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Only a few short years ago, the experience of citizens interacting with government agencies involved taking time off work, waiting in long queues and completing paper forms – an experience that was both frustrating for citizens and inefficient for the government and its agencies. Thankfully, those days have passed. Technology investments have enabled interactions to move from the government office, business hours and interaction modes to occurring on citizens’ terms – from their living room during the evening or at their desk during a lunch break. Government IT has given citizens greater access to information, improved agency interactions and, more importantly, created more time to focus on family, work and personal interests by making government interactions easier.

 

Whether it is paying a property tax, renewing car registration fees, applying for Social Security benefits or paying a traffic fine, governments are enabling an increasing number of routine citizen transactions to be completed online. While each of these activities may seem small, a typical citizen will have 15 to 30 of these interactions each year. By moving the transactions from physical offices to online, a typical citizen saves approximately 20 hours/year for other tasks and activities. Because government agencies typically operate during weekday business hours, much of the time savings benefits employers, so their workers are able to be more productive.

 

In addition to transactions, one of the most common citizen interactions with government is accessing information. Government investments in IT have enabled public information to be more efficiently categorized, cataloged and made available for citizens to access via online portals, searchable databases and interactive mapping software. Whether the information request is for birth/death records, real-estate tax data, road construction schedules or proposed land use actions – citizens are now more aware of the public information available to them, and eager to access it. Most information requests occur during the evening, during weekends and other times when it is convenient for citizens, but when government offices are closed. By using modern technology, government agencies are able to be better stewards of public data and make it available to the citizens they serve.

 

Perhaps, a fascinating example of how government IT is embracing change and enabling modern citizen experiences is in the transportation sector. Sensors embedded in roads, traffic cameras, smart traffic lights that optimize traffic flow and electronic toll collection are generating an enormous amount of data that enables agencies to not only to change how citizens interact with the government, but also how they interact with each other during day-to-day activities. By seamlessly integrating data from multiple sources that improve the efficiency of the transportation system, public infrastructure is capable of managing more users and enabling people to travel to their destination faster, cheaper and with less stress than previously.

 

Technology is continuing to evolve and, as it does, government IT organizations are finding new and innovative ways to help the agencies they support to interact better with their citizens. Whether it is streamlined transaction processes, access to public information or optimizing infrastructure for improved experiences – IT and the data that enables it is playing a pivotal role in driving the change in government.

 

During the next few years, the prime opportunity for government IT will be to bridge the gaps between agencies, gathering data and leveraging it to create holistic citizen experiences. The forces that are driving efficiencies on data use in the private sector will transfer almost immediately to the public sector, resulting in faster service, lowered costs, and a better citizen experience.  Blazent is the industry leader in providing data quality management solutions to governments and their agencies, and is already working to aggregate data intelligently to exceed the increasing expectations of citizens, and help create the government experiences of tomorrow. Learn more from Blazent’s Ensuring Data Quality white paper here, or contact us directly at sales@blazent.com.