In Canada, and across the globe, efficient governments have traditionally been characterized by balanced budgets, rational spending, and transparency. As we adapt to our “new normal,” we see ourselves shifting into a digital transformation at the speed of light across all industries. But what does this mean for the public sector? What then is next for a series of institutions at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels that have historically struggled with advancing technological practices?
Earlier in January of this year, I made some predictions about what would happen in government tech this year. That was before the massive worldwide impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we emerge into a new world, we can marvel at the progress public sector organizations across the globe are making. Technology has played a pivotal role in government response, so what trends can we expect to see as we look towards the future?
Digital transformation is accelerating
The COVID-19 response has highlighted both the best and worst in government. While many achievements have been remarkable, there are plenty of instances where legacy technologies within many agencies have hampered the ability to deliver new, digital services that citizens require.
Understanding this, the Canadian government has narrowed in on digital growth plans, even before the pandemic. In 2018, the Treasury Board Canada Secretariat launched a Digital Operations Strategic Plan, a series of digital government innovations with the goal to utilize “modern and emerging technologies to deliver better digital services to Canadians.” The plan is setting the stage across the federal public service by implementing digital standards with the Canadian people, the ‘users,’ at the center of its approach.
However, COVID-19 has accelerated this transformation across the entire country. For instance, Accenture recently noted, “The Canadian Government’s IT service organization, Shared Services Canada, has moved forward with an enterprise approach. This initiative is focused on helping federal employees to embrace digital tools that are designed to enhance their productivity and enable better collaboration across departments to deliver the essential services Canadians need.”
In the United States, the country is experiencing the same digital renaissance. In a recent podcast, Suzette Kent, the former U.S. Federal CIO, conveyed to me, “COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of digital transformation. But this isn’t a short-term thing. Government CIOs have seen what we can achieve, in areas such as teleworking, cybersecurity, and digital services. A lot of folks that were resistant saying ‘we can’t do this this way’ are now asking: ‘why didn’t we do this before?”
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 application 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, Canadians have been quick to adopt digital services. Canadian citizens are increasingly expressing a preference for a more digital end-to-end experience. The demand for digital acceleration in the public sector is clear. Canadians want their user experience to be fast and intuitive.
A recent McKinsey report found, “Unlike physical offices, digital ones are open to the public 24/7—and stay open during public-health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital interactions are less time consuming for people … automating case handling significantly boosts productivity, 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 medical 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 government’s pandemic response. What has been happening in Canada is no different. The Canadian Government was quick to respond in supporting millions of Canadians with financial relief through the implementation of the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).
She commented that platforms like these were key to enable collaboration and information 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 fragmented, siloed, and inefficient nature of much of today’s public sector technology. Digital platforms – such as the OpenText DigiGov platform – contain a comprehensive range of standard processes pre-configured for government to drive efficiency, collaboration, and innovation. The platform is inclusive of products that build content processes, leverage advanced AI to enhance automation and decision making, 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 predominant remote workforce has placed considerable strain on many existing systems and a new sense of urgency to onboard 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 sector agencies need to move from reactive to proactive service delivery. That means being able to properly capture and analyze citizen data to identify trends and help focus and personalized service delivery.
Leading to an increased focus on automation
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian 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 adopted around the world – places an emphasis on the elimination of manual processes that add time, error, and waste while reducing citizen experience. In a post-COVID-19 world, this need is accentuated. The demand for new and improved digital services will continue to grow at a time when revenues from taxation and central funding are greatly reduced.
CTV News reported in May of this year, the Canadian economy lost almost two million jobs because of the spread of COVID-19. CBC reported, “A crisis like no other: Canadian finances could take years to recover from the pandemic recession.” Today, 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 embrace a new digital world. The good news is that the Government of Canada is currently acting on what Canadians want. The government’s digital strategy highlights security, accessibility, and a user-friendly experience to help Canadians make the digital transition, COVID-19, and beyond.
