Vanguard Magazine

34 DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 www.vanguardcanada.com ment. "This is an unprecedented time, not just for Ottawa, but for Canada and all Canadians," said Hermitage. He went on to point out that this is an opportunity for government to rethink how to deliver "government as a service" that will enable businesses to make the jump that they need. Given the swift growth of cloud and mo- bile technologies, government employees can use digital tools to enhance service delivery in many areas. From virtual town halls for direct citizen engagement to the always-on virtual office for a mobile work- force, cloud-based services are being used as the key tool for this change. Those that have started this transformation are find- ing it to be uncomplicated, and fast to achieve while gaining a speedy return on investment. Examples of improving productivity and citizen experience When one thinks about digital govern- ment, Estonia is the poster child. It is commonly known that Estonia was an early adopter of e-government. As the smallest nation by population in the Euro- pean Union, Estonia implemented e-gov- ernment before the advent of the cloud. Today, less than 5 per cent of government transactions are paper-based, and the na- tion is moving data and legacy applica- tions to the cloud. Estonia offers pre-reg- istration for different government services as part of its citizens' digital ID, which can be accessed from anywhere in the world. "Estonia took a different approach: they thought of government as a service. Ev- erything is going to the cloud. Agility, security, and the ability to deliver on de- mand are all apart of Estonia's e-govern- ment," Hermitage said. Just over a decade ago, Brazil passed a law that allowed judicial entities to receive processes in a digital format. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) of The State Court of Justice of Sao Paulo (TJSP) at that time, Rosely Castilho, saw it as an opportunity to change how the court did business to better serve the State of Sao Paulo's 50 million citizens, and to comply with its Federal law. Castilho's plan to digitize the TJSP was enormous and bore risks in security and business continuity. The end goal was to have all new judicial processes stored digi- tally in databases, train over 50,000 employ- ees, and establish governance policies – all to be done in 10 years. By the end of Novem- ber 2015, a month ahead of the deadline, TJSP became 100 per cent digital. Other examples of digital transforma- tion resulted in cost savings for many gov- ernments. The City Council of Renton in Washington state in the U.S. ordered its municipal court to reduce the number of employees by 23 per cent. This prompted a digital transformation, to cloud-based digital court technologies. With this tran- sition, the Council was able to provide service to its constituents with ease and reduce the time spent on cases. The result: a savings of nearly half a million per year to Renton's taxpayers. Various other governments in Mexico, South Africa, the Netherlands, Australia, the UK and New Zealand are in different phases of their digital transformation which have resulted in improved service delivery, better staff morale, and ease at which to collaborate and increase efficiency. The common denominator in all of these cases is Microsoft. These govern- ments embraced the technology and ser- vices of Microsoft in embarking on their digital transformation. As a leading com- pany in cloud-based services, Microsoft is working with governments globally to ac- celerate the rate of digital transformation. The roadmap to transform As part of its digital transformation strat- egy in helping organizations begin their journey, Microsoft has pinpointed four key focus areas. These are core drivers for the transformational journey. The first area is to engage citizens. En- gaging citizens through mobile services can enable governments to better un- derstand citizen needs and how to satisfy them. This requires governments to sanc- tion mobile citizen services and interact- ing with citizens on secure mobile gov- ernment platforms. Next is to empower government work- ers. It is about providing the infrastruc- ture for public servants to collaborate and increase productivity through mobile platforms. Another key area to focus on is to op- timize government operations. With a trusted cloud service and solution, gov- ernments can increase operating efficien- cies and cost savings. Transforming services is the last core area in Microsoft's roadmap to achieve digital transformation. The vast amount of data collected by being digitalized can be used to create actionable analysis, in- sights and aid in better decision making. Once these core pillars are applied by governments in their digital transforma- digiTal Government Governments are faced with the challenge of delivering greater value to their citizens. Added to the increasing pressures from an aging and diverse population, citizens are demanding better and more digital engagement with governments at all levels.

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