https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Events
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • Magazine
    • Back
    • Digital Editions
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • Advertise
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Events
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • Magazine
    • Back
    • Digital Editions
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • Subscribe to GovPro
    • Manage GovPro Subscription
    • Advertise
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
acc.com

Smart Cities & Technology


Image via Unsplash

Article

Embracing digital within local government in 2021

Embracing digital within local government in 2021

While COVID-19 has brought on a litany of challenges, it has also shown government leaders the need to employ the right digital solutions for their constituents
  • Written by Ryan Park
  • 6th January 2021

The year 2020 has been one of the most challenging on record for states and localities across the country. Overnight, government employees found themselves on the front line of communication between residents and government officials. For some, this raised huge logistical challenges as staff were forced to switch from in-person, paper-based processes to operating remotely in a very short period of time. Constituents required essential services to go online as their world changed in the blink of an eye, causing many to fear for their health and safety as they sheltered in place for months on end.

By March, with significant numbers of government staff working from home, government technology leaders had to quickly figure out how to keep day-to-day operations running while keeping their residents informed of the latest changes to service requests — especially for government agencies in charge of public health, unemployment benefits, economic development, permitting and licensing, and more. Supervisors and workers quickly realized that their traditional, manual, paper-based processes were not suitable for this fast-changing and dynamic digital environment.

Even with a vaccine on the horizon, governments are preparing for 2021 with the understanding that it will not be a return to a pre-COVID world. Here are some ways that we’ll see governments continue to evolve in 2021:

 

Public expectations of government services will force states and localities to finally accelerate their digital transformations in a meaningful way.

It is no surprise that governments that already began their digital transformation journey were more equipped to handle the sudden shift to remote work and digital services brought on by the pandemic than those that had not. For many organizations, the pandemic exposed weaknesses around maintaining legacy applications and highlighting weak security postures which had to be immediately addressed. In 2021, constituents will no longer tolerate service limitations resulting from a lack of modernization. To get the most value from technology investments, local governments will be expected to — and held accountable for — delivering information in a clear, consistent, secure and structured manner.

This includes everything from increased government transparency by making records and documents publicly accessible, to modernizing internal and citizen-facing services with powerful business process automation tools. With organizations moving from self-hosted systems to the cloud, we can expect to see governments modernizing service delivery to improve interoperability, optimize costs and enhance the government experience for citizens and employees.

 

Strong IT leadership and partnerships will be critical for government modernization and future success. 

Governments will continue to grapple with budget/cost controls and legacy applications that need to be modernized for 2021; many are working hard and smart to prepare for when we emerge from the pandemic. In fact, many projects in the works before the pandemic are now being accelerated as year-long plans get compressed into weeks or even days. Ultimately, many of the barriers that IT departments faced have been removed in the past year, giving government employees room to be more agile in order to enhance service delivery.

Modern cloud solutions are the biggest drivers of this acceleration, allowing government technology leaders to pivot their organizations to do the things they have wanted to do but never had the chance to previously – such as capturing information previously on paper, automating business processes to bring essential services online, deploying chatbots to help people use digital services, and more. In fact, according to Gartner, 76% of CIOs report increased demand for new digital products or services during the pandemic, and 83% expect this demand to increase further in 2021. As we look to 2021, how governments will invest in modern solutions and partner with proven solution providers to reimagine the citizen experience. Ultimately those organizations that have strong IT leadership and good partnerships are the ones that will succeed in effectively advancing modernization initiatives.

 

The Future of government operations and services

While COVID-19 has brought on a litany of challenges, it has also shown government leaders the need to deepen their knowledge of business processes to employ the right digital solutions for their constituents. From emergency services to public education to public health and healthcare, every side of the public sector will become more digital and modern. These digital efforts will permeate deeper in a continued effort to serve citizens better and offer more optimized public services in the coming year.

 

 

Ryan Park is the state and local government marketing manager at Laserfiche. In his role, Ryan focuses on supporting and growing the state and local government user community, executing process optimization strategies, and helping agencies enhance the citizen experience.  

Tags: homepage-featured-2 homepage-featured-4 News Smart Cities & Technology News Smart Cities & Technology Article

Related


  • The uncertain future of community composting in New York City
    After roughly a decade of service in New York City, the last two community composting sites will not have their leases renewed. These sites are situated on land belonging to the city’s Parks Department: the Lower East Side Ecology Center is at Corlears Hook Park in Lower Manhattan, and Big Reuse is located under the […]
  • Public safety needs a better way to triage emergency calls
    The overarching goal of the public-safety community is to ensure that 911 callers receive the most appropriate emergency response as quickly as possible. Lives often are on the line in an emergency, and every second matters. Achieving a balance between sending the optimal response to an emergency and having it arrive as fast as possible […]
  • Biden’s relief plan includes $350 billion for local and state government
    President-Elect Joe Biden announced a $1.9 trillion relief plan Thursday to combat the COVID-19 crisis and the economic downturn it has caused. In addition to $400 million to combat the pandemic specifically, the proposal includes $350 billion for state, local and tribal governments that would help them to bridge budget shortfalls, help public works maintain […]
  • How Philadelphia is aiming for zero waste
    The city of Philadelphia has long collected data on city properties’ waste generation and leveraged it to improve waste management, but now it’s honing in on the commercial sector too, realizing this will be crucial to hitting Philly’s zero waste targets. Today it runs a voluntary program where both municipal and commercial operations do detailed […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • FirstNet Authority releases new details about impact of Nashville explosion on broadband system
  • Report: Many governments facing revenue shortfalls due to COVID-19
  • In challenging year, working with public safety to move FirstNet forward
  • Shared governance: How pandemic partnerships can lead to progress and offer promise

White papers


How a unified HR system helps one public safety organization manage crews, payroll, and more in a single platform

7th January 2021

Your Roadmap to COVID-19 Funding

18th December 2020

The One Where Everyone Wins: A Mutually Beneficial Contracting Method

10th December 2020
view all

Events


PODCAST


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

Twitter


AmerCityCounty

The latest episode The Young Leaders Podcast focuses on Cyril Jefferson. Cyril is the youngest African American to… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

27th October 2020
AmerCityCounty

Hillsboro, Oregon is pioneering a new #renewableenergy generation technology through a partnership with… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

27th October 2020
AmerCityCounty

The impact of the #COVID19 pandemic on #telework was swift and profound. Now, the big question is whether – and to… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26th October 2020
AmerCityCounty

Get ready for the can't-miss webinar on how to kickstart your efficiency improvement plan with Luke Anderson of… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26th October 2020
AmerCityCounty

Among all states headed into the 2020 general election, which ones have voting populations that are the most demogr… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26th October 2020
AmerCityCounty

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts in our readership survey to help us shape future content so that we c… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

23rd October 2020
AmerCityCounty

See how cities different approaches to distribute masks in their communities >> spr.ly/6010GAPLa

23rd October 2020
AmerCityCounty

While #facialrecognition is a powerful tool that can improve law enforcement efficiency, that doesn’t necessarily t… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

23rd October 2020

Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X