Software apps in Government - The Challenges

Low usage

Most state government departments already have modules and apps built for various purposes. These are disconnected apps that have been developed at different points of time by different vendors.

Apps do not have intuitive user interfaces. This drives up the time to train users to use the app. So, when new users are put to use an app the usage drops down. In many cases new users after a particular point of time just use a small percentage of the app.

Apps are Silos

There are many apps that have been built in older technologies and have not grown both with the changing need. These apps have also not kept up with the technological advancements.

Many of the apps have been built in older technologies that do not have effective interoperability. 

Interoperability either through web services or through online data exchange options is not possible. This makes these apps work as silos and increase their maintainability.

Bloatwares

Most apps have bloated in size and complexity due to continuous evolvement over long period of time. This has been the result of a poorly designed system without appropriate requirement specification. A case in point is that there would 500+ reports in a software app of which only 25-30 of them may be used. In most cases the reports will be a replication of the same information in slightly different formats.

Master data duplication

Disconnected apps with independent master data cannot provide an integrated view for decision makers at the top. In many cases there may be more than one software application in the same department but with different sets of master data. The more the disconnected the data is in an environment the more challenging it will be to derive meaningful information across apps. The effort required to integrate and harmonize data across apps in various government departments is enormous. Further, this is not a one-time effort but a continuous work to keep data harmonious across apps.

Failed apps are another major problem. There are apps that are being implemented for more than 2 or 3 years and still not delivered anything significant. In most cases the failures are due to vague or over engineered scope definition or wrong vendor selection. These kind of apps need to be scrapped and redone with a proper requirement specification.

Why Software platforms for Government

Sangeet Choudary in his book on  Platform revolution has discussed at length about software platforms and how they are transforming the economy. In his book he describes "platforms consummate matches among users and facilitate the exchange of goods, services or social currency thereby enabling value creation for all participants".

Government in any country is the largest service provider for its citizens. Hence, a software platform that brings all the stakeholders of the service provider (in this case the Government) and the consumers (in this case the citizens) can revolutionize Governance.

The citizens across the globe are becoming impatient and expect magical results from Government. This kind of rapid demand gratification needs innovative software platforms. Every service offered to citizens can be offered through a specialized software platform. This will ensure rapid adoption and instantaneous results. We have already witnessed the exponential adoption of services offered on a platform like the travel adviser (like TripAdvisor) or taxi aggregation (like Ola or Uber).

The same concept may be applied for skill development, education or health care. The Government may consider coming out with a platform for imparting skills  for youth to make them employable. The skill development itself may be offered through private training partners. A platform can effectively link training partners, faculty & students. This platform can be regulated effectively by the Government.

A non performing or unreliable service providers can be eliminated by an effective feedback mechanism. The job of regulating the quality of providers becomes that much more easier. This is an integral part of a platform based business model.

Hence, a platform based approach to offer services to citizens may bring in enormous benefits to all involved. The power of a platform based approach for Governments can be appreciated better by understanding the basic tenets and features of a platform. I will be writing more on this.

Software platform for Government

Platforms have been disrupting the economic world in the last one decade. Players like Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, WhatsApp, Uber, Ola and many more have redefined the way businesses have been done. Platforms are redefining the way we are now living our life. We are now dependent on platforms to do even our day to day activities like getting information, moving from one place to another, eating out, planning our vacation, business travels, and doing our day to day activities in our work places.

This shift in our daily life now mandates the Government also to move to platforms. The Government should now think of specialized software platform that brings together the citizens, government officials, vendors who offer services to government & also people representatives like Ministers.The need for such a platform is becoming underlined. Let me refer to such a Software Platform for Government as SPG.

SPG should be a specialized platform that is specially made to meet the demands and objective of the Government. A software product or platform that has been made for corporations may not suit this need.  Just like corporations required ERP to increase their capabilities and hence their profits, the SPG should be made for Government to increase the service levels to the people.

Today, efficient software applications run in almost all departments as silos. The first objective of an SPG should be to aggregate master data about officials, people, places & services. This should be integrated with apps running in all departments. Meaningful information can be derived only after this first step is achieved. This can bring down redundancies that can save thousands of dollars for every department.

Let me explain this with an example. Let us consider the case of an officer in Government who has been transferred from department to another. This one act now has to be recorded or changed in hundreds of software applications across the Government because each app will be working with its own master. This is going to cost hundreds of man days resulting in huge cost. In many cases this leads to software apps being not up to date and being scrapped and redeveloped. This again leads to huge spend.

Now, if all apps are referring to a master that is part of the SPG, a change in one place will reflect across apps and hence lead to super efficiency at a fraction of a cost. 

As this is a huge topic and has remarkable impact on IT in Government, I will be writing more on this in coming weeks.