Most Digital Government Programs Are Failing to Scale: Gartner

Digital government programs have accelerated during the pandemic and attracted more investment, yet many governments are still struggling to translate this into results at scale, according to Dean Lacheca, senior research director at Gartner.

He was speaking at the virtual Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2021 for the APAC region earlier today.

Lacheca urged those organisations who are yet to scale digital to build on the momentum unleashed by the disruption to progress their digital transformation.

That might be easier said than done if the results of another Gartner survey rings true. That study, of public sector professionals across North America, EMEA and APAC, and focused specifically in artificial intelligence found a high degree of scepticism by employees, a cultural roadblock that has scuppered many an attempt to scale IT beyond proof of concept or department level projects.

In that study Gartner says AI technologies were viewed with a level of uncertainty, especially among the government employees who have not worked with any AI-backed solutions. "More than half (53 per cent) of government employees who have worked with AI technologies believe they provide insights to do their job better, compared to 34 per cent of employees who have not used AI."

At the time Lacheca stressed how critical operational and services delivery workforce are to the success of any attempts to automate or augment their ways of working.

"Leaders can generate more acceptance by clearly linking the technology to practical outcomes that benefit government employees and support mission objectives.”

In today's presentation of the wider issue of digital projects, he said that despite increased focus and investment, a clear majority (55 per cent) of digital government programs fail to scale, according to Gartner.

“Citizens expect results, they are not interested in effort,” said Lacheca.

In the new survey of 166 government organisations in April-May 2021, 10 per cent of respondents said they are at the early stages, experimenting, exploring, or deploying some citizen-facing digital services. Only 5 per cent of respondents reported that they were at the top of the maturity scale, optimising the use of digital solutions that underpin all aspects of their organisation, and they are looking for new opportunities.

Almost a quarter of government organisations were classified as digitally advanced, delivering against transformation-focused digital initiatives, as well as initiatives that could be considered optimisation of existing practices.

Benefits

“These digitally advanced government organisations are realising more of the benefits, such as higher efficiency, cost reductions, greater workforce productivity, compliance and transparency,” said Lacheca. “Even more important are outcomes associated with public purpose or mission, such as citizen experience and community safety.”

Eighty-five per cent of digitally advanced respondents have successfully scaled digital and are using it extensively across their organisations.

According to Gartner, some of the more digitally advanced governments have benefited from sustained, long-running digital government commitments. Others have made faster progress by establishing a balanced digital government agenda that includes both transformational and optimisation initiatives.

Gartner recommends that government CIOs assess their organisation’s digital maturity and use the output to provide insight into areas of potential focus, to communicate the real benefits to policymakers and stakeholders, and to justify budget and prioritise IT investments.