Tom Ziencina
May 18, 20212 min
2020 and half of 2021 have taught local governments anything it’s that they needed to emphasize digital transformation in a real way. Governments that were further along down the digitization path were more capable of handling the shift to digital services. However, for many, the pandemic exposed weaknesses in legacy applications and security protocols for the delivery of digital services. These items need to be immediately addressed as constituents will no longer tolerate service limitations from a lack of systematizing. Constituents need to see the value of their (tax) investments and agencies must communicate this by delivering information in a concise, clear, secure, and structured manner.
Municipalities must display increased transparency by showing results from public investment such as digitizing PRR, modernizing tasks on their websites, and essentially modernizing citizen-facing services. With agencies moving to the cloud we expect local governments to deliver Services 3.0 with improved interoperability and enhanced UX (citizens and staff.)
IT assumes a leadership role and their partners will have critical influence.
While grappling with increased costs, stagnant budgets, and turgid legacy applications, many agencies have spent the pandemic working hard and smart. In fact, we are hearing that project timelines have been shortened. In addition, some of the barriers IT faced have been removed. Resistance to digitization has ceased due to the need to digitize further and quicker in response to COVID.
Some would insist that the cloud is the biggest driver of this acceleration, permitting IT leaders to quickly pivot. Projects such as e-forms, automated records requests, and so on. I read in a Gartner publication that 76% of CIOs reported increased demand for new digital services during the pandemic and 83% expected the demand to increase. As we hit the midpoint of 2021 (and the fiscal in California), governments are investing in digitization and partnering with proven solution providers like CPS. Organizations that enjoy strong IT leadership who have made strong partnerships will succeed as the modernization goalposts will continue to move.
Imminent for government ops and services
While the past year and a half has had its challenges, it has demonstrated government leaders need to lean in on the technology through which they offer services. And this includes finding the right partners to deploy the right solutions. Every element of the public sector continues to become more automated and modern. These digital efforts will grow and deepen reflecting a continued effort to offer more optimized public services over the coming year.
If you are interested in learning more about some of the digital services CPS can help you with check out our trusted systems, invoicing processing, and an overview of workflow automation, check out the videos linked, previously.