Driving digital to improve the end-to-end citizen experience

Technology and digital acceleration, changing social demographics and supply chain reconfiguration are having the most impact on executives in central and federal government this year. The global pandemic and increasing citizen expectations for digital services have pressured central and federal government organisations to accelerate their digitisation, modernise their infrastructures and systems, improve the end-to-end citizen experience, and strengthen their cybersecurity and compliance.

Executives are prioritising these initiatives, while at the same time, tackling the challenges of monolithic legacy systems, an IT talent shortage, and organisational change management. Despite these challenges, more executives are producing results from their digital strategies, and IT budgets are less of a constraint in 2022, either increasing or remaining flat.

View key findings from our conversations with central and federal government executives in 2022 below, or download our report.

For more insights on macro trends, including social demographics, climate change, deglobalisation, technology acceleration and supply chain reconfiguration, read our summary.

Top trends and priorities 

Top macro trends
  • Technology and digital acceleration, notably rising customer and citizen digital expectations
  • Changing social demographics, including aging populations and talent shortages
  • Reconfiguration of supply chain to reduce risks and increase resiliency
Top industry trends
  • Becoming digital organisations to meet increasing citizen expectations
  • Protecting through cybersecurity
  • Assuring regulatory compliance
Top business priorities
  • Improving citizen services and experiences
  • Modernising systems and infrastructure
  • Protecting the organisation as cybersecurity risks mature
Top IT priorities
  • Digitising and automate business processes to deliver end-to-end citizen services
  • Driving IT modernisation to improve efficiency
  • Protecting through cybersecurity

21%
are producing results from their digital strategies, up from 14% last year
18%
cite a high degree of holistic cloud management
64%
have cybersecurity strategies in place for the entire enterprise

What digital leaders do to accelerate results

Among the 21% of central and federal government executives who report achieving expected results from their digital strategies, some common attributes emerge. Our table compares responses to questions from these digital leaders to those from executives whose organisations are still building or launching digital strategies (digital entrants). Learn more about the attributes of digital leaders.

Common attributes of digital leaders

Digital leaders

Digital entrants

Impact of digitisation on business model 74% 53%
Challenges from legacy systems on digitisation strategy 31% 49%
Alignment of IT and business operations in support of digitisation strategy 49% 31%
Cybersecurity strategy producing results 60% 22%
Privacy strategy producing results 41% 19%