Any democratic government is elected by the people, consists of the people, and is intended to work for the people. Therefore, it is important that the government’s ways of working are aligned to that of its people. It should keep a close tab on the current circumstances, situations and trends that impact the lives of the junta that is governed by them, and evolve its policies and procedures to address the same. Therefore the mega trend of mobility cannot be ignored by the powers that be. It has to be considered in the decision making for the government technology. Thee are many drivers for mobility in government today.
1. Mobility Can Bridge The Digital Gap:
When the e-government initiative was first introduced, a lot of people thought that it would not be able to penetrate the low-income population and might fail. This notion has since then been proven wrong. There are people today who feel similarly unenthusiastically about the mobile initiative of the white house. However, the data says otherwise.
Smartphones are cheaper than laptops, and it makes them a good computing choice for people who cannot afford one. As per the Pew Internet & American Life Project report, 34 percent of adults in the US, with household income less than $30,000, own a smartphone. This is a 12 percent increase over the previous year numbers. There are at least 5 different state governments currently implementing a variety of mobile apps for use by the local residents.
2. Mobility Can Change Relationships Between Citizens And Government:
The features of the mobile devices offer many functionalities that are not available through the online portals. These include the geo – positioning system (GPS), the camera, and other sensors like the accelerometer and gyroscope. These features add context awareness to the communication, which is another thing unavailable to the web users.
Applying for benefits and services creates questions and requires documentation. Mobility can streamline this process. Governments can mobile-enable portals and use these value added features to help leapfrog personalization and improve convenience. Research reveals that this move from standardized to personalized service is a key shift for governments to more cost-effectively deliver public service outcomes that citizens want.
3. Mobility Can Make the Agencies More Proactive Than Reactive:
For the public services to be meaningful, they cannot be reactive. If you have to have a complaint or resident communication before you act, the service model is wrong. The governments services should be insight driven, and to drive insight, there needs to be an integration and collaboration of the systems across agencies. This collaboration can drive the required proactive behavior.
With the help of smartphones and tablets, the on – the – ground data collection becomes much easier. From Law enforcement to emergency response teams to public surveyors, all agencies find use for the mobile data collection systems, whether on the smart devices, or as an in – vehicle system. This data can be instantly uploaded on to the central servers where it is accessible by the analysts and other teams, who can act on the information.
4. Increased Productivity And Satisfaction:
According to a February 2012 CDW-G report on federal mobility, almost all the federal IT team members say that they have mobile devices deployed for their agencies. Another interesting fact is that nearly ninety percent of the employees who were actively using the smart devices for work related activities, felt that they made them more productive. According to them, the productivity was most obvious when they were travelling for work. Also, almost seven tenths of the employees believed that an increase in mobile adoption in the government agencies would improve the citizen related services.
It is clear, that mobility rings in productivity, proactivity, and employee satisfaction. We would all like to see our government become more mobile.
No comments:
Post a Comment