Analytics, infrastructure and cloud computing are the top three technology priorities for government CIOs, but shortages of skilled workers, rigid organisational cultures and the cyclical nature of government are among the major barriers to implementing digital priorities.
The results come from Gartner’s 2016 CIO Agenda worldwide survey, which asked 2944 CIOs about their top digital business opportunities, threats and strategies, including 379 government CIOs.
The survey showed CIOs in Asia-Pacific and EMEA place a much higher priority on digitalisation than in North America – reflecting the maturing, longer-term investments of sustained national e-government and digital government initiatives.
Though digital transformation has risen to the top of the agenda for elected leaders and public officials, the constraints of electoral terms could be a barrier to achieving this objective.
“Government organisations require the sustained focus and commitment of successive administrations to realise the cumulative, step change benefits of moving from system or process-driven business models to operating as a platform within a digital ecosystem,” said Rick Howard, research vice president, Gartner.
“This calls for better succession management practices and behaviours in government. Progress toward higher levels of digital capability must not be slowed down or derailed by changes in executive leadership. Continuity of vision is the key to building on technology investments made by prior administrations.”
The pace of technology change could also create problems in maintaining a coherent digital program.
Government CIOs estimate that 44 per cent of business processes are now undergoing digital change, with 62 per cent to be impacted within two years and 80 per cent within five years.
“With this much anticipated business process impact on the horizon, there is a high risk to CIOs of not being able to keep up with IT innovations,” said Howard. “This risk will compound over the next five years if IT budget pressures increase and the spread of business unit level IT, or shadow IT, is not strategically coordinated and managed.”
Howard recommends that government CIOs should be rapidly adopting of bimodal practices such as crowdsourcing, working with startups or small or midsize businesses, multidisciplinary teams, agile methodologies, bimodal subcultures and adaptive sourcing.
