Canadian Government Executive - Volume 26 - Issue 05

November/December 2020 // Canadian Government Executive / 13 TECHNOLOGY pandemic. Digital interactions are less time consuming for people … automating case handling significantly boosts produc- tivity, reducing backlogs and freeing up resources for other priorities—another advantage in the wake of COVID-19, when speed and resilience for delivering critical services (such as unemployment or medi- cal benefits) are paramount.” Government begins to adopt digital platforms in earnest In my conversation with Kent, former CIO for the U.S. Government, she emphasized the role of digital platforms in facilitating the speed and effectiveness of the US gov- ernment’s pandemic response. What has been happening in Canada is no different. The Canadian Government was quick to respond in supporting millions of Cana- dians with financial relief through the im- plementation of the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). She commented that platforms like these were key to enable collaboration and infor- mation across agencies. They allowed new systems to be quickly developed and tested by different agencies as well as ensuring that agencies could meet the huge growth of demand for information from citizens. The speed, reuse, and resilience that digital platforms can engender are ideal in an environment where the demand for digital services is increasing and budgets are shrinking. COVID-19 shows the frag- mented, siloed, and inefficient nature of much of today’s public sector technology. Digital platforms – such as the OpenText DigiGov platform – contain a comprehen- sive range of standard processes pre-con- figured for government to drive efficiency, collaboration, and innovation. The plat- form is inclusive of products that build content processes, leverage advanced AI to enhance automation and decision mak- ing, monitor for, and detect anomalies across all endpoints, among others. Governments double down on modernization Despite many pronouncements, the path to IT modernization has been slow. As mentioned earlier, it was not until 2018 when the Canadian government adopted the Digital Operations Strategic Plan. COVID-19 has exposed the weakness of legacy systems. Moving towards a pre- dominant remote workforce has placed considerable strain on many existing sys- tems and a new sense of urgency to on- board Canadians to digital platforms. IT modernization now needs to take center stage with data being at the core of this shift. To better serve citizens, public sec- tor agencies need to move from reactive to proactive service delivery. That means be- ing able to properly capture and analyze citizen data to identify trends and help fo- cus and personalized service delivery. Leading to an increased focus on automation Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ca- nadian government had already begun its drive towards automation, as well as AI. The ‘shifting from low value to high-value work’ agenda – a trend increasingly adopt- ed around the world – places an emphasis on the elimination of manual processes that add time, error, and waste while re- ducing citizen experience. In a post-COV- ID-19 world, this need is accentuated. The demand for new and improved digital ser- vices will continue to grow at a time when revenues from taxation and central fund- ing are greatly reduced. CTV News reported in May of this year, the Canadian economy lost almost two million jobs because of the spread of CO- VID-19. CBC reported, “A crisis like no oth- er: Canadian finances could take years to recover from the pandemic recession.” To- day, automating digital processes is likely the only way departments and agencies can continue to meet their mission when faced with dwindling resources. There are undoubtedly major challenges ahead as we move towards establishing our new ways of working and living. But, with every challenge comes opportunity. It is clear that government bodies can no longer go along happily servicing the technical debt but must find ways to fund and em- brace a new digital world. The good news is that the Government of Canada is currently acting on what Canadians want. The gov- ernment’s digital strategy highlights secu- rity, accessibility, and a user-friendly expe- rience to help Canadians make the digital transition, COVID-19, and beyond. Brian Chidester is the Principal Indus- try Strategist for Public Sector at OpenText and the host of “The Govern- ment Huddle with Brian Chidester” pod- cast from Government Marketing Uni- versity. He is responsible for growing OpenText’s Public Sector practice while also ensuring the success of its public sector customers. Driving the digital citizen experience Research suggests that we jumped five years forward in consumer and business digital adoption in around eight weeks since the pandemic started. Government institutions are no different. Digital ap- plication and funding portals have gone from concept to delivery in a few weeks’ time. Schools boards across Canada have also managed to pivot a portion of student learning to online and digital platforms. Outside of government institutions, Ca- nadians have been quick to adopt digital services. Canadian citizens are increasing- ly expressing a preference for a more digi- tal end-to-end experience. The demand for digital acceleration in the public sector is clear. Canadians want their user experi- ence to be fast and intuitive. A recent McKinsey report found, “Un- like physical offices, digital ones are open to the public 24/7—and stay open during public-health crises such as the COVID-19