Service providers to the public sector must fuel local-scale innovation to propel nationwide transformation

Citizens increasingly expect their local and national authorities to serve them with greater efficiency and accountability. Despite this, public sector digital transformation is still a very nascent space, with “best practice” hard to formulate and instill. If the providers who service the public sector hope to reap the benefits of the dire need for transformation – they must build ecosystems which provide the necessary innovation, talent, trust, accountability, communication, and outcomes, via combinations of startups, SMEs, and universities. Achieving local-scale outcomes will allow these consortiums to prize the attention of national policymakers – who will see their solutions as the best, most reliable option for nationwide transformation. 

Bloated IT contracts throughout worldwide public sectors have resulted in slow, troublesome adoptions of technology and innovations in government divisions, local authorities, and public services. Pressure is growing on governments to bring about the benefits that citizens expect to see for themselves – for example the streamlining of customer experiences in public services. 

We met with Tanya Filer, Director of the Digital State Project at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge (UK), to discuss the rapidly evolving ecosystem surrounding technology and innovation adoption across worldwide public sectors and governments. Much of the conversation flowed around their latest report: Thinking about GovTech, and the roles that service and technology providers must play. A new case study from the Institute also details Argentina’s push for more efficient, accountable, and ‘friendlier’ interactions with citizens via digital transformation. 

Public sector digital transformation lacks “best practice” – there’s a prize within reach for providers to manage these ecosystems. 

Despair in the Argentine public sector reached breaking point in 2004, when 194 people died, and over a thousand were injured, after a fire broke out in a Buenos Aires nightclub that had been awarded a permit despite lacking basic fire safety equipment. In 2014, the UN Online Services Index scored Argentina 0.55/1, with only 24% of 1388 services available digitally, versus the US rated at 0.94; 27 million citizens outside of Buenos Aires would regularly have to journey to the city in person for services like licensing or filing birth/marriage certificates.  

A world bank investment of almost $90 million in 2017 followed a strategic charge to better-understand users’ (citizens’) needs. An interactive map for citizens to better-manage their way through Buenos Aires’ public transport network became consistently one of the most downloaded apps in the city; driving license renewal was reduced from a day-long process to a 45-minute one, conducted online. 

Another app was designed to reduce violence against women – it included a risk self-assessment, means of exiting dangerous situations, an interactive map to nearby help centers, and ways to share information securely with professionals, 911, family, and friends. 

Online business registration, digital signatures, online public services guides, public sector job advertising, and many more opportunities were realized. 

The challenges of achieving national-scale transformation have not gone unrecognized – service providers have the power to kick-start nationwide innovation. 

An overarching digital strategy was critical in Argentina; it’s here that service providers must come to the fore, alongside innovation ecosystems, to truly be the pioneers of public sector digital transformation.  

Argentina has built a thriving ecosystem of public sector innovation branded as the “civic tech community” – especially in Buenos Aires and Cordoba – but despite their “overarching strategy”, government digital transformation has so far been delivered in relative

isolation from this ecosystem  

Diverse and complex citizen needs in the country versus those at the city-level mean that ecosystems are critical – to build localized use-cases, through startups, SMEs, universities, local authorities… which may then be scaled (and adapted) throughout a country. 

Cross-partisan dialogue within the technology sphere in Argentina has allowed digital progress in spite of political matters – fostering a sense that their achievements will outlive and develop beyond the current government. For large service providers to pick up on these tailor-made innovation ecosystems and use their weight to bring governments to the table, will put that provider at the forefront of a nation’s digital agenda. 

An ecosystem where policymakers (and the public) understand technology and its value potential will foster polices promoting innovation – and a higher likelihood of providers snapping-up big contracts. 

Providers must first build a translator capacity to engage with policymakers. They must ensure that public sector departments are equipped to converse at the intersection of technology and public policy. 

Accountability is more prevalent in the public versus private sector, naturally. When handling citizens’ data throughout the vast ecosystems which technology adoption can foster, industry standards and consortiums can go some way to assuring citizens that the data’s owners are accountable and auditable. 

This “translator” capability extends to the public – citizens must understand how data can and is used for their benefit. 

The Argentine government wanted to improve its transparency in the public’s eyes: Over two hundred datasets were published, in legible formats to as much of the Buenos Aires population as possible. 

Academia has established links to policymaking to help tackle some of their fundamental policy problems.  

Providers who engage their academic networks can draw on their multidisciplinary capabilities and enable knowledge-transfer of new ideas and methods of implementation. Academia also have a habit of spinning-out innovative startups with a strong value proposition if nurtured in the right way; providers can extend these innovation networks to incorporate public sector–focused startups and SMEs. 

The Bottom Line: With the public sector crying out for a technological-upgrade, providers must rapidly develop innovation ecosystems to pioneer scalable use cases, before someone else defines and dictates “best practice”. 

Vast variation between cities and countries naturally leads to complications when adopting best practice in the public sector. Nevertheless, citizens’ digital expectations are shifting at a phenomenal rate; governments looking to meet this demand will not be able to do so alone – they will look to service providers to formulate strategies. Large enterprises, SMEs, startups, universities, NGOs… they’re all within providers’ ecosystems – service providers must broker these ecosystems and translate their expertise into the pioneers of a nation’s digital revolution.