Digital Services Post Pandemic: The Government Perspective
An article from the TRANSFORMING GOVERNMENT magazine of IPG.
https://www.dhirubhai.net/smart-links/AQH3uWVb8jgvqw
The pandemic accelerated digital technology adoption.?But it was not all equal, and the experience across government is a case in point.?
Building further on the article series inspired from that published in Australia’s Nobel Laureates Volume III, where we highlighted the amazing speed of technology adoption through the pandemic and then considered the sectors that we work with at IPG.?The broad view was very positive on how technology, community and government interests aligned to accelerate technology adoption and create many benefits.
?As we consider those sectors, we work with at IPG, in Government, Local Government, Utilities, Health and Community Services and Growing Companies, this article unpacks the Government sector.
The phenomenon put forward previously and well unpacked by Scott Galloway, Professor, NYU Stern School of Business,? is also very true of Government.?The pandemic accelerated pre-existing trends, underway prior to the pandemic.?With pre-existing trajectories accelerated, those that had digitisation journeys underway were better placed to accelerate much more rapidly than others.
The digitisation journey is about more than the technology.?The technology is an important ingredient, but just as important, or even more so is the culture and capability to utilise technology to support shifts in business strategy, policy, and legislation or to deliver existing policy more effectively.
Mobile hot spot sign in remote location in Western Australia.Mobile hotspots are devices that connect to a cellular network, like 4G or 5G.
The opportunity for lifting the productivity and effectiveness of service delivery through digital technology in Government is immense.?And we saw significant investments by some governments through the pandemic.?We also saw some not investing.
The biggest difference does seem to be the differences in the digital aspirations of governments.?This aspiration then manifests in the extent to which they invest financial resources and in capability development.?
Some governments have received past criticism for digital technology investment "failures".??Some have forged on regardless.?While others seem to consider the risk of digital technology project failure as a political risk best avoided.
The nature of digital technology implementations presents risk.?They can be new and novel investments, requiring new capabilities for successful delivery.?Some failures will occur, such is the nature of this work.?This is a topic outside the scope of this article, but it does fit into the culture and capability elements of technology adoption.?And one thing we know is that you don’t go from low capability to high capability over-night.?And you don’t build this capability by avoiding it.
Moving back to digital aspiration, if we consider the use of QR codes and check-in apps, a common technology adopted by all state governments through the end of 2020 and early 2021.?This provides an example of digital capability, and a potential sign of digital aspiration.
The early adopter was NSW, launched in August 2020, five months after the pandemic took hold here in Australia.?The laggard sadly was QLD (being a Queenslander), launched in Feb 2021, a further six months later.
NSW's check-in app was part of a broader package of services available to NSW citizens via the Service NSW app.?They weren't the only state that took this approach.?
The multi-purpose Service NSW app, for example, also supports the NSW digital license (car driving).?With the increased need for use of the app, due to check in requirements, the adoption of the digital license was also accelerated, massively.
NSW Government reported a take-up of 550,000 digital licenses in November 2019, just months before the pandemic.?There are now 4.1 million issued, a growth of $3.5 million and over 600%.?Additionally, the app also provides support for other licenses (e.g., Seniors, Fishing, Working with Children), and supports grants programs, and is proving to be a useful platform for a range of government service delivery.?There is even a performance dashboard on the take-up rates.?See https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/performance-dashboard/digital-licences-statistics
QLD's check-in app was delivered six months later than NSW.?It was a one-off single purpose application.?It is of no use now that the check-in app is no longer required.?And has done nothing to support government service delivery more broadly.
As most observers know, QLD has no citizen services app, no digital license, and a variety of separate websites to be found and navigated depending on the service being sought.?It would seem that their inertia also continued through the pandemic.
QR code of SafeWA a COVIDSafe app sign that collects information from customers, store, government and public buildings.
While the check-in app is a one-off example, it provides a pertinent example for how some Governments continued to accelerate digitisation through the pandemic, while others failed to do so.?The trajectories that pre-existed prior to the pandemic were accelerated or not, through the pandemic.
