Today’s state and local agencies are savvy about the power of the internet, particularly as they emerge from the pandemic, and they are interested in providing citizens with the means to accomplish tasks through government websites. It’s one thing to explain to city residents, for example, how to obtain a guest parking pass for visitors, but it’s another thing entirely to allow a visitor to print a pass on the spot.
Digital services are much more in demand after a few years of social distancing, and IT officials call for mapping the journey of citizens across government web properties. Digital Services Georgia defines a citizen journey map as a “visualization of a person’s process, end-to-end, to accomplish a goal,” and agencies can produce such maps by identifying how people interact with an agency online.
Maryland and Indiana are among the states applying identity and access management (IAM) solutions to facilitate citizen services. To get there, both states turned to resources on hand to map the citizen journey and apply technologies to ease their government interactions (see “States and Localities Build on Success with Identity and Access Management”).
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Improvements Through Identity and Access Management
Journey maps begin with a conversation across a government enterprise in which public servants come together to share their intelligence and perspectives. They then should gather data on citizens’ online interactions and expectations.
It is important to visualize a public persona and understand how residents interact with government websites to complete their tasks. Journey mapping can align an agency’s resources with citizen goals. Ohio began the successful launch of its OH|ID IAM solution, perhaps the most mature citizen identity management program in the country, with journey mapping. A strong IAM program helps citizens travel across a government’s collective enterprise.
Using a single login, citizens interact with agencies responsible for tax collection, driver’s licenses, unemployment benefits and other processes seamlessly. It is easy to understand the great deal of interest in IAM solutions among state governments over the past several years.
