During the pandemic, the pace of technology adoption and agency transformation across the public sector was extremely high, out of necessity. Now, while the immediate pressure and urgency has dissipated, the desire for rapid change has slowed considerably.
That said, constituents still expect instant gratification, and the risks associated with not evolving to keep pace with those expectations haven’t changed. Constituents expect fast, accurate service across any channels that they use. State and local agencies must continue to innovate to ensure the best use of taxpayer dollars and to provide the best mission outcomes possible.
To meet these demands, we are seeing new approaches emerge for reskilling and better deploying the workforce, along with new partnerships in the public and private sector. The evolution and adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to impact how agencies operate. We are just now beginning to see significant change in capabilities and services.
Here are some trends to watch as the public sector’s transformation continues over the coming months, particularly in state and local government.
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1. Growth of Public-Private Technology Partnerships
As customers push government agencies to manage and connect disparate platforms, the public sector is leaning more on industry to simplify the complexity of technology issues, especially in cloud computing. The result will be an expanded number of partnerships between government agencies and private sector companies.
2. The New Paradigm of Data as a Service
Data continues to be the No.1 element used to inform key decision-makers about what has happened, what is happening, what should happen, what could happen next and what the ultimate outcome will be. The focus has shifted away from data formats and data volumes to converge on data value, which speaks concisely to the importance of data that can be realized when it is available and consumed in the “as a service” paradigm.
3. The Rise of Chief Data and AI Officers
Data has become the lifeblood of business. The most successful businesses are those that know how to gather insights from their data, with a chief data officer at the helm. The same holds true for state and local governments. The importance of the role will increase going forward, especially when the CDO works in collaboration with the CISO and CIO to ensure technology and data are fully leveraged.
4. A Focus on Upskilling and Reskilling the Workforce
The shift to hybrid and cloud architecture will require government agencies to hire, train and retain employees with the necessary skill sets to work with these new technologies. Because economic conditions may mean they won’t be able to hire enough workers, agencies will also need to focus on retraining a portion of their existing workforce to be capable managers of cloud architectures.
DISCOVER: How hybrid work solutions can modernize government services and workplaces.
5. A New Mindset for Government Technology Workers
It’s hard to ask people to relinquish control, but that’s what adoption of cloud architecture requires of IT workers. With more agencies adopting cloud technology, more IT staff will relinquish that control. In turn, they will be trained on new skills that will enable them to do more interesting, creative work and help the agency operate more efficiently.
While the pressures of the pandemic have eased, that does not mean the need for government agencies to take steps toward modernization has lessened. Constituent expectations continue to evolve, and those pressures will not go away. In the age of cloud computing, technology will play a major role in empowering public agencies to be the data-driven organizations they aspire to be. As constituent demands increase, agencies must continue to think about how technology can help them realize this potential.
