The public sector has the potential to act as a leader in digital transformation, but only if its leaders can solve one critical problem.
At first glance, it seems like this task should be relatively simple.
After all, the private sector has led the way with its own digital transformations, and the public sector should be able to learn from its successes and failures as it takes on this endeavour.
And yet, when you look closer at the public sector’s attempts at digital transformation, it becomes clear that something is holding them back from realising their full potential.
The role of identity in the digital transformation of government is often overlooked.
The public sector is an important stakeholder in developing a secure digital identity ecosystem, as it has a critical role in verifying citizens’ identities and providing them with access to services.
Leaving back “old” legacy systems
The issue of legacy systems is one that all organisations face.
This is especially true for public sector organisations, which tend to have more complex IT requirements than many other businesses.
Legacy systems can make it difficult for an organisation to move forward with digital transformation plans – and can often even cause dangerous setbacks.
Thus, as public agencies try to digitalise, there is often tension between legacy and newer systems while data and applications migrate to the cloud.
However, it’s important to remember that these legacy systems are not, in fact, very old by most business standards; leaving them behind usually means losing what you built up over years of work.
The solution is simple but challenging: get used to creating new things instead of trying to change old ones.
Rather than totally replace, the public sector must actively retain what it has while also investing in the future.
But keep in mind that this is a delicate balancing act, meaning that modernisation must happen in stages.
In this way, identity solutions will gradually free the government from legacy systems while ensuring cybersecurity is guaranteed throughout this process.
Smarter identity solutions balance seamlessness and security
Government agencies need to understand how digital channels work and how a user’s identity changes from one device to another to effectively handle identity in a digital world.
But agencies also have to navigate both security concerns and legal issues.
That means today’s identity solutions must be centralised yet distributed and based on easy standards for governments to adapt but at the same time hard for hackers to break.
According to a recent study, there is at least a 90% reduction in the ratio of threats to authentications when an organisation denies access using legacy authentication in access policies.
However, one thing is clear — it can’t be done with yesterday’s technology or yesterday’s assumptions about users.
We need smarter identity solutions that can shift easily between multiple devices without sacrificing security or intruding on privacy.
Seamless experiences are a must
No one ever wants to spend time filling out forms or jumping through hoops to prove their identity.
So rather than depending on users to establish their identities, public sector organisations need to create seamless digital experiences that allow users to log in using a mixture of existing credentials and verified attributes.
And according to some industry experts robust security postures are not only vital to protecting identities but also to providing low-friction access to services.
Unfortunately, many public sector organisations still rely heavily on password-based authentication, which can be insecure and inconvenient for users.
As more sensitive data becomes available online—and with rising cyberattacks—organisations face mounting pressure from legislators to improve security.
Conclusion
At a time when people are looking to governments and public agencies for change, it’s critical that they get their digital identity right.
Every interaction with a citizen should be simple, fast and secure—and today’s digital landscape is moving far too slowly to keep up with rising customer expectations.
Organisations need to take a different approach.
What does getting it right look like?
Perhaps it means updating legacy systems and procedures, encouraging more experimentation and innovation (without putting people at risk), collecting more data about what works and why then using that information to drive system-wide improvements.
Not only will organisations benefit from these kinds of changes but also so will those seeking access to public services or interacting with government programs online.
Sources:
https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/digital-transformation-public-sector-identity/135726/