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We have considered a few other indicators of digital aspiration in the table below:
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-???????The Telstra Digital Inclusion ranking.?Prepared annually by Telstra, and while limited by its methodology and data, is a useful guide.
-???????The CISCO Digital Readiness ranking.?Prepared annually by CISCO and now extended into an international review, is also a useful guide.
-???????2021-2022 budget funding, based on new investment of digital technology (excluding business as usual costs) announced in budget papers.
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The below shows two states (ACT and NSW) being clear in having high digital aspiration, and the rest battling or languishing behind that.?VIC is leading this latter group right now.?
As can be seen, this is not about party politics.?ACT is a long-term labor government and NSW is a long-term liberal-national coalition government. It is very much about a government’s aspirations to be a good government and see digital as an enabler to that.
Those that work within these governments know all this.?They are the victims or beneficiaries of the aspiration, the strategy, and the funding of the Government they are in, or lack thereof.?And while it can vary markedly between departments, what seems clear is that each Government as a whole sets the tone for that Government.?After all, a Cabinet buys into the risk and opportunity of digital technology investment in whatever way they choose.?Some see mainly risk.?Some also see opportunity.
Whatever Government you are in, and however well-funded your department, there is always more to do.?The world does not stop moving, technology providers do not stop retiring old tech, citizen expectations are not going backwards, and the best staff will not hang around to maintain 20-year-old infrastructure.?So, what choices do you have to keep progressing.?No matter where you are on the journey, these will all apply:
The high aspiration governments have whole-of-government approaches. For example, in NSW, GovDC and a number of defined whole-of-government platforms provide accelerators.
Outside of these Governments, departments and agencies can adopt similar approaches on their own, or in collaboration with other departments.
Higher aspiration higher maturity governments are further advanced on this journey and are making the treasury and finance adjustments to recognise this shift from capital to expense spend.?Plus, continuity of business improvement spend is more guaranteed in higher aspiration governments.?
Lower aspiration, lower maturity governments will welcome a reduction in BAU spend and then claw the savings back into Treasury.?This does undermine capability development, continuity of progress, and damages the ability to make the longer-term strategic shifts that are required.?Working on these challenges within your department become crucial.
Being further advanced on Enterprise Platforms, cloud adoption and funding helps some to be further advanced in this area too.?But there is plenty that can be done here regardless.?
One is making this challenge a shared challenge with business areas in developing this capability, and in doing so, gaining broader support for the financial challenges.?Another is finding those areas where small investments can be delivered quickly with obvious impacts.?This generates confidence and momentum.?Some government departments achieve this, but some local governments seem particularly good at this.
Each of the above three areas (Enterprise platforms, funding, and agile delivery) accelerate and support this area but that doesn’t stop you from making progress here.?And if you are looking for agile and iterative development opportunities then implementation of workflow and automation will be excellent candidates.?
These examples prove once again, that regardless of sector, the organisations that have found most success are those with the culture, capability and technology that are able to support the delivery of, and shifts in, strategy and policy.?The culture, capability and technology that existed pre-pandemic supported what was required through the pandemic.
We would welcome your views and input on all aspects of this article, so please get in touch to share your views.
Read more insightful articles in the TRANSFORMING GOVERNMENT magazine
I help Queensland Government and the Education sector use Salesforce Industry Clouds Public Sector Solutions & Education Cloud to deliver Trusted Citizen engagement, gain a 360 single view, all on our AU based platform.
2 年This is a great read Mark D Nicholls Thanks
Chairman at Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre Ltd
2 年Mark. Great article. Being a fellow Qld’r, I just downloaded the Digital1st Strategy document from the Qld Govt website. Light on detail and appears to be an aspirational piece. There either is a large amount of work going on or the reality does not match the aspiration. I also cannot see when this was published. In terms of the business sector, Australia needs to lift into the digital strategy. I’m on my way home now from the US and I’d say that they also don’t have it right yet. For example, getting a rental car requires a physical licence and they will not accept digital. One exampl, the clerk pulled out a book to match the “look” of my licence to the image in the book. How does that make sense? Thanks for the article.