Should Governments go digital.

Wearing my 2020 hat I met IBM recently to discuss how the digital revolution is affecting public services. Their central thesis was that the agenda of most governments, at most levels, is on three things:

-cost efficiency. Austerity and value for money are hitting almost every country to varying degrees and the bigger the pressure, the greater the need for innovation in the provision of public services.

-transforming services. As digital revolutionises the customer experience in many different industries governments are finally joining in.

-revenue improvement. This is often simply about governments collecting all the taxes they currently levy rather than finding new taxes. 

All of these three are underpinned by three other things, security, job creation and environmental issues. 

It is clear to me that the changes brought about by the digital revolution can assist government in all three of its key agenda items. We all know that on line and digital transactions are significantly cheaper than traditional paper based systems. The State of Utah in the US is already offering over 1000 services on line and citizens get a slicker and better experience. In this last area I was staggered to learn that UK citizens owe the UK government around £25bn in unpaid levies, penalties and fines. Often this is as a result of a lack of joined up data. Many companies are trying to get a single view of the customer but no government has anything like a single view of the citizen.

I heard of some great examples which tend to be from medium sized cities in the 1 to 5 million population range or small countries (again in the same sort of size range). Here are a few.

1. The website dublinked has brought together business and the public sector to experiment with digital across the whole greater Dublin region. I went on line and planned a journey on public transport from a pub in the city centre to an office on the outskirts (I know most people would be interested in the opposite journey). It is an interesting example of the public sector using partnerships to pilot and trial things. 

2. In Lyon the municipal government has devolved a city wide traffic monitoring and prediction system. Most of our roads and streets are well monitored but Lyon have brought all that data together, used it to predict patterns up to an hour ahead and then made these predictions available to the travelling public. That allows you to make better decisions about when to leave and what route to take.

3. A lot of Cities around the world are using low cost chips to monitor whether public parking spaces are available. Some local governments  in the UK are just starting to move in this direction.

4. A Norwegian utility has teamed up with local government to use smart metering to keep vulnerable people in their homes for a year or two longer, reducing the burden on social services. The technology already exists to allow you to get a text if your aged parents don't boil a kettle for their morning cup of tea because they always do, don't they, and if they miss a morning something may be wrong.

5. IBM itself is using its Jeopardy playing computer, Watson, to assist in prescribing treatments for cancer patients. It searches vast amounts of data to give up to date and targeted advice both saving costs on unnecessary treatment and more importantly increasing the chances of successful outcomes. I intend to follow this one up given my involvement with the Maggies cancer charity. 

6. The city of Sunderland is focussing on the digital agenda and data to incubate social enterprise and create meaningful employment opportunities. 

I am convinced that by embracing the possibilities offered by all things digital then Governments can  make progress in all their key objectives and, as far as the 2020 group is concerned also reduce carbon emissions in a meaningful way. As a group we are starting to discuss how we could help Scotland do this. Any ideas welcome.