Digital Transformation of Government Operations− 4 Key Areas to Focus
”Digital” is no longer a buzzword—especially with the Indian government’s flagship programme, Digital India, gradually transforming the business landscape and the pandemic further accelerating digital adoption.
According to the EY Connected Citizen survey, 71% of citizens in India anticipate making more use of technology in their daily lives than if the pandemic had not happened.[1] As the pandemic necessitated minimal physical touchpoints for every possible service, digital channels of service became the most popular option for government organizations. Government organizations have realized how digital can be the gamechanger for improving key indicators of good governance.
A Mckinsey report published in 2019 exclaimed, “By many measures, India is on its way to becoming a digitally advanced nation. Just over 40 percent of the populace has an internet subscription, but India is already home to one of the world’s largest and most rapidly growing bases of digital consumers.”[2] While the timing appears suitable for the government organizations in India to press forward on their digital journeys, they need to remain mindful of their strategies and prioritize accordingly.
Here are the five areas that government organizations must focus on to become truly digital:
- Taking a Cloud-first Approach
Cloud has taken centre stage for quite some time now due to emerging complex storage requirements and the need for anytime-anywhere information accessibility. As government organizations struggle with heaps of content to store and manage, cloud deployment could be their saviour. Government organisations can opt for a cloud model to improve content storage, retrieval, and processing. Also, investing in the cloud, based on the OPEX model, enables organisations to easily upscale and downscale without worrying about the investments required for servers and other infrastructure.
- Driving Intelligent Automation
Today, intelligent automation is key to a successful digital transformation strategy. Government organisations must contemplate intelligent automation if they plan to accelerate digital. Adopting frameworks like low code automation platform, content management enabled with cutting edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotic process automation, and mobility can significantly accelerate and enhance workflows at government organizations. Using these technologies, organizations can deploy smart solutions for solving complex tasks and be future-ready. For instance, government organisations can deploy cognitive bots to enable intelligent document classification, sentiment mining, and smart data extraction.
- Establishing a Digital Workplace with Modern Content Services
Government organisations can facilitate efficient administration, transparency, and easy access to services by establishing a digital workplace. Paperless administration, a seamless working environment, and real-time collaboration are some of the perks of a digital workplace. However, ensuring quality content management is crucial for implementing such a workplace. Government organisations must streamline their content management with modern content services to boost employee efficiency while enhancing the citizen experience with a digital workplace.
- Enhancing Citizen Experience with New-age Technologies
Delivering a seamless and personalized citizen experience is one of the primary objectives of digital transformation for government organisations. Per Global Trust Imperative Report, “Government institutions that provide seamless digital experiences and communicate the benefits of sharing data indicate greater levels of trust among their constituents.”[3] By adopting new-age technologies, government organisations can deliver an omnichannel citizen experience. They can orchestrate citizen journeys, personalise communications, and improve citizen satisfaction by deploying features like social media sensing and intuitive user interfaces.
To Conclude
The digital transformation drive propelled by the pandemic can become the most exciting chapter in the country’s growth story. Adopting the right set of technologies and co-piloting it with the appropriate strategy can ensure quality services and drive holistic economic and social development by delivering public services to the last mile, especially to the underprivileged.
(The author Mr.Arpan Bansal – Head of Government Practice, Newgen Software and the views expressed in this article are his own)
