Source: Independent market research commissioned by IBM – June 2009
“Citizen-centric” Public Services - the evolution continues
Just as private organisations have rediscovered their mission and business model by returning to a focus on customers, governments around the world are finding success in reorienting their structures, information technology, policies and public services around the citizens they serve.
This can range from "one-stop shopping" for previously discrete sets of services to information sharing and collaboration across regions and borders for the benefit of both citizens and government.
Leading by example: green government is good policy
Governments can influence the behaviours of citizens, businesses, institutions and communities to create a more sustainable way of life.
Digital Britain: Online Public Services are a proxy.
The current economic environment offers an almost unique opportunity to transform the way UK business works – to become more efficient and subsequently more competitive. We should take advantage of this clear need for change to transform and prepare our economy for recovery. Given that the public sector is a substantial part of the economy, the current climate also offers the opportunity for the further transformation of public services, as new models of providing these services can be introduced. IBM believes one of the key indicators of the achievement of Digital Britain will be the ability of citizens to do business with government online.
Download the full paper and read IBM's point of view on the Digital Britain Debate. (702KB)
The democratisation of data
For the smartest governments, interactions with citizens are opportunities to share information and improve lives, not "merely" to dispense public services, administer justice and provide a conduit for the exercise of rights and responsibilities.
Thus, in places like Ontario and Belgium, data that can be used multiple times on a citizen's behalf — such as in registering a newborn or applying for social system benefits — need be entered only once, eliminating the need for users to input data multiple times when interacting with government online.
This also works in reverse, with increased access to government information by citizens enabling a better understanding — and, ultimately, a better stewardship — of government and its resources. This can come about through a variety of means. For example, the power of human visual intelligence to find patterns in words and numbers gets powerful expression in the many individual uses — some serious, some fun, many interesting — that IBM's Many Eyes project makes possible.
In perhaps the most overt example of using technology and collaboration to affect government, even when the government would prefer not to be affected, human rights activists, journalists, dissidents and even average citizens are increasingly using Web sites and wikis to track political campaign contributions, report on censorship and crackdowns and analyse data released by government whistleblowers or uploaded as anonymous leaks.
Smarter public services in action
Three local UK councils have adopted a new IBM business model that could change the way local government is managed. Through Southwest One, IBM will manage the IT infrastructure, procurement, customer service and workforce development functions, allowing agencies to focus on delivering critical services to citizens. The model can expand to include up to 30 public sector agencies.
Watch the video and get the full story.
Government 2020
In its report "Government 2020," the IBM Institute for Business Value identified six worldwide forces that were at work, driving such changes for government at every level. Together, these six forces represent a mix of opportunities and threats. Yet as universal as they are, they require unique responses suited to each nation, region or locality.
Learn more about Government 2020 and the perpetual collaboration mandate (US)
Smarter cities on a smarter planet
By 2050, city dwellers are expected to make up 70 percent of the Earth's total population. With such a large proportion of us moving to urban areas, the need for smarter public services is clear. Visit 'smarter cities' to see some of what's already been said and to read about the best ways to prepare and transform our cities to handle exponentially greater economic, societal and environmental complexity in the years ahead.