most lacking. Further, the most common challenges cited by respondents were having too many competing priorities, insufficient funding and security concerns. And so, the hardest part of transformation is taking the first steps amidst these challenges.

In response to the challenge of competing priorities, governments need to consider redefining organisational boundaries and responsibilities for delivering on digital transformation. An open data policy, combined with hackathon events, which encourage participation, facilitates a model where the government agency can remain the custodian of the data while innovators can bring the agility, entrepreneurial spirit and technical skills needed to create value from these assets.

Rather than building a bigger and better business case to address insufficient funding, the answer is to start by asking for less. Applying the principles of agile software development to business transformation, governments should pursue a ‘minimum viable transformation’ that provides the opportunity to test and learn and generates measurable value to build confidence for further funding.

Finally, cyber security is a real concern for governments responsible for handling highly sensitive public information. A three-pronged approach is required including:

1. Protection of critical assets against known and emerging threats;

2. Vigilance through threat intelligence and situation awareness to anticipate and identify harmful behaviour; and

 3. Resilience through ability to minimise impact and recover when incidents do occur.

While the challenges might seem daunting, the path towards exceptional digital experiences in government is clear. The private sector has set the standard and leading governments have already proven it can be done. The immense value to economies and to service delivery means that digital government transformation must be considered a priority, even if only to avoid a week’s worth of unnecessary press on government elections.

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