The world we live in has dramatically changed. In just a few months, the pandemic has brought about years of change in the way organizations across all sectors and regions do business. A recent IBM study found that the COVID-19 crisis and its resulting “New Normal” have accelerated digital transformation initiatives among 59% of organizations, while 66% of organizations were able to complete their previously shelved digital transformation initiatives.
The Pandemic has shown that digital technology and data have become indispensable tools for private and public sector organizations alike, as organizations adapt to the changes across their operations and processes. In a 2020 Deloitte survey including more than 1,200 government officials from over 70 countries on digital transformation, three-fourths believed that digital technologies are “disrupting the public sector” and 96% of respondents characterized the impact on their domain as “significant”. And yet, despite some pockets of excellence in innovation, most governments are still lagging behind the corporate world in harnessing the power of digital.
To build a public sector that is equipped to face today’s challenges and ready for the future, governments must reinvent themselves. The government leaders must reassess their plans and imagine a future where digital technologies are the tools to help government agencies handle and overcome operational challenges, deliver government services and programs more efficiently, transparently, and cost-effectively, and meet the expectations of citizens. Today, digital government transformation has become an absolute imperative for governments. It empowers government agencies to improve services, support economic recovery, reduce costs, ensure resiliency, and increase secure collaboration through the crisis and beyond.
Benefits of Utilizing Microsoft Technologies for Digital Government Transformation
Microsoft delivers a comprehensive technology stack to enable Governments to overcome their existing challenges and enhance connectivity, security, and productivity. With Microsoft’s leading-edge tools and technologies, Governments can lift the bar and compete with the service levels and operating procedures of the private sector. Created with a keen focus on security and compliance, Microsoft enables government organizations to keep their data, conversations, and infrastructure safe. Digital government transformation powered by Microsoft deliver the following benefits:
1: Engage with your Citizens better
Advancements in technology enable governments to engage with citizens at scale through mobile and web applications. Organizations can integrate disruptive new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Blockchain, Internet of Things, Virtual/Augmented Reality, among others to deliver exceptional citizens’ user experience and successfully enact app-centric citizen services.
Microsoft Azure and PowerApps have been altering the landscape of enterprise applications and driving digital transformation, by enabling organizations to transform and modernize their applications faster and better. Additionally, Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform helps drive increased productivity, protects government data from threats, and reduces infrastructure management costs.
2: Optimize Your Operations
Earlier this year, government organizations had to rapidly move to remote work and remote governing in the wake of the global health pandemic. Adoption of trusted cloud services and solutions helped Governments to not only tackle their immediate pressures but also to optimize government operations to promote the cost and operating efficiencies.
Microsoft Azure cloud delivers an integrated, flexible, and trustworthy choice of cloud and productivity solutions for Governments. It helps departments and agencies address their key transformation challenges, drive innovation through new data-driven insights, and capture new advantages through cloud-based advances.
3: Empower Your Employees
As we near the second year of remote working, it is essential for Governments to empower employees with the right technologies to improve collaboration and communication, simplify data aggregation and reporting, democratize app development and liberate employees from mundane and repetitive tasks. Such technologies can supercharge the productivity and efficiency of your employees. It will also empower Governments to dish out the best services to the citizens.
Microsoft’s comprehensive stack of business-driven solutions includes Teams (a chat-based workspace that brings together chats, meetings, calls, files, and tools), Power BI (helps organizations connect to hundreds of data sources, establish self-service and make informed decisions), Power Apps (a low code app development platform enabling users to build custom apps, in hours rather than days or weeks), and Power Automate (a powerful solution to automate organizational processes and reduce manual efforts thereby boosting productivity). Together these workloads alleviate the experience and morale of government employees enabling them to stay at their productive and innovative best.
4: Transform Your Services
With the adoption and integration of AI, BI, and ML technologies in government processes, an agency can have access to vast quantities of data from processes and citizens to produce actionable analysis, insights, and better decision making that can improve operations and indicate new service. Additionally, the integration of Chatbots in essential citizen’s service processes can deliver instant and round the clock support keeping the citizen’s satisfied and expediting issue resolutions. Adoption of Business Process Automation (BPA) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technologies allow governments to set new benchmarks for process efficiency. This automation technology shortens the processing time and accelerates the disbursal of benefits under the citizen schemes/programs.
Microsoft’s Power BI has been transforming the public sector services by delivering essential insights when and where required. While Power Virtual Agent enables Governments to rapidly set up an AI-based self-service Chatbot and fast-track citizens’ issue resolutions without any human intervention. To take your automation a notch forward, you can utilize Power Automate to streamline processes, liberate employees from mundane tasks, and accelerate citizens service delivery.
As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Cloud Solutions Provider, and Power Platform Partners AgreeYa is uniquely positioned to help governments successfully navigate the journey of digital transformation whether your priority is on employee productivity, citizen engagement, better insights into data, cost efficiency, or launching new service improvements or innovations. We are the choice of technology partner for more than 90 local and state governments.