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Digital services
EVOLVING
GOVERNMENT DIGITAL SERVICES BEYOND THE PANDEMIC PATCHWORK Dustin Laidsaar, strategic business consultant, Avaya
G
overnment digital services have undergone considerable transformation in the last three years. While agencies have maintained a digital presence to varying degrees for some time, it was only at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that investment boomed. With Australians impacted at unprecedented levels, state and federal
Now it’s a matter of turning digital patchwork into sustainable digital services, underscored by reliability, accessibility and uncompromising attention to customer experience and privacy. According to Irma Fabular, research vice president at Gartner, “The disruptions caused by the pandemic have also reinforced a key digital government tenet, which is public policy and technology are inseparable”.
will go towards software and services, motivated by the desire to “improve responsiveness and resilience of public services”, the firm says. Digital can no longer be treated as only something we should have because technology just so happens to be popular. It must be regarded as a critical asset in everyday Australia, and policy makers need to connect the digital dots to meet the expectations of taxpayers. The importance of this approach
governments were forced to expedite the online delivery of programs like JobSeeker and JobKeeper, stand up check-in systems, and make available an array of resources and support.
The analyst firm now forecasts Australian government sector IT spending to surpass $15.5 billion in 2022, an 8.8 per cent jump on the year prior. A majority (72%) of that investment
was again highlighted during the recent east coast floods, as tens of thousands of Australians displaced by the natural disaster required financial assistance in the aftermath.
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