Governments are considering cloud technologies in a bid to drive more efficient operations

Tags: cloud computing, asia/pacific, accountability, government, public policy, healthcare reforms, virtualization

The recent global recession has increased public scrutiny and accountability demands on the IT budgets of government organizations. Paradoxically, these organizations are increasingly under pressure to raise service competency and productivity. This cost and performance management irony has propelled public agencies to look to other technological alternatives, such as cloud computing solutions.

In the latest IDC Government Insights study, “Looking Ahead: Articulating Cloud Competencies for the Aisa/Pacific Public Sector (Doc #AP9694203S)", IDC Government Insights discussed the trends driving the adoption of cloud technologies, whether public, private or a hybrid of both models, and the concerns over the use of cloud computing technologies in the public sector such as security, reliability and regulatory compliance.

In general, most public sector agencies are widely dispersed operational silos and have an urgent need to coordinate and integrate the various egovernment functions. Notably, the challenge today is that these agencies face varying policy and operational restrictions which translate to different needs and scales on their IT capacity. As the business case for the traditional data center is no longer sustainable in the long run, the adoption of cloud computing technologies in the public sector has become a viable option.

We note that the Asia/Pacific public sector is still apprehensive about the adoption of cloud computing especially in agencies that handle sensitive information. Most of the initiatives today are still at an experimental stage as the public sector tries to determine the return on investment (ROI) and weigh the risks involved in the adoption of cloud computing technologies.

Governments should take an active change management stance to address the people and process aspects of cloud implementations, such as revolutionizing traditional workflows and facilitating interoperable standards to bring about greater inter-agency coordination. All the stakeholders involved need to internalize the value and application of the cloud model so as to truly realize a continued and successful egovernment transformation.

We are also expecting data protection and security solutions such as "rights-management-as-a-service", and integrated business intelligence and analytics applications to feature strongly as key technological innovations that lead the adoption of cloud computing for the public sector.

Inevitably, apart from cost management agendas, public sector agencies will need to define their own set of business requirements for cloud computing solutions. This means they have to explore and gather distinctive proficiency and awareness towards building a specialized enterprise-grade cloud services model that fits the unique environment it serves. Thus, the eventual adoption of cloud technologies, whether public, private or a hybrid of both models, lies fundamentally on the operational requirements it seeks to address.

Demonstrating public sector agility - Singapore's IDA surges ahead with egovernment revitalization plans

Tags: government, public policy, social media, web 2.0, it priorities

IDC Government Insights'  latest report "Opportunities Abound: Analysis of Singapore's US$720 Million Public Sector FY10 ICT Procurement Plans (Doc #AP9694104S, June 2010) " reveals that the Singapore government's future ICT procurement plans will revolve around new technology areas such as business intelligence (BI), ubiquitous presence and social media.  

This finding was echoed in a recent interview which Straits Times did with James Kang  (Chief Information Officer at the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore). In the interview, James shared that the Singapore government is starting to transform its online citizenry services to leverage on the rapidly evolving ICT environment that the nation is building upon.

There is also a strong indication that the government is planning to boost collaborations; and, it is not just within the government organization, but also with various stakeholders such as the ICT industry and the citizenry it serves. Increased collaborative engagements through social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are likely to be pursued.

As the government pushes ahead with the upcoming iGovt2015 public sector masterplan, IDC Government Insights expects to see strategic directives in revitalizing public services, systems consolidation and sustainability business solutions.

To date, Singapore has received several international accolades for its e-government excellence. This success however, is not an overnight miracle. Singapore's computerization journey first began almost 30 years ago with the Civil Service Computerization Program that was primarily targeted at automating work functions and reducing paperwork for greater internal operational efficiencies.  

Ultimately, egovernment efforts are not all about the implementation of technology alone, but also, the changing approach to the way the government delivers its traditional services. James also said in the interview that the key to successful egovernment implementation lies in changing mindsets and taking calculated risks within the government. I can't agree more with this statement. In addition to "changing mindsets and taking calculated risks," strong leadership directives and commitment from all stakeholders involved remains crucial ingredients of successful egovernment transformation.

Governments should stretch the stimulus dollar

Tags: government, economic stimulus, transparency, accountability

Since the onset of the economic crisis in September last year, governments have gone into crisis mode, bailing out critical institutions and announcing mega stimulus packages in hopes of cushioning the financial impact on their economies.

This avalanche of uncertainty has left a lingering 'bitter-taste' when over a trillion dollars worth of taxpayer dollars are spent on rescuing money-losing businesses. The question for citizens remains, "is my government spending our money rightly and wisely?" as they scrutinize stimulus and budget initiatives unveiled and look for government leadership in rebuilding the economy.

Correspondingly, the challenge for government CIOs is how to stretch the stimulus dollar through IT investments – how to deploy IT capabilities and implementations to reduce operational costs while enhancing efficiency, and how to increase transparency and accountability as public confidence in institutions from banks to government itself dips.

Technology and innovation create immense transformation power to improve the business of government and the lives of citizens. CIOs should optimize the potential of technologies such as Web 2.0 – from blogs, and wikis to other social networking applications – to enhance collaboration and citizen participation, and create workflows and nurture skills for applications that have not been tried before. Likewise, as citizens expect government to behave more transparently and efficiently, CIOs can ride on stimulus initiatives to strengthen a focus on risk management, compliance, dashboards, and other metrics to manage performance and demonstrate accountability. 

However it is important to urge caution not to go overboard with such initiatives to the extent that they are seen to saddle government employees with a greater bureaucratic burden that translates into more red tape that citizens' face, instead of focusing on the original objectives of helping citizens in these new and challenging economic times!