Many countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia and China, have launched ambitious ‘Vision’ programs aimed at dramatic societal and economic transformation. In each case, the national government views digital transformation as a major part of its strategy. While there have been notable successes, there is still a long way to go before these visions are realized.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 is perhaps the most well-known of these national transformation strategies. When it launched in 2016 there was little way of knowing what was coming; radically altering a nation’s economy and society would be challenging enough without added burden that the pandemic put on governments. This is the most difficult time to reshape everything and also the exact time when it’s needed most.
However, the public sector response to COVID-19 has given us a glimpse at how digital solutions can quickly evolve to help governments meet their missions. With agility and innovation, governments switched to remote working, increased digital service provision and met the rapidly growing needs of citizens.
As public sector budgets tighten, strategic IT modernization and digital transformation can facilitate – and accelerate – transformation to deliver economic and social development, promote good governance, increase sustainability and enhance national security.
5 key pillars of digital government
There are five key pillars of digital government to address as part of national transformation programs:
- Government effectiveness With budgets and headcounts frozen or shrinking, public sector organizations must doing more with less. Inefficient, manual and paper-based processes are no longer sustainable. The automation of low value, repetitive tasks not only boosts productivity and quality, it frees personnel to perform higher-value activities so organizations can better serve their constituents. Inter-agency collaboration and data sharing encourages better deployment of resources and joined-up service delivery.
- Digital service delivery The past 12 months has seen a huge acceleration in the depth and quality of digital service delivery in citizen-facing areas of government. And there’s no going back. As citizen expectations grow, the use of digital technologies and data allows organizations to design and deliver higher-quality services that encourage citizen engagement. We’re beginning to move into the realm of digital-citizen services that can be personalized and delivered at precisely the right moment on the citizen journey.
- Supply chain optimization COVID-19 demonstrated the need for supply chain resilience in the face of unexpected disruptions. More importantly, it showed the value of re-inventing the supply network as a digital ecosystem where public sector organizations can quickly identify and begin working with traditional and non-traditional partners. The need to collaborate and share information with external partners will grow as government operations and services emerge from the pandemic.
- Human capital management The quality of education and upskilling of youth must be prioritized alongside creating employment suited to the existing workforce. The importance of human capital cannot be overstated in order to create a successful economy that best serves people. An increasingly digitally literate workforce must be allied to new, flexible work models.
- Sustainability It seems that 2021 has been the year when the full scale of the climate change crisis become apparent. Sustainability must now appear at the top of the public sector agenda. In 2015, many governments signed up to the UN’s Vision 2030 for sustainable development but progress has been slow. It’s now essential that sustainability is fully considered in every aspect of government operations and service delivery.
Getting the digital element correct is perhaps the most vital element the Vision 2030 initiatives. Governments are increasingly looking towards public-private partnerships to gain access to the digital solutions and digital skills that they need. This is the purpose of Focus 2030, a program that aligns OpenText solutions to help governments implement the five key pillars above.
Industry solution experts from OpenText will work in partnership with government organizations to develop a digital government roadmap and implement the appropriate solutions to deliver effective, secure and cost-efficient digital capabilities to meet the needs of national transformation agendas worldwide.
I will share more information about the details of Focus 2030 soon; in the meantime, find out how OpenText can help governments digitally transform.
