8 Ways Digital is Transforming Governments around the World

The technology now exists to deliver, at the push of a touch screen, a taxi to your door. A doctor can assess a person's health remotely. Computers can process and organize data from millions of inputs.
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The technology now exists to deliver, at the push of a touch screen, a taxi to your door. A doctor can assess a person's health remotely. Computers can process and organize data from millions of inputs.

So governments, long accused of taking on tasks too large to complete, now have access to technology to make extremely complex tasks easy. Digital technologies open opportunities to governments that are limited, it seems, only by our imagination. And in countries all over the world, digital innovators are testing ways to modernize long standing bureaucratic processes. Here are eight innovations worthy of replication.

Join up government: The New Zealand government has set an ambitious goal to reduce the cost of dealing with government by 25 percent by 2017. Surveys found that a big pain point for businesses was the frustration of starting from scratch each time they worked with a new government organization. So the Kiwis have launched a major effort to share information and processes across departments. A business incorporating with Inland Revenue can simultaneously register as an employer with the accident compensation service, for example. "The goal is to not have to ask businesses for the same information time and time again," explains Andrew Bardsley, who runs the Better for Business program. "We've started to pull together pictures of a more complete way of understanding the customer."

Once only: In Estonia, every citizen has a unique online identity, meaning he or she never has to fill out the same information twice when transacting with government, and citizens control their own data. Estonia's system isn't simply a tool for single sign-on--it makes everything from visiting the hospital to boarding a train infinitely easier.

Reimagine the current model: By 2025, the city of Helsinki plans to eliminate the need for any city resident to own a private car. The idea is to combine public and private transport providers so citizens can select the fastest or cheapest mode of travel. Helsinki is taking a quintessentially physical transportation system designed around vehicles, roads, bridges, subways, and buses, and reverses it to revolve around digitally-enabled individual mobility--moving each traveler from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible. Instead of expecting commuters to adapt their habits to the buses, the city uses rider data to adapt infrastructure to commuter habits.

Tap into the broader tech ecosystem: San Francisco wants to become the world's hub for the Internet of Things (IoT). One way it's doing this is by using the city as a sandbox for testing and validating use models for IoT applications. Companies that successfully apply to the city's entrepreneurs in residence program spend eight weeks collaborating with a city department to pilot their application. It's a terrific win-win. The startup gets a real-life use case while the city gets cutting edge technology with little financial risk.

Reinvent procurement: Traditional procurement models are mostly incompatible with a digital product's rapid, agile model of development. To rectify this, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) developed a "bake-off-style" approach to contractor engagement. Instead of awarding one big award, they make awards to four different contractors for agile development teams. Every six months, teams are reevaluated. Companies that perform well receive contracts for more teams on the project--poor performing teams go home, well before they have a chance to underdeliver or request a pricey change order.

Plug and Play: Whenever multiple agencies carry out common processes--payments, payroll, authentication, reservations--they can save considerable amounts of money by sharing systems. Britain's former digital chief Mike Bracken once lamented: "There isn't one IT system in government, not a single one that has managed to service the needs of all the other government departments." He defines a platform as a system that is additive--any department can use it, and every new user adds value. The UK's Government Digital Service (GDS) has responded by building a handful of platforms, ranging from publishing (Gov.uk) to identity management (Verify).

Continuous learning: Digital is never really "finished." You're always gathering more data, seeking user feedback, A/B testing, learning, and iterating. Recognizing this, VicRoads, the transport agency in New South Wales, Australia has adopted the practice of phased releases, performing rigorous A/B testing when releasing new features to the public. For example, 95 percent of site visitors might see the old change-of-address form, with only 5 percent able to access the new and improved version. Only after addressing any remaining issues would the application be opened up to 100 percent of users.

Citizens as sensors
. Deep wells of user feedback can turn beta tests into extraordinarily thorough quality-control trials. The SmartSantander project in the Spanish city of Santander has expanded this principle to the entire civic infrastructure. The city-run project involves 20,000 sensors that measure traffic flow, parking spaces, noise, pollution, temperature, moisture levels, and other metrics.

The city has saved money by directing services where sensors say they are needed--say, dimming streetlights on empty streets. Parking sensors have helped inform drivers where spots are available, and the SmartSantanderRA app even lets citizens point their smartphone at a civic monument to learn about it--like which performance will play tonight in the concert hall, or what that guy did to deserve a statue.

Santander residents can add to the information flow by downloading an app that turns their smartphones into sensors. In this way, citizens play a dual role in the SmartSantander project: as testers and as extensions of its capacity.

These digital innovations will enjoy a first mover advantage when attracting businesses and satisfying citizens. Other governments will adopt the innovations pioneered by these digital leaders. In the spirit of thorough beta testing, they will have the experience of their predecessors to build on, and, one assumes, improve.

William D. Eggers is responsible for research and thought leadership for Deloitte's public sector practice. He is the author of nine books. His newest book is Delivering on Digital: The Innovators and Technologies That are Transforming Government.

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