Project
The Risk of the Digital Status Quo
Digital Transformation During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic
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The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly forced the acceleration of digital transformation processes previously underway. For government, the sudden emergence of the public health crisis led to a rapid adoption of strategies to both enable Canadian citizens to remotely access services and to allow public servants to work from home in an effort to help flatten viral infection rates.
Gaining a deeper understanding of the adjustments made to drive digital adoption in response to the global pandemic will reveal broader insights into how digital transformation impacts areas such as service delivery, privacy and security, and the workforce. One year into the pandemic, what have been the costs of maintaining the digital status quo and not modernizing sooner? How can these lessons translate into tools for public servants responsible for leading digital transformation?
Project Overview
The Public Policy Forum is partnering with the AWS Institute and working with Valencia IIP, to examine how transformation agendas have been affected by the pandemic and what remains to be done. PPF is revisiting the theme of digital risk, first outlined in a paper released in 2019, The Risk of the Digital Status Quo: How Governments can Enable Digital Transformation.
Substantiated with evidence gathered through a series of interviews with government decisionmakers from jurisdictions across Canada and service providers, as well as roundtable discussion, this paper will investigate the implications for three specified areas: service delivery; the public sector workforce; and, privacy and security.
The paper will be released in Summer 2021.
Reports
Beyond the Digital Status Quo
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a crisis that mobilized organizations and economies – one that tested both the operational assumptions and preparedness of every public sector organization in Canada. Given the adage, “never let a good crisis go to waste”, this paper takes the opportunity to consider digital transformation in the time of pandemic and to offer recommendations to organizations as they consider how best to approach digital transformation, security, and workers, post-pandemic.
The Risk of the Digital Status Quo
Digital transformation can be risky — but the status quo is riskier. Drawing on insights of CIOs and senior public servants, this report identifies strategies for dealing with the risks of not embracing digital technology for public services, including: legacy systems costs, cyber security, culture and people, and service failure.
Partners
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