Maintaining operational continuity during COVID-19 is a challenge that governments have faced worldwide. The pandemic has required government agencies to rapidly adopt a digital approach to serve their citizens without interruption, writes Arpan Bansal, Global Head COE (Government), Newgen Software.
Investing in the right technologies has enabled government organizations to survive and even thrive during this uncertain phase. Let us explore five new-age digital tools that can help the government agencies to stay agile and resilient.
5 Technology Tools to Empower Government Agencies
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Cloud Hosting
COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the limitations of legacy systems. During this global health crisis, many government organisations have struggled to provide continuous services amidst hardware failures and human error. Cloud-based operations help to mitigate these risks, ensure security, and maintain compliance. Furthermore, deploying solutions on the cloud can enable government organizations to:
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Ensure smooth and uninterrupted services
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A transition from physical to a remote working environment
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Deliver effective governance and a seamless citizen experience
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Enterprise Content Management
Government organisations must be able to manage documents in any format while ensuring easy and secure access to records. The transition to a remote working environment has required government organisations to digitally co-locate their documents and workforce.
Also Read: Technological interventions reshaping governance
An enterprise content management (ECM) system can help government agencies manage the end-to-end document lifecycle, with capabilities for document capture, management, storage, retrieval, and disposition. ECM empowers remote workers with access to real-time information, allowing them to deliver contextual citizen services.
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Digital Signatures
Pre-COVID, the easiest way to authorize invoices or records was by physically signing them. However, today due to health concerns, it is often not possible to physically sign documents, making contactless processing an absolute must.
Digital signatures have allowed for remote issuance of invoices and documents, thereby enabling government organisations to maintain efficient processing and faster workflows.
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Dynamic Collaboration Tools
To become citizen-centric, government organisations must go beyond point solutions and instead, implement integrated systems and tools to ensure effective and efficient delivery of services. In the context of COVID-19—wherein physical distance and unprecedented changes have exposed disjointed processes—government agencies require end-to-end connectivity and communication between systems, processes, people, and things.
A business process management (BPM) system can help government organisations re-design their administrative processes and create a truly digital enterprise, using cutting-edge technologies, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, mobility, and social. BPM can enable government departments to execute large-scale digitization, improve operational efficiency, ensure timely execution, and become citizen-centric, all while maintaining compliance.
Also Read: Future-Proof Your Business with Digital Document Processing System
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Security & Privacy Controls
Government agencies have a responsibility to ensure the confidentiality of their citizens’ information. The records and data in government databases must be maintained with the highest level of security, and so government organisations require a variety of security and access control features.
Using electronic documents and records management software (EDRMS), data can be managed, stored, and retrieved securely from the cloud, while adhering to dynamic security guidelines and compliances.
Conclusion
Government agencies have long been on the path toward digitisation, but never with such a sense of urgency. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments to accelerate their digital initiatives and implement transformative solutions immediately, in order to survive, and thrive, in increasingly uncertain times.
By implementing new-age technologies and tools, governments around the world have been able to consolidate their IT infrastructure, enable remote operations, enhance citizen services, and continually adapt to changing regulatory requirements.