Business software company Microsoft South Africa is proposing the use of its low-frequency technology that uses television white spaces to provide connectivity to support development in remote and rural communities in South Africa, says Microsoft South Africa public-sector director Lillian Barnard.

Better connectivity and access to services will support development in these regions as people will be able to access financial, healthcare, education and business resources and services. One of the key enablers of development, reiterated in a 2017 World Bank economic update report, is broadband connectivity.

Better connectivity will enable people to interface with government to access services and register businesses. Similarly, much of the support and many of the resources available to individuals and businesses are provided online, and improved access will help to improve business creation, registration and compliance.

Microsoft South Africa services digital adviser André Truter says that the television white spaces – unused and unlicensed spectrum frequency bands often available in less densely populated areas – can provide a suitable connectivity medium in these areas, which will enable government to provide, and citizens to access, better services, more efficiently and more affordably.

“However, regardless of the connectivity used, the main aim is to create a fixed, basic level of access to services for people and, thereby, support the further development of a ‘digital backbone’ for government services and support.”

The ‘digital backbone’ of government is more a matter of creating a single view of a citizen, which enables much more effective service delivery, than using any specific type of technology, says Barnard.

Interoperability between various governmental processes, departments and agencies, including service providers, will help to boost the accuracy and traceability of services provided for citizens; for example, enabling control over medicinal dispensing irrespective of the clinic visited. The aim must be to improve the experience and services for citizens, she says.

“An end-to-end view of a citizen enables effective end-to-end service delivery. “Simultaneously, the correct tools and controlled access must be [made available] to the various role-players to provide effective services for citizens.”

Truter adds that the barriers to adoption in remote and rural communities, where exposure to new technology and changes is generally low, can typically be overcome by a visible top-down approach, where the leaders of the municipal departments and agencies publicly support the adoption and use of specific technologies to improve service delivery.

The specific technologies used to improve service delivery must be suitable and sustainable, and a visible drive from leadership to leverage technologies to improve service delivery will also improve adoption and change management, he says.

“There are various digital ‘sweet spots’ that present government agencies at all levels with easy entry into digital transformation journeys that will lead to the creation of egovernance and online government service capabilities. One such ‘sweet spot’ is using technologies to improve healthcare services and patient experiences and outcomes,” adds Barnard.

Truter notes that government should not be at the forefront of innovation, but can leverage proven technologies, such as cloud systems that lower operating costs and enable additional value to be derived easily and cheaply. For example, analytics can easily be applied to data in the cloud, with the outputs used to better serve citizens, including by automating and accelerating many routine processes.

“The approach public service and government agencies should take is to understand, and communicate, that digital transformation of its services is a journey.