Agencies are creating more data than ever, and they increasingly rely on it to make decisions. Government must leverage the growing data-focused civic engagement community.

GovLoop recently published the report Crafting a Comprehensive Digital Government Strategy, which set out to explore how public-sector agencies can leverage emerging technology to transform themselves into modern institutions.

Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, the report provides a snapshot of what a digital government truly is and the path agencies can take to craft a comprehensive digital strategy. This report draws on a survey of 94 members of the GovLoop community who are innovating and adopting emerging technology. Respondents were from the state, local, and federal levels of government.

GovLoop also conducted interviews with industry and government thought leaders, highlighting emerging trends and strategies for digital government implementation. Interviewees included

  • Todd Akers, vice president, Acquia
  • Teresa Bozzelli, president, Sapient Government Services
  • Lance Horne, general manager, GovDelivery Federal Services
  • Clay Johnson, presidential innovation fellow, Executive Office of the President
  • Terri Jones, industry marketing manager, government, Hyland Software
  • Robert Post, associate executive director, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.

GovLoop defines digital government as "the tools, applications, resources and methodologies allowing government to leverage new and emerging technology to serve the most mission-centric goals of the agency." Additionally, the report finds that a digital government builds a foundation that is device-agnostic, information- and customer-focused, and highly scalable to meet increasing resource demands.

The report was influenced by the Digital Government Strategy, which was released in May 2012 by federal chief information officer Steven VanRoekel and chief technology officer Todd Park. The aggressive campaign set out to accomplish three goals:

  1. capitalize on the mobile revolution
  2. become more agile in technology adoption in a safe and secure way
  3. unlock the power of government data.

With the mobile revolution, it is essential that government retains a sense of openness and interoperability to allow and deliver higher quality services to citizens. By becoming more agile, government can build a stronger government structure and adapt more effectively to changes in technology. By taking an agile approach, government can scale services to meet future demands.

Leveraging Data

Agencies are creating, managing, and storing more data than ever before, and are leveraging this data to make sound decisions. With government data, the public sector, entrepreneurs, private sector, and all stakeholders can be empowered to develop mobile applications, improve government programs, or work collaboratively to solve problems faced by the public sector.

Additionally, the federal government's digital government strategy revolves around four overarching principles that have been infused within the federal government:

  1. Information-centric. The information-centric approach is used broadly to define a way for citizens to easily access and consume data in a format that is most useful to them.
  2. Shared-platform. A shared-
    platform approach means that agencies can work both within and across agencies to reduce costs, streamline activities, develop consistent standards
    and, most importantly, deliver information efficiently and effectively.
  3. Customer-centric. A customer-centric approach is defined as keeping pace with current market trends to deliver services in models that are desired by citizens. This means providing access to information through websites, mobile applications, and data to allow users to consume information in the right form, using models they want to consume.
  4. Security and privacy. Agencies are sharing, collaborating, and creating more data, so there must be a way to retain security and protect information.

Five Components of a Digital Government

Although the administration articulated a clear technology vision to the federal government, local and state governments have adopted a similar philosophy. GovLoop found five core components of a digital government being used by governments at the state, local, and federal levels.

  1. Accessible. Information anywhere, anytime, at any location. A theme that emerged in this study was the desire for internal and external stakeholders to exchange information anywhere and anytime. No longer is our workplace defined by a physical location. Employees work remotely, on the go, in coffee shops, on planes, and in their homes. A truly digital government leverages emerging technology to accommodate the current work environment.
  2. Self-service. Self-service platforms are changing the way government does business. In many cases, self-service is removing the burden of paper felt by many agencies. As one survey respondent states, agencies are moving toward an environment marked by "Less paper, a portal for customers to obtain information, and a single webpage for many services (such as name changes)." Through self-service platforms, government can become more efficient and effective in how services are delivered, leaving the monotonous tasks to technology, and allowing managers to place employees on the highest value, mission-centric tasks.
  3. Data-driven. With all the different kinds of technology the public sector is adopting, more data is being created. For an agency to truly be "digital," this means fully unlocking the power of government data. Agencies must continue to explore ways to extract knowledge from the value, volume, and variety of data to improve decision making.
  4. Agile and scalable. The technology that is being implemented today will be antiquated within the next five years. Understanding how technological investments will affect an agency in the near term is critical for government to adequately respond to a rapidly changing landscape. Agencies must adopt scalable solutions and leverage current investments in new ways. By adopting a more agile approach to technology, agencies can periodically adopt and change data initiatives. This philosophy will be essential to meeting increasing demand.
  5. Removing the burden of paper. By providing services digitally, consumers are able to efficiently receive information on the platform of their choice. Also, the government employee is freed from the burden of mundane and monotonous tasks such as filing, searching, and organizing large volumes of information. Leveraging a digital strategy to relieve the burden of paper allows employees to be placed in the most high-value tasks, leaving the burden of monotonous tasks to technology.

Challenges to Implementing a Digital Government Strategy

Regardless of the components and tools of a digital strategy, implementing a digital strategy comes with related challenges. In the GovLoop survey, we asked respondents to rank their top challenges to adopt a digital strategy. Respondents were given the options of selecting leadership, budgets, staffing, or education:

  • Leadership (30 percent). Leadership is essential to adopting technology and crafting a digital strategy. Leaders must craft a clear vision that is consistent with the mission, and work diligently to adopt technology and find new ways to leverage investments to transform processes within the agency.
  • Budgets (28 percent). Budget cuts continue to plague the public sector. As resources diminish, adoption of technology becomes increasingly difficult. As agencies try to provide new services and catch up with technology, they also face a difficult economic climate to purchase new technology to modernize services.
  • Staffing (22 percent). Along with budgets, staffing continues to be a challenge for government. With emerging technology, agencies should be able to put people on more high-value tasks, and allow technology to perform the more automated tasks. With hiring freezes and fiscal uncertainty, the public sector is challenged to recruit and retain top IT talent.
  • Education (20 percent). With any kind of technology adoption, agencies need to develop a clear value proposition, making sure government technology is adopted the right way and solving the right problem, and ensuring that leaders, staff, and all stakeholders are well-educated on investments made.

Digital government is not just one tool or solution that will reimagine the public sector; it is the multitude of devices and technology that will work seamlessly to transform the public sector.

Although clear budgetary challenges are present for government agencies, now is the time for government innovation and for agencies to capitalize on emerging technology to improve services and information delivery, and to leverage the growing data-focused civic engagement community. This will allow agencies to transform into modern institutions, and become a more participatory, transparent, and collaborative government.