Gartner: Top 10 2020 government technology trends
Business Chief takes a look at the top 10 trends in government technology identified by Gartner
Designed to help government CIOs establish the reasoning, timing and priority of technology investments. “Now more than ever, technology priorities must be established in the context of business trends such as digital equity, ethics and privacy, widening generational chasms and the need for institutional agility,” said Rick Howard, research vice president at Gartner.
Adaptive security
Gartner identifies that this approach “treats risk, trust and security as a continuous and adaptive process,” to anticipate and mitigate evolving cyber threats.
“It acknowledges there is no perfect protection and security needs to be adaptive, everywhere, all the time.”
Digital identity
Digital identity, a capability that Gartner identifies as critical for inclusion and access to government services. “Yet many governments have been slow to adopt them. Government CIOs must provision digital identities that uphold both security imperatives and citizen expectations.”
Multichannel engagement
Gartner believes that governments that strive to meet their citizens on their preferred channels will allow them to better meet citizen expectations and achieve desirable outcomes. “According to a 2018 survey, more than 50% of government website traffic now comes from mobile devices,” commented Gartner.
Agility
“Digital government is not a ‘set and forget’ investment,” commented Garnter, who highlights the need for government CIOs to adopt an agile-by-design approach. Having agile systems and solutions impacts the current and target states of a business, information and technical architecture.
Digital Product Management
“In the 2019 Gartner CIO Survey, more than two-thirds of government CIOs said they already have, or are planning to implement, digital product management (DPM),” stated Gartner, who explains that a DPM involves the developing, delivering, monitoring, refining and retiring products and offerings, which drives organisations to think differently to deliver quick and sustainable results
Anything as a Service (XaaS)
Gartner found in 2019, that 39% of government organisations plan to spend the largest amount of new or additional funding on cloud services.
“The XaaS model offers an alternative to legacy infrastructure modernisation, provides scalability and reduces time to deliver digital government services.”
Shared services 2.0
“Many government organisations have tried to drive IT efficiencies through centralisation or sharing of services, often with poor results,” states Gartner. Shared services 2.0 is expected to shift the focus from cost savings to delivering high-value business capabilities.
Digital workforces
Gartner identifies that a digital enabled work environment is linked to employee satisfaction, retention and engagement. However, “governments currently lag other industries in this area. A workforce of self-managing teams need the training, technology and autonomy to work on digital transformation initiatives.”
Analytics
When it comes to analytics, Gartner defines the use at all stages of business activity and services delivery as pervasive, believing that “it shifts government agencies from the dashboard reporting of lagging indicators to autonomous processes that help people make better decisions in real time.”
Augmented Intelligence
Reflecting on artificial intelligence, Gartner recommends that government CIOs should replace the term artificial intelligence with augmented intelligence — “a human-centered partnership model of people and artificial intelligence working together to enhance cognitive performance.”
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