Faced with budget constraints, governments at all levels are taking a hard look at how services can be delivered more cost-effectively. We believe information technology will continue to play a big role in public sector efficiencies.A research driven initiative to monitor and assess effective e-government implementations is needed.
Public Tech Views was created in response to requests from public sector professionals for objective analysis of key trends driving changes in the sector. Our research will focus on policy development and implementation best practices.
We start with the following ten trends in mind:
- Consumerization. As citizens become more comfortable with all things digital, changes in personal habits and preferences are driving new expectations. Citizens want public-sector services to be comparable to the best in the private sector, with greater transparency and access. We foresee new relationships between the public and government, and digitisation to be in the middle of this change, led by social media.
- Closely related, but with distinct attributes of its own, is the shift to mobility. Convenience, attention and location will combine to make mobile service delivery and consumption a key factor in driving change.
- Transparency – we chose ‘open’ to underscore the significant momentum of consumerization and mobility, and how they are driving towards greater transparency.
- Quest for productivity. Brutal budget cuts and rising citizen expectations are forcing re-assessment of service delivery processes. Technology will play a vital role in the quest to save costs while maintaining services.
- New competences and risks – Search, data mining and analytics will help predict micro and macro trends, with huge benefits. Collecting, managing, and deploying information will become more critical, and be seen as a core competency. So will the expertise to allay concerns about data privacy and equity.
- Leadership and management – talent management in the public sector will move from back-office support function to become a priority. The landscape is becoming more complex and dynamic, and public services will require more talented leaders and managers.
- Here comes the mixed economy. Public, private, and non- profit providers of public services will become more common with private and nonprofit organizations taking on issues traditionally seen as the preserve of public policy.
- Sourcing dynamics. Outsourcing helped us understand there were alternatives to all services delivered by full time employees. Today, we see the cloud as a resource, as well as the ‘crowd’. Significant change in sourcing management lie ahead.
- Government becomes global. Many issues that governments need to deal with such as climate change, organized crime, immigration and epidemics point to the need for international collaboration between governments. We expect collaboration to encompass collaborative policymaking and service delivery.
- Unified dashboards – Publishing progress will become commonplace as access to public data is opened, and citizens use commonly available tools to interrogate and analyse.