Citizen-Centric Experience Drives Government Digital Change

Thanks to digital transformation initiatives in today’s modern organization, citizens are demanding similar efficiencies from their public-sector agencies as well. This shift is fundamentally and permanently beginning to change the way government delivers its services. Yet, there is more to it than just modernizing IT.

Expectations Are on the Rise

‘Instantaneous everything’ is no longer an unrealistic expectation – it’s the new norm. Citizens have come to expect quick resolution with minimal time and effort. At the same time, globalization is moving faster than the pace of government, and the public’s trust in government is on the decline.

According to apolitical, these are just some of the factors intensifying the tensions between conflicting priorities such as the long-term vs. short-term, privacy vs. security, local vs. global, technology vs. jobs, and limited resources vs. heightened expectations. This article from GCN highlights additional contributing factors — including the rising influence of millennials and tighter budgets.

All these forces need to be considered in any public sector digital transformation strategy. Simply updating IT systems to match the way government needs to operate isn’t quite enough.

Enabling Disruptive Delivery Models

When it comes to user expectations, “exceptional” is no longer a perk; it is part-and-parcel of a personalized, efficient customer service experience that can adapt to dynamic views of the role of government in society. This requires governments to rethink processes and redefine boundaries between citizens and public agencies.

Capturing this idea is the concept of “disruptive delivery,” introduced by apolitical: “Governments must disrupt themselves to become more agile, transparent and horizontal. In part, this will involve diversifying the providers of services through new delivery models where citizens are both producers and consumers of services, and where government departments help accelerate startups aiming to solve society’s problems.”

Modern Citizen-Centric Services Require Agility and Adaptation

Just like every business vertical, the public sector is in the midst of massive disruption. Institutions and companies alike are continuously strategizing to reach new markets and to satisfy the ever-changing demands, preferences and attitudes of their clientele.

Governments must do the same — with the added challenge of needing to accomplish more with less. This calls for initiatives aimed at increasing performance, ensuring security and providing a hybrid infrastructure that can support rapid changes in application development. Inaction in this area will lead to a further decline that will result in a longer (and more expensive) journey back.

When it comes to government services, it is time to think big. There has never been a greater need to develop big-picture strategies that balance consumer demand with efficient and consolidated technologies.

The OneNeck team understands the challenges government agencies face and offers extensive experience and real-world solutions to our public-sector customers that help them evolve to meet citizens’ growing demands. We can guide your agency to the right mix of advanced technology solutions that bring the efficiencies that enable citizen-centric services at the speed of business.

See what we’re doing for the City of Minneapolis, enabling their citizen-centric IT services.