Canadian Government Executive - Volume 26 - Issue 04

8 / Canadian Government Executive // September/October 2020 TECHNOLOGY By implementing a digital platform infra- structure, departments and agencies at all three levels of government can work close- ly with partners to reduce the cost of inno- vation while accelerating the speed of de- livery. This type of platform also provides the highest levels of security, data privacy, and compliance needed to facilitate this type of information sharing across an eco- system of government agencies, partners, and citizens. Increasing self-service capa- bilities will be an important element of improving service quality while reducing the costs of delivery to the Canadian pub- lic over the long-term. This shift moves the government service delivery model into a citizen-facing one that is focused, predic- tive, competitive, and offers a retail experi- ence grounded in data-driven insights. Crisis necessitates change COVID-19 has supplanted the importance of adopting a digital-first mindset. The public sector faces many challenges – re- sponding to high citizen expectations, maintaining legacy systems, cloud migra- tion issues, and the need for data integra- tion analysis. Despite a commitment from all levels of the Canadian government to digital transformation, the country re- mains at the infancy stages of adoption. For years, the Canadian public sector has been an attractive place to work – opportu- nities to serve local communities, the abil- ity to move within various departments, generous benefits, and job security. How- ever, without a broader transformation and actions taken to keep pace with the efforts of the private sector, the Canadian public sector could not only potentially face a dwindling talent pool as competi- tion within the labour market intensifies, but also its ability to fulfil its primary mandate. Incorporating a digital strategy remains essential to its productivity. An intelligence-driven digital platform The future of government work through digital transformation is an enterprise-wide imperative that will vastly change the concept of work for civil servants and how it is completed. can alter the ways government bodies ap- proach its operations, improving the speed and quality of services, minimizing costs, and optimizing processes. In particular, platforms built on low-code can be lever- aged to accelerate delivery times for gov- ernment-issued applications such as em- ployee onboarding, facilitating grants, or managing and processing building permit applications. The future of government work through digital transformation is an enterprise-wide imperative that will vast- ly change the concept of work for civil ser- vants and how it is completed. A return to business as usual with the further imple- mentation of an intelligence-driven digi- tal platform will empower civil servants to better collaborate with colleagues and share mission-critical information across various departments and agencies, as gov- ernment leaders continue to plan for the challenges that lie ahead. Brian Chidester is the Principal Indus- try Strategist for Public Sector at OpenText and the host of “The Govern- ment Huddle with Brian Chidester” podcast from Government Marketing University. He is responsible for grow- ing OpenText’s Public Sector practice while also ensuring the success of its public sector customers.