Peter Schorsch
What’s on every state agency’s wish list this Christmas?
New, better, faster technology.
Governments are relying more heavily on tech to store information, analyze data, increase efficiency and enhance services to constituents.
Deloitte’s GovTech Trends 2023 report is out this month, offering Florida’s state agencies insight into the forces that drive transformational change and emerging trends likely to have a lasting impact.
“The technologies that enhance our organizations and our lives are more powerful (and more essential) than ever before,” according to the Deloitte report.
Forward-thinking governments understand the technological forces surrounding them and work to harness them to benefit the constituents they serve.
The report looks at seven key trends in government technology:
— Through the glass: Immersive internet for the enterprise
— Opening up to AI: Learning to trust our AI colleagues
— Above the clouds: Taming multi-cloud chaos
— Flexibility, the best ability: Reimagining the tech workforce
— In us we trust: Decentralized architectures and ecosystems
— Connect & extend: Mainframe modernization hits its stride
— Embracing xTech: Seizing opportunities with innovative technologies
Not every trend is equal, especially when it comes to tech’s relevance to a government’s mission, or its readiness to adapt and benefit from tech, so the report ranks each trend.
Reimagining the tech workforce is a trend relevant to every government agency facing a global labor shortage and constantly struggling to fill vacancies. Flexibility is crucial to recruiting and keeping the IT talent needed to meet current priorities, as well as meet future demand.
“Government entities become even more attractive employers when uncertainty hits,” Deloitte found. “Seize the moment — not just to recruit top talent, but also to create pipelines to ‘non-traditional talent’ for tomorrow.”
Mainframe modernization is also highly rated for its relevance to the operation of government, but hindering readiness is significant investment in “legacy assets” and the (understandable) desire to keep them humming.
Deloitte suggests agencies employ operating models and tools that enable them to upgrade progressively. This allows them to take advantage of emerging technologies that will support their missions more efficiently and effectively over the long term.
“AI-powered middleware solutions, advanced microservices applications and refreshed user interfaces are providing organizations a powerful pairing that takes advantage of the trusted functionality of legacy systems and the expansive capabilities of emerging technologies,” according to the report.
Tech is constantly evolving and it’s a challenge that governments are continuously exploring new ways to address. By taking advantage of and applying emerging tech, government leaders can make a real difference in the lives of workers and constituents.
Whether it’s the future of space travel or the future of service delivery, government leaders can act now to shape the funding and policies necessary to prepare their agencies for the challenges ahead.
