During 2018, government CIOs increased their investment in data analytics and the cloud significantly and analysts at Gartner think this trend is set to continue throughout 2019, with IT chiefs committed to artificial intelligence and data analytics.
In fact, the analyst house thinks that these two technologies will be "game-changing" for governments because they will allow them to assess real-time data. something they haven't been able to take advantage of to this level before.
"Taking advantage of data is at the heart of digital government it's the central asset to all that government oversees and provides," said Rick Howard, VP analyst at Gartner. "The ability to leverage that data strategically in real time will significantly improve government's ability to seamlessly deliver services, despite increased strain on finite resources."
Gartner's research revealed that almost a fifth of CIOs working for governmental departments want to take advantage of digitisation this year rather than focusing on industry-specific goals, improving operational efficiency or cost optimisation because they value the ROI digital technologies bring.
A third of public sector organisations said that as a direct response to this, they will be scaling their digital transformation efforts in the next 12 months, despite the government still not keeping up with the private sector, particularly when compared to defence and intelligence verticals.
"To meet increased demand and evolving expectations of citizens for effective and efficient services, government must continue to enhance its digital maturity," Howard said. "Government CIOs clearly recognise the potential of digital government and have started developing new digital services, but now need to take digital beyond a vision to execution through digital leadership."
