Transforming Digital Public Services —The Challenges
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, government organisations are increasingly turning to technology and content consultancies to help modernise infrastructure, enhance cybersecurity and integrate emerging technologies. However, working with government clients brings a unique set of challenges that consultancies need to navigate carefully.
Maintaining human oversight in technology-driven environments, especially in critical sectors like government, is tantamount. Whilst technology can bring about transformative change, it’s only as effective as the human strategy and intelligence guiding its use. In the words of Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: "Technology makes the easy things easy, and the hard things harder. We need to be vigilant in ensuring that we control technology, rather than letting it control us."
Let’s dive into the issues that technology and content consultancies face when partnering with government bodies.
Organisational Silos
One of the most critical challenges facing technology and content consultancies when working with government organisations is the issue of organizational silos. In fact, 51 percent of respondents in a recent survey identified siloed strategies and decision-making as a high-priority obstacle. These silos impact every aspect of digital transformation, from strategy formulation to funding and implementation. Organizational silos often exist across government bodies, departments and business areas, each requiring a specific intervention. This fragmentation can slow progress and reduce the effectiveness of agile digital transformation initiatives.
To overcome these barriers, it's essential to:
Clarify roles and dependencies—Establish clear ownership of the digital strategy’s development, ensuring there’s accountability for its success across different teams and departments.
Develop decision-making principles — Create guidelines for prioritizing, funding and delivering cross-silo digital initiatives to ensure collaboration and resource alignment.
Cybersecurity and Data Privacy
When working with data privacy and cybersecurity, the need to balance innovation with protection is crucial. After all, government organisations handle a vast amount of sensitive data, ranging from citizens' personal information to critical national security details. For technology consultancies, maintaining robust cybersecurity while introducing innovative tech solutions is a delicate balance. With cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated, government entities are often prime targets for malicious actors, which means consultancies need to implement top-tier security protocols while ensuring minimal disruptions to services.
However, the challenge doesn’t stop there. Consultancies also need to stay updated with complex government regulations around data privacy, such as GDPR or other regional frameworks, and ensure that every project remains compliant. Failure to do so could result in legal consequences and reputational damage, not just for the consultancy but for the government entity involved.
Helen Dixon, Ireland’s former Data Protection Commissioner, emphasizes the importance of data protection compliance: "Data protection is not a box-ticking exercise. It is about considering the risks that individuals might face and implementing appropriate measures to protect them." Data privacy regulations are critical and must be taken seriously—not only to avoid legal consequences but also to safeguard individuals' privacy.
Risk-Averse Culture
A risk-averse culture is a significant challenge that consultancies often face when working with government organizations. Resistance to change is particularly common among frontline and service delivery teams, where longstanding practices are viewed as tried-and-true. In these environments, there’s often little perceived benefit in adopting agile new approaches, making digital transformation efforts an uphill battle.
In the words of Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the University of Oxford, “The biggest danger is not that machines will become as intelligent as humans, but that we will become as dumb as they are.” The need for iterative human oversight in technology-driven environments, especially in critical sectors like government, is essential. It’s a reminder that while technology can be transformative, it’s only as effective as the strategy and intelligence guiding its use.
For a consultancy driving a technology-led transformation, overcoming the cultural resistance to change or risk is critical. Success hinges on aligning digital transformation initiatives with clear business outcomes and making organizational change a central focus of the program.
Action steps include:
Collaborating with business leaders to identify the cultural barriers and opportunities that will impact digital transformation.
Implementing a digital leadership development program across both government departments and within IT teams to foster a culture more open to innovation and change.
Navigating Legacy Systems
One of the most pressing issues technology consultancies encounter when working with government organizations is dealing with legacy systems. These are often outdated, inflexible and difficult to integrate with modern technologies, yet they remain critical to daily operations. The challenge for consultancies is to modernize these systems without causing operational disruptions.
For government bodies, upgrading or replacing legacy systems can be a slow and expensive process, involving multiple layers of bureaucracy. Consultancies must provide solutions that address immediate pain points while developing long-term strategies for system-wide modernisation. This balancing act requires patience, technical expertise and a deep understanding of the government’s priorities.
A UK government report into Challenges in implementing digital change (2022) explored the risks associated with legacy systems, and how they can be difficult and expensive to support, lack operational resilience for key government services (they are vulnerable to cyber-attack). This exposes government to what is likely to be an uncertain but high level of financial risk from potential operational and cyber-related incidents.
Regulatory and Compliance Overload
Government agencies operate under a myriad of regulations, from procurement policies to data-handling laws. These regulations can vary widely depending on the country, region or even specific department, creating a complex web that technology consultancies must navigate. Ensuring compliance across all levels of government regulations can slow down project timelines, add layers of complexity and increase the risk of fines or penalties for non-compliance.
The challenge for consultancies is to stay informed about the latest regulatory changes, build compliance into their project workflows and communicate these requirements clearly to government stakeholders. A proactive approach to regulatory adherence can be the difference between a smooth project and one mired in bureaucratic delays.
Keep Talking About Agility
In the realm of digital, data and technology governance, many public sector organisations are striving to adopt more agile ways of working and explore what agile investment truly entails. When working with government and public organisations, the goal should always be to empower teams, make faster decisions, adapt to change and keep projects on track while effectively managing risk. However, when traditional governance structures—built for slower, linear waterfall processes—are imposed on agile frameworks, they often hinder rather than help. The frustration is palpable when teams navigate these complexities.
The take out? If governance isn’t intentionally designed to align with agile principles, it becomes a burden rather than a facilitator of progress. In this case, take note of the above.
