55% of Digital Government Programs ‘Failing to Scale’

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SYDNEY, Australia — Despite government agencies increasing their focus and investment on digital programs, 55% of those programs are “failing to scale,” according to a recent survey.

The finding is from a survey of government agencies by Gartner to understand differences in the objectives, makeup, and scalability of their digital programs, according to the firm last month.

Gartner addresses the survey results in a pair of reports: “What Sets Leaders Apart in the Digital Government Race” and “Still a Long Way for Digital Government to Scale.”

Key findings from survey on digital government

• 10% of respondents said they are at the early stages, experimenting, exploring, or deploying some citizen-facing digital services
• 5% reported they were at the top of the maturity scale, optimizing the use of digital solutions that underpin all aspects of their organization, and they are looking for new opportunities
• 24% of government organizations were classified as “digitally advanced,” delivering against transformation-focused digital initiatives as well as initiatives that could be considered optimization of existing practices
• 85% of digitally advanced respondents have successfully scaled digital and are using it extensively across their organizations

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“Citizens expect results, they are not interested in effort,” said Dean Lacheca, senior research director at Gartner. 

“Digital government programs have accelerated during the pandemic and attracted more investment. Yet, many governments are still struggling to translate this into results at scale. Those that are yet to scale digital should build on the momentum unleashed by the disruption to progress their digital transformation.”

Learning from digitally advanced governments

Some of the more digitally advanced governments make sustained, long-running commitments to digital and establish a balanced digital agenda that includes both transformational and optimization initiatives, according to Gartner.

“These digitally advanced government organizations are realizing more of the benefits, such as higher efficiency, cost reductions, greater workforce productivity, compliance and transparency,” Lacheca said. 

“Even more important are outcomes associated with public purpose or mission, such as citizen experience and community safety.”

Survey methodology

The survey by Gartner includes data from 166 respondents from government organizations in several regions: North America; Europe; the Middle East; Africa; and Asia Pacific.

It was conducted in April and May of 2021.

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