55% of digital government programs fail to scale

More than half (55%) of digital government programs are failing to scale, despite the increased focus and investment in digital programs amid the pandemic, research from Gartner suggests.

Speaking at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2021 for Asia–Pacific, senior research director Dean Lacheca said many government organisations are still at the early stages of digital transformation.

A survey of 166 government organisations conducted in April–May found that 10% are still at the early stages, involving, experimenting, exploring or deploying some citizen-facing digital services. A further 45% are at the developing stage, with some examples of digital solutions being used for end-to-end processes.

Global digital government maturity. For a clearer image, click here.

But only 5% of respondents were at the top of the maturity scale, optimising the use of digital solutions that underpin all aspects of their organisation, and only 24% were classified as digitally advanced.

Lacheca said government organisations must step up their game to be able to meet the demands of citizens. “Citizens expect results, they are not interested in effort. Digital government programs have accelerated during the pandemic and attracted more investment, yet many governments are still struggling to translate this into results at scale,” he said.

“Those that are yet to scale digital should build on the momentum unleashed by the disruption to progress their digital transformation.”

Among digitally advanced organisations, 85% have successfully scaled digital and are using it extensively across their organisations, Lacheca said.

“These digitally advanced government organisations are realising more of the benefits, such as higher efficiency, cost reductions, greater workforce productivity, compliance and transparency. Even more important are outcomes associated with public purpose or mission, such as citizen experience and community safety,” he said.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/David Carillet