Micro Focus has revealed the findings from its digital transformation in government study, Accelerating Digital Transformation in Government with the Right Technology Approach, conducted in partnership with Omdia.
Omdia and Micro Focus partnered to survey 40 Australian federal government decision-makers. The survey aimed to gauge the maturity of and progress on agencies’ digital transformation initiatives and the underlying technology challenges and investment. The survey covered: digital transformation progress and maturity; data and analytics capabilities; use of artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent automation; implementation of DevSecOps practices; and future technology investment plans.
The Digital Transformation Agency is responsible for driving change across the Australian public sector through initiatives such as the Digital Transformation Strategy. In parallel, the national data commissioner is preparing the new Data Availability and Transparency legislation to free data from its current silos and make it available for these new citizen-centric services. According to the report, there are significant challenges that impede a government agency’s ability to deliver against the Digital Transformation Strategy.
Key findings from Accelerating Digital Transformation in Government with the Right Technology Approach:
- 25 per cent of respondents stated their agency did not have an approved digital transformation strategy.
- 88 per cent of respondents stated that IT systems would have to change and 45 per cent stated that new systems or major changes to existing systems would be required to accommodate Data Availability and Transparency legislation.
- 52 per cent believed it would have a significant impact on their agency’s data governance practices.
- 38 per cent of respondents stated that their agency had no plans to implement AI.
- 84 per cent have current or planned implementations for intelligent automation technology, mainly targeted at internal improvements to the back-office process, data usage and data quality.
- Government agencies have a long way to go in the adoption of DevSecOps, with only 7.5 per cent scoring top maturity marks for the best teams.
Tony Castley, principal analyst, public sector, Omdia, said, “Leveraging technologies lets organisations extract value from existing investments while increasing agility and responsiveness to change. Investment in IT management tools that can span and bridge most of an agency’s technology portfolio and are underpinned by a consolidated security layer will ensure an agency can meet its strategic digital transformation goals without compromising security or trust.”
Marie Stavropoulos, federal government director, Micro Focus, said, “With the right tools and culture, government agencies can expect to leverage their investment with benefits such as high-quality data, insight through analytics, better decision-making, improved security and risk management, and the freeing up of resources for higher-value transformation tasks.”
