Gartner unveils top 10 government technology trends for 2022

Gartner has identified the top 10 government technology trends for 2022 that can guide public-sector leaders in accelerating digital transformation and mitigating disruption risks.

“Government and public sector CIOs (chief information officers) now need to sustain the momentum of digital acceleration after the initial chaos of the pandemic,” said Arthur Mickoleit, research director at Gartner. “CIOs can use these top trends to establish future-ready organisations by demonstrating how digital initiatives deliver value to diverse and evolving constituent needs, support new workforce trends, enable efficient scaling of operations and build a composable business and technology foundation.”

Government CIOs must consider the collective impact of the following 10 trends on their organisations and include them in their strategic plans for 2022 and beyond. Not doing so risks undermining the quality of government services and the capacity to deliver mission value in the long run.

Composable government enterprise
By 2024, over 25 per cent of government RFPs (request for proposals) for mission-critical IT systems will require solutions architecture and variable licensing that support a composable design approach.

Composability enables governments to focus on citizen-centric services, rather than on the frequently used, siloed, program-centric approach. A composable organisation exhibits composability in three areas – business architecture, technology and thinking. Government CIOs should implement modularity and modern design principles to enable the transition towards composable government.

Adaptive security
A total of 75 per cent of government CIOs will be directly responsible for security outside of IT, including operational and mission-critical technology environments by 2025.

A lack of continued awareness programmes, cybersecurity practices embedded throughout an organisation and a robust talent acquisition team can disrupt an organisation’s response to security threats. Government CIOs must address the essential human element of cybersecurity by growing expertise from within through in-depth training programs and broad employee support through engaging awareness education.

Digital identity ecosystems
Gartner predicts that at least a third of national governments and half of US states will offer citizens mobile-based identity wallets by 2024. But only a minority will be interoperable across sectors and jurisdictions. The scope and challenges for digital identity are quickly expanding as governments look to identity proofing, bring your own identity (BYOI), identity wallets, organisation and objects identity, and identity ecosystems to ensure trusted and convenient access to services.

Total experience
By 2023, most governments without a total experience (TX) strategy will fail to successfully transform government services. TX offer governments a way to improve talent management strategies and develop stronger digital skill sets across their organizations, while improving service delivery to citizens. The lack of a TX strategy can increase service friction, leading to risk of service delays and underwhelming service experiences.

Anything as a service (XaaS)
Gartner analysts said that 95 per cent of new IT investments made by government agencies will be made in XaaS solutions over the next three years. XaaS includes several categories of IT infrastructure and software services, including those delivered in the cloud as a subscription-based service.

Accelerated legacy modernisation
When the pandemic began, core legacy business systems failed to handle the surge in demand for these services. CIOs will thereby need to make modernisation a continuous activity and not look at it as a one-time investment. Without legacy modernisation, return-to-normal initiatives will be further delayed as Covid-19 variants continue disrupting businesses globally.

Case management as a service (CMaaS)
Case work is a universal workstyle of government. CMaaS can build institutional agility in government by applying composable business principles and practices to replace legacy case management systems with modular case management products. By 2024, government organisations with a composable case management application approach will implement new features at least 80 per cent faster than those without.

Hyperautomation
75 per cent of governments will have at least three enterprise wide hyperautomation initiatives launched or underway in the next three years. Hyperautomation offers more than the opportunity to deliver connected and seamless public services in an efficient way. It also aims to increase government effectiveness through cross-cutting initiatives that focus on end-to-end process and not just automation of siloed tasks.

Decision intelligence
By 2024, 60 per cent of government artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics investments aim to directly impact real-time operational decisions and outcomes. Planning and decisions should be increasingly predictive and proactive, using AI, analytics, business intelligence and data science to significantly reduce the cost due to late intervention. The aim is to make government service delivery responsive and timely.

Data sharing as a programme
Data sharing in government is often ad hoc, driven by high-profile incidents. On the contrary, data sharing as a programme is a systematic and scalable approach to enable data reuse and services innovation.

Gartner predicts that organisations that promote data sharing will outperform their peers on most business value metrics by 2023. This will need a cultural shift from compartmentalisation of data use to re-use of data to better serve citizens. Government CIOs need to lead from the front to enable this cultural shift.

Read: MENA end-user security and risk management spending to grow 11.2% in 2022: Gartner