Out of date legacy processes are the biggest hurdle to delivering digital government, according to senior public sector executives.
A survey by supplier Mercato Solutions revealed a number of challenges facing government as it attempts to improve cheaper, more effective services.
The survey suggested that a number of factors are still holding back the pace of digital transformation.
Peter Robbins, managing director of Mercato Solutions, said: “The combination of an IT skills shortage, high perceived cost, and therefore risk, associated with going digital, coupled with a fear of failure, are qualities that undermine the very ethos of driving rapid innovation and change. This is holding back experimentation required for digital glory.’’
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‘‘In order to progress, there needs to be a greater focus on the ability to re-engineer and optimise existing processes with greater speed and efficiency.”
The study was based on interviews with senior central and local government ICT executives.
In addition to legacy processes, 50% blamed a bureaucratic culture and old fashioned leadership as key challenges, while 46% said the cost of innovating was holding them back.
Almost a quarter (23%) cited a ‘lack of resources and training’ as a clear issue and 26% admitted they had a problem with “perceived risk, while two 42% said “the scale of the challenge” is often too daunting.
Robbins said: “CIOs and innovation leaders are now starting to look at the emerging category of disruptive platform-based technologies that challenge the norm of rapid application development without using code.
“That means game-changing simplicity, speed and cost of automating processes.”
