Governments and constituent entities are embracing digitalization to provide user-friendly government services to citizens and simultaneously reduce their cost to offer such services. There are numerous success stories, interestingly some of them are from very small nations but failures abound as well.

A successful digitalization approach should be viewed from the citizens’ experience perspective rather than purely as a large process automation / IT modernization program. A successful digitalization initiative entails:

• Aligned vision: Political leadership sets a stretched agenda with continued commitment throughout the implementation phase.
• Prioritized goals: As in any such large transformation where monetary and human resources are limited, it is prudent to have an aligned roadmap and prioritized projects to be implemented. This ensures the successful completion of constituent projects in a timely manner and within budget.
• Pragmatic implementation: The implementation should be pragmatic with a digital first approach in the redesign of processes. The implementation approach should also evaluate alternate business models, which frees up government resources and allows it to focus on the critical part of the process.
• Enablers: Any such large initiative requires strong enablers in terms of committed funding for key projects, effective coordination and governance of initiatives, continued capability building and sourcing to manage the transformation and usage of open platforms for standardization and reuse along provision of open data.
• Strong foundational elements: Building strong foundational elements allows subsequent digitalization to easily scale up is a sustainable way. The foundational element should address the legal underpinning the digitalization efforts, availability of quality data, deployment of identity platforms and ensure citizens can easily access and adopt the digital services.