The great digital divide.
Working in digital, I still have a passion for creating better and better solutions that hopefully result in making life a little easier. However, there’s something that’s puzzled me for quite a while. I mean why is there such a great digital divide, between the digital experiences we enjoy as consumers, compared to the citizen experience. After all there are so many things we need from government beyond just paying for your car registration, rates or a speeding fine n- there’s actually so much more to it, and government has to design, build and optimise their services for billions of users, it’s just mind boggling.
The thing is, government is a logical, and necessary source of truth for so many things, I’m talking about finding a school, or finding career information, emergency service and notifications such as when floods or bushfires occur, even access to information about the law, or support when times are beyond tough.
This year I signed up for the new MyGov, got a digital licence, and transacted for things like registration renewal and paying rates online - nothing eat shattering but it’s a start. All these services work pretty well, and the progression over the last 10 years has been great - there’s just so much more to do.
Citizens expect that government services can be provided to them in the same way that they enjoy in their personal lives such as banking and entertainment. I mean how do we move between - all the convenience of being a Digital Customer to Digital Citizen - and back again?
It goes way beyond information, think about all those transactions, rights and obligations, registrations, taxes and notification. And what about public health updates: Pandemics, Natural disasters, Floods, Storms and…Bushfires.
The NSW Fire Service has a pretty cool live bushfire map that shows the status of the fires in different areas and seems to work well - as I found out. From September 2019 to March 2020, fires blazed in south east Australia (I remember, because I was there) large areas of forest burnt out of control for weeks before easing off - in late December. The problem was my House was less than 20 kilometres of being completely wiped out - it wasn’t looking good. Having forewarning though, and being empowered with the live data made a difference. My point is, access to relevant, high quality digital services - could easily save your life.
Did you know the average Australian still spends one working day every year waiting in queues or completing Government transactions via traditional channels?
On a global scale the demands for personalization - are ever increasing. Singapore’s use of AI, Argentina’s Digital Government plans, and Canada - are a few notable examples. In this context Australia is actually performing ok – with use of digital channels increasing and Federal Government programs - like myGov that is basically designed to join up different services and provide a source of truth based on your myGovID.
The question is - how to accelerate all this transformation. I’ve noticed from my time working with our government clients there tend to be a few blockers:
It’s just not needed. Yet Citizens expect personalisation as an integral part of their online experience.
It’s costly and complex. Personalisation and DXP technologies in general have a low barrier to entry and it’s very easy to get started.
Privacy and security perceptions - There are usually security benefits - with many of Sitecore’s products meeting IRAP standards and a growing number of site of all kinds utilising public cloud it’s hard to deny,
Only for enterprise (marketing). Personalisation is all about equitable high quality service delivery, and while marketing and commerce are a part of this - most of the work we do focusses on enhancing user experience and service delivery.
The good news is, I’m not alone in in my quest. In fact 3 out of 4 Australians - say they would be equally, or more likely to use government websites if they were personalised. What types of personalization? Basically: Remember my previous interactions, and Geolocation to provide specific, relevant content.
Through researching all this….I had one big realization. As citizens we don’t really care…which department provides the service – we just want to find what we need. One idea that’s been discussed - is to build personalized digital experiences around you – the user. So that instead of navigating a maze of sites you could simply - choose the Life Event you’re experiencing - and find what you need, in that context. Think: education, getting married, buying a home, having kids, retiring, or seeking financial assistance
I mean what if we really decided to ‘wrap’ digital services around the citizen – not necessarily the Departments that provide them. One of my Canberra peers – actually said to me t’s like you want a ‘Department of Me I thought – now, that - kinda works, I like it! Perfect for a personalization fanatic.
But what platforms and approaches would we need to explore ideas like this? How could we ensure we build the right thing, in the right ways – and in a reasonable timeframe?
Tools such as Sitecore's CDP/Personalize have such an important role to play. And it’s so easy to get started with simple testing and experimentation.
The experimentation mindset is centered on learning. It means that even experiments that don’t win are valuable lessons that give you data to inform your next move. And these insights fuel enhancements and answers to better and bigger questions.
In the end, It’s so tempting to be get distracted by creative tech, VR, AI, and the Metaverse
But I’m talking about the practical more than the progressive. No longer being asked for unnecessary information, filling out offline forms or PDFs, and maybe, archiving all those confusing old sites, and apps past their used by date.
Welcome to the ‘Department of Me’. You only need to update your details once for it to go across all services, we will remember what you need, content is personalised and in context and - you’ll have - secure platforms with modern privacy protection.
And perhaps the best part - you’ll get an entire day back per year do do what you like!
Acknowledgements:
Blueprint-for-enhanced-citizen-experiences – Deloitte
Rethinking the digital dividend – Deloitte
Embracing meaningful personalization – Deloite Digital
Federal Path to Personalization - Sitecore