Many voices are calling for public service leaders to commit to a wholesale “big bang” transformation, ripping out legacy systems and replacing them with new technologies.
By Kgomotso Lebele, MD: health and public service at Accenture in Africa
Although the cries of “out with the old and in with the new” may be tempting, the reality is that such an approach is not feasible in public services for two main reasons.
Firstly, there is a need to “keep the lights on”. With legacy systems running critical citizen services, the risks of shutting those systems down are simply too great. Secondly, there are potentially astronomical costs of implementing the new systems to replace them. In combination, these factors mean there is rarely a business case for such a wholesale shift.
Not revolution, but evolution
Public service leaders should stop feeling anxious and instead plan out a realistic, achievable route to close the expectation gap – not undertaking a revolution, but an evolution.
In planning and navigating this evolution, leaders should look beyond IT systems to include the processes and people with whom those systems are inextricably interwoven. For the organization to move to a future state that meets the needs and expectations of citizens in the 21st century, the whole of this core must evolve in a coordinated, controlled and integrated way.
At Accenture, we’ve identified three common pillars that can help public service organizations evolve their existing core in a way that’s pragmatic, progressive and sustainable.
Boundaryless: building a collaboration ecosystem
No public service agency can deliver its mission and evolve its core by using just its own resources. The complexity and rate of change it faces are simply too great for it to respond effectively using what it already has in-house. However, their role at the heart of their mission in society means they’re ideally placed to identify, create and tap into an ecosystem of partners to access the resources and capabilities they need.
The agency’s boundaries will start to blur, with operations, services and technologies extending into partner organizations. This involves agencies moving towards becoming “boundaryless”, by expanding their range of partners to develop an effective ecosystem, while also exploring the technical and non-technical aspects of operating collaboratively. This also drives greater innovation. To date, more leaders in public service innovation work with at least one private sector partner to help drive their own innovation. It is vital however that agencies keep security firmly in view, to sustain legitimacy and trust with citizens.
Adaptable: creating flexibility to respond to constant change
Accenture’s research into government innovation confirms that citizens support public agencies’ efforts to apply innovation to become more adaptable to their needs. Over 44% say “personalized services” is a top priority for interacting with government, and agencies are responding. 71% of public service executives say customer digital demographics is now expanding the ways they deliver products and services. These agencies are moving towards becoming “adaptable” by being agile yet stable, capable of handling and responding effectively to shifts in policy, citizens’ demands, technology and the way people work and live.
The logical conclusion of becoming adaptable and implementing microservices is progressing to a “platform approach”: a robust but flexible environment that enables an agency to capitalize in a faster and more agile way on new opportunities as they emerge, by plugging technology components in and out. The result? A built-in ability to harness future technologies quickly and continuously.
Radically human: ensuring technology serves people – not vice versa
To create a future of living services, agencies will need to embrace a seamless interface between humans, machines and systems. They’ll need to ensure that every technology innovation they apply to evolve the core including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), robotics is designed and used with humans at the centre.
Ultimately, these innovations will only succeed if they deliver the best outcomes for people. Therefore agencies must foster collaboration between people and machines, enabling each to augment the other’s capabilities to get the best from both. Agencies should also build a future workforce around a culture of versatility, with a clear focus on learning, empowerment and customer focus. This is likely to include adopting self-learning systems powered by AI, such as smart applications that enable constant workforce learning and chatbots that learn from every citizen interaction.
Perceived barriers to evolving can be overcome
Integrating these technologies into everyday activities is an important aspect of evolving the core in a public agency. But there can be barriers along the way. Many agencies worry how citizens will respond to the rising use of AI in public services, but our research suggests citizens are coming to terms with this change. 37% say they’ve used AI-enabled public services in the past six months, and 57% positively want government to use AI to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The same proportion favour using VR for immersive learning in higher education.
In combination, all these advances are taking agencies towards becoming “radically human”: creating systems and services that relate and collaborate with people by talking, listening, seeing and understanding the way humans do. The key to staying on track is to keep people front and centre of every evolutionary step by asking, “What is the best outcome for the human?”
Already there’s no clear line between where the human workforce ends and the IT begins. They may increasingly interchange IT and human operational budgets, and bring IT services in-house because they’re core to the business. As this blurring continues, it brings major implications for both current and capital public agencies’ investment.