The needs of citizens are becoming ever-more comprehensive and government departments can use information technology (IT) as an enabler to deliver adaptable and flexible services to meet these needs.
New demands will not be served by incremental improvements in service delivery – rather, governments must aim for impactful transformation and citizen engagement, says German business software and database giant SAP public-sector value advisory services head Sohail Carim.
Governments can use technology to drive efficiencies, enforce good governance and prudent financial management, as well as connect the various departments to deliver the collaborative socioeconomic outcomes required from these entities.
These trends are part of the transformation of governments and their functions to enable high productivity, as well as good in-house support and data sharing to improve efficiencies and responsiveness across all spheres of government and emergency services.
Government’s focus differs from that of the private sector and, thus, the public sector must aim to deliver against its objectives as swiftly and as widely as possible – this requires comprehensive strategic planning and excellence in execution to ensure that processes and outcomes are managed sustainably within the allocated budgets, says Carim.
“A critical component to achieve this is to ensure that the processes and systems operate efficiently and sustainably whilst providing the required flexibility within and between the offices and departments of government.
“However, the needs of the various functions of a department are different, yet, collectively, the departments require holistic oversight and control, in line with overarching objectives,” he says.
To meet the maturing and evolving demands of citizens in Africa, government structures and organisations must map out a strategy to transform into a responsive, IT-enabled entity – specifically by applying core back-end and innovative technology systems – and ensure future transformation.
“SAP can help governments to achieve their transformational mandates by helping to define the approaches through which data and information are connected to business processes. SAP provides the required technology to help governments deliver impactful and innovative outcomes, using a single, agile and natively integrated platform, namely SAP S/4 Hana.
“SAP systems are designed to be scalable to ensure that they are cost effective and sustainable and allow users to enable additional functions as required,” notes Carim.
Beyond transactional processing, SAP technologies are architected to deliver analytics and, thus, provide users with real-time insights for decision-making.
“Governments must adopt a holistic approach to develop the technology foundation to meet future demands. “Existing technology investments can be integrated, where relevant, but a transformational technology roadmap is required to make the most of existing investment while paving the way for future agility using a scalable and adaptable platform,” he concludes.