Stealing a Page from the Private Sector Digital Playbook

Fueled by their experiences with companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon, the standard for digital citizen service will continue to rise exponentially.

Yet citizens’ digital experiences on government websites are inconsistent. While there are pockets of excellence, the end-to-end service experience is often cumbersome, reflecting the underlying federated structures of public agencies and their IT infrastructures. Citizens, however, still expect government to provide digital services that are the same or better than those offered by commercial banks, online retailers and social platforms. Closing this gap demands that governments become truly digital-first organizations. This paper offers successful digital strategies from the commercial sector that are easily adaptable to government, and highlights examples of governments using digital tools and techniques to improve citizen service. Its aim is to help guide governments on their path to digital transformation.