Sustainable digital transformation: A 3-year roadmap for Government product and content updates

We are aware that government portals serve as critical interfaces between citizens and public services. To remain effective and sustainable, these platforms require regular updates to both their content and underlying systems.

This article outlines a process for creating a 3-year roadmap for product and content updates in government digital services, emphasizing the importance of sustainability in this ongoing transformation.

The dual nature of Government Portals

Government digital platforms typically consist of two interconnected components:

• Informational: Providing up-to-date, accurate information to citizens
• Transactional: Enabling citizens to interact with government services

Both aspects require careful planning and regular updates to ensure they remain relevant, accurate, and efficient.

The importance of regular updates

In the context of government digital services, regular updates are not just a matter of keeping up with technology—they're a crucial aspect of maintaining public trust, ensuring efficiency, and promoting sustainability. Let's delve deeper into why these updates are so critical:

For informational content

1. Accuracy and Compliance: With changes in government regulations, policies, and procedures, outdated information can lead to:
   • Citizens and residents making decisions based on incorrect information
   • Non-compliance with current laws and regulations
   • Increased workload for government staff handling inquiries about outdated information
2. Reduced Resource Waste: Accurate information reduces the need for citizens and residents to seek clarification through other channels (phone, in-person visits), saving time and resources for both the public and government staff.

For transactional systems

A robust, user-friendly and secure platform boosts confidence and the easy of application for services. Being mobile friendly, and providing multiple digital channels are the norms of today’s digitally connected age.

To ensure transactional systems are updated properly and effectively, there needs to be a consideration for:

1. Security
2. Efficiency
3. User Experience
4. Integrations and connected systems
5. Performance and scalability

Outdated transactional systems can result in:

• Inefficient processes
• Security vulnerabilities
• Poor user experience
• Increased maintenance costs

Regular, planned updates are therefore crucial for maintaining a sustainable, efficient, and trustworthy government digital presence.

Creating a 3-Year digital transformation roadmap

A well-structured digital transformation roadmap connects your strategic vision to concrete digital transformation goals.

A three-year plan is considered here, assuming that processes and systems are already in place and operations are digitally connected. Therefore, the context of this plan is to highlight improvement rather than starting from scratch.

Here's how to create a sustainable 3-year plan:

The first half of the first year: Assessment and strategy development

With the assumption that there is a digitally connected system in place, use the first six months to:

1. Audit current systems: Evaluate existing content and transactional systems for accuracy, efficiency, and user satisfaction. Implement systems to collect effective user feedback and use data collected and analytics tools to collect big data on usage and performance.
2. Identify the pain points: By cross-referencing complaints, cases registered, feedback and suggestions with detected logs of failures or warnings you must prepare a list of “pain points”. Give these a score - based on how often is the same problem being stated. The higher the score for a problem, it becomes your determining factor for improvement.
3. Set clear objectives: Define short-term and long-term goals for both informational and transactional aspects.
4. Develop update protocols: Establish processes for regular content reviews and system updates. Chart a process for who is responsible for which part of the content and create in-house microsystems that can be at the forefront of how updates can be collected from various departments. Establish a monthly workshop to educate departments on how they can provide updates to content and proceeds.

Use the year to clearly build this process and invest in building in-house systems that can help audit and manage workflows. This investment can help smooth out the next phases.

The second half of the first year: Foundational updates and process implementation

With the strategy in place, the next 6 months are all about incremental updates to the foundation. We start with a comprehensive structural change to content and interface.

1. Content overhaul: Once you have conducted a comprehensive review of the existing content, start drafting a content overhaul - which means effectively updating the content of every bit of the website. This includes:
   • The “about” section with detailed updates on the organisation itself, it’s purpose, methods etc.
   • Profiles of board members and executive teams with achievements of the past year highlighted.
   • Updates on the progress of initiatives and achievements of the organisation.
   • Updating details on long-term projects and their progress
   • Review the documented structure and process of every service to ensure it is aligned in terms of its digital process, pricing, time to execute and requirements.
   • Update frequently asked questions on your website. These must be updated in accordance with constant questions asked based on the audit of the previous year.
2. Enhance user interface: Improve the portal's design for better usability and accessibility. In 2024, the Telecommunications and Digital Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates launched the UAE Design System to create a consistent and inclusive user experience and interface for federal ministries and authorities. Use this as part of the strategy in the previous year to start building the change, and roll out changes to the user interface with the content overhaul.
3. Introduce agile methodologies: Implement agile practices for more responsive and iterative development. As per the methodology of being agile, you must roll out updates in this year in an incremental manner. Do not wait for everything to be completed - but rather use the strategy and process drafted from the previous year and start the cycle to create, seek approval, publish and test.

Year 2: Enhanced transactional capabilities

After a year of strategy and process definition and a year of ensuring that the website's informational part is clear and updated with an agile method implemented for constant change, it is time to improve the portal's transactional process.

1. Upgrade core transactional systems: Modernize backend systems to improve efficiency and security. Start moving towards a microservice architecture (if not done already) and start to decentralise your processes. Develop an API-first approach and ensure that backend services are optimised for data cache and storage.
2. Implement the single sign-on process: By this time, you must implement UAE PASS, the single sign-on system for the United Arab Emirates. To turn it up a notch, your process must account for “account delegation.” Essentially, there must be a smooth process in place for company—and corporate-based transactions carried out by individuals with delegation rights.
3. Integrate cross-government services and data: Make it easy for users as well as internal team members to work with data. This means identifying the ability to integrate data across government services and reducing the need for document duplication.
4. Measure everything: Implement robust analytics to track user behaviour and system performance. Use the data collected here as the basis for future decision-making.
5. Create a well-structured and optimised mobile journey: The user experience on mobile devices must be as easy to understand and operate as on any other device. Make the information available to mobile devices similar to a user’s online web portal. Allow the user to complete a transaction on mobile effectively and without barriers.

Year 3: Advanced features and integrations

By this year, there must be a well-established process in place that constantly audits the systems, generates the necessary need for content collection and follows an agile method - there are constant content updates to the website.

Also, there is a robust, well-designed, structured portal for users to operate, following user experience principles and strategies, and a good cross-device setup where a user can use any device to transact with the entity.

It is now time to go the extra mile.

• Focus on personalisation: Make the portal and transactional system react and respond heavily to the user type and past interactions. Create a more personalized approach to providing feedback to the user. Also, implement a similar approach on the website where preferences are stored and analytics can help understand content behaviour.

For example, Detect the default language configured on the user's device and load the website in that language by default when it is available.

• Invest heavily in machine learning: Recognise patterns and train a model to learn from data and provide insights to the user. Elevate the chatbot on your website to learn from sources and content and provide contextual-based content replies. Generative AI via API usage is not really implementing machine learning. Invest in technology that can increase the intelligence of the system at its core.
• Increase interoperability: Improve data sharing and integration between different government departments. Make your data sharable towards other government services or publish data on a common interface for further use by other entities.
• Conduct comprehensive review: Evaluate the progress made and adjust long-term strategy as needed.
• Explore emerging technologies: Investigate potential applications of blockchain, IoT, or other emerging tech in government services.

Conclusion

A well-planned, sustainable approach to updating government digital products and content is crucial for maintaining effective, efficient, and trustworthy public services. By creating a clear 5-year roadmap that addresses both informational and transactional aspects of government portals, we can ensure that these vital platforms evolve in line with technological advancements and citizen needs.

Remember, this roadmap should be viewed as a living document, subject to regular review and adjustment. By staying flexible and responsive to changing needs and technologies, we can create government digital services that are not just current, but truly forward-thinking and sustainable.