In the modern world, digital technologies play an increasingly important role in the development of the economies of countries. Using digital equipment and software helps optimize processes in the public sector, making them easy to perform and transparent. So, how did this evolution happen?
The importance of technology in the public sector
Over the past decades, the world has been rapidly moving towards a new type of economy, where digital technologies have become the primary tool for its formation. The expansion of the role of information technology in the work of the private and public sectors is the basis for the transition to a digital state and e-government. The state bodies, realizing the importance of informatization of society and the growth of digital technologies in determining long-term economic growth, take an active part in developing this area as one of the critical areas of state policy.
The role of digital technologies in the public sector is evident today. Digital technologies have given many advantages – simplifying the population’s and businesses access to public services, accelerating the exchange of information, emerging new business opportunities, creating new digital products, etc.
The quality of information and communication support is a determining factor in the evolutionary development of the state because computer technologies affect all processes related to the functioning of this or that society. World experience in the optimization of public administration demonstrates that information provided should be treated as a strategically important mechanism capable of raising the country to a higher level in all types of activities. The synergistic potential of social, mobile, “cloud” technologies and technologies of data analysis and the “Internet of things” in aggregate can lead to transformational changes in public administration and, generally, to make the public sector efficient and valuable.
The vital strategic technologies to transform the public sector
The state authorities using the advantages of new ICTs, can create qualitatively new ways of interaction between themselves and citizens, thus increasing management efficiency. The use of ICT in government bodies allows for the provision of public services to the population and business via the Internet, increases access to state information, establishes the transparency of decisions made through constant dialogue with the public, and, as a result, the development of a democratic, informationally open state for the population. Therefore, the main goal of using information technologies in the state administration is to increase the efficiency of the mechanisms of this administration based on the creation of a general information and technological infrastructure, which includes state information systems, resources, and means that ensure their functioning, interaction between themselves, the population and organizations within the framework of providing public services.
There are vital strategic technologies to implement initiatives to transform public organizations into smart governance:
- Digital workplace
- Multi-channel informing and engaging citizens
- Open data
- Electronic identification of citizens
- Ubiquitous analytics
- Smart machines and tools
- Internet of things
- Digital government platforms
- Software architectures
- Blockchain.
So, in the conditions of forming “digital” markets and economies, when citizens become actual users of technology, public institutions must make strategic investments in ICT. Otherwise, they will be insufficiently prepared for new models of interaction and service, and they will become hostages of old, unstable long-term management models. The slow, procrastinating adoption of technological innovations in the “digital” era, in general, exposes the risk of the fulfillment of tasks and the achievement of goals by state institutions.