The Key to Progress Is Data-Driven Digital Governments

Digitalization has been a key pillar for many Asian governments continuously bolstering their respective Smart Nation initiatives.

The disruption of the pandemic made digitalization in the public sector even more vital than ever, with the renewed impetus for government agencies to adopt the latest advancements in IT and ramp up their digital transformation efforts to contain the virus more effectively and also enable digital government services. Given the need to manage and oversee massive amounts of data and execute communications nationwide, going digital is now an imperative.

More importantly, the pandemic situation also highlighted the importance of a data-driven approach to decision-making. Harnessing data-driven insights helps national leaders leverage available data sets to determine contact tracing measures, implement economic policies and grants, and ultimately arrive at informed decisions.

Nations' digital infrastructures that enable these successes and power digital workforces and citizen-facing connectivity are not just useful during the pandemic; they are building the foundation in creating digital governments for posterity.

In Singapore, the government implemented various policies, including the “Digital Government Blueprint” (DGB) since 2018, to support digitalization and data sharing across the public sector. In observance of its commitment to become a "digital-to-the-core" government, the country rapidly developed the contact tracing mobile application TraceTogether and the digital check-in system SafeEntry at the onset of the pandemic, which logs the check-in and out of employees at workplaces and people at select public venues.

Although the benefits are clear, government agencies continue to face challenges in digitalization, especially in handling large data sets, which may hinder their digital transformation. These agencies may often struggle in tackling data silos and the following challenges: incomplete data inventories, inter-agency data-sharing, legacy IT platforms, security and compliance implementation, and limited workforce expertise.

Much of the government data is siloed in systems, which may often be inaccessible even within an agency, let alone across the entire organization. To a digital government, data optimization is crucial for a successful transition, pushing chief data officers (CDOs) in government agencies to set priorities for managing data; improve the role of data as an asset in decision-making; determine how to better access, use and share data; and find innovative ways for agencies and the public to use data for progressive changes.

Establishing data governance and security

As governments rely on digitalization to track, trace and contain the spread of the virus, data security must be of utmost priority. For example, the Singapore government data incidents recently rose from 75 in 2019 to 108 reported cases in 2020. Whether public or otherwise, cyber-attacks pose significant threats to any organization.

Government organizations are trusted to be good stewards of data. A single data breach may have a grave impact, including the disruption of pandemic response and loss of public confidence.

They need an integrated data approach that empowers them to deliver solutions, quickly respond to crises, and steward resources while complying with privacy and confidentiality regulations.

The public calls for better transparency and accountability in data privacy as digital technologies and advanced analytics become imperative in collecting, processing, and sharing data. Investments that require cross-agency cooperation need to ensure an integrated data sharing strategy that encompasses all relevant governance, standards, and infrastructure of operating in a data-driven world.

Governments can enhance data governance and controls with a platform that can control what data is available and who can access said data and view metrics to track access and usage. It must also enable the public sector to govern data collaboration and data analytics within data exchange to ensure compliance with government regulations and policies while providing secure data access and analytics without copying or exporting data.

Improving cross-agency data sharing in real-time

Timely data illuminate insights in real-time. They also offer a better measure of the impact of government programs, guide policy, and inform decisions on multiple fronts.

Given the immense quantities of data the public sector holds, the governance structure for public information needs to be addressed. The government must determine the best way to share data sets between agencies while ensuring privacy.

The increased use of data in policymaking and operations also raises many questions on integration with private data sets, individual privacy, and data ethics. Hence, government CDOs become far more important and relevant and need to manage the opportunities of open data.

One potential approach is to centralize decision-making authority and technical capabilities rather than distributing these among the numerous offices and departments that own the data. The CDO's leadership will be important in encouraging government agencies to move swiftly to release all appropriate data.

They need one cohesive platform to serve all types of users and workloads consistently. It must be built on a unique architecture that can run multiple workloads across multiple teams and agencies without resource constraints, maximizing performance and efficiency. Centralizing data in a unified, governed, managed data platform allows all authorized users to access accurate and timely data for analysis.

National leaders must realize the potential of their data at hand and understand how it will determine their country's progression. Governments can then deliver a modern citizen experience and implement intuitive, efficient services and communication based on the deepest insights.

Now is the best time for leaders to adopt the latest advancements in technology and utilize data in making informed decisions, which paves the path to a digital future.

Geoff Soon, managing director for South Asia at Snowflake, wrote this article.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CDOTrends. Image credit: iStockphoto/tampatra