Agents of change How government CTOs can drive digital transformation Government & Public Sector Insights With digital technologies proliferating and advancing at a rapid clip, it the implementation and technical-focused realm of the CIO to the newly is important to consider the role of the government chief technology minted, strategic CTO position. As a change agent and leader of digital officer (CTO) in leading change. The shift in citizens’ expectations, and transformation, the CTO is front and center in government decision-making and strategy. Key takeaways: New analytics for better decisions government mindsets, to “digital by default” underscores the role of the CTO in transforming the public sector. The CTO is increasingly an executive This is an executive positon, tasked with guiding the introduction of cutting- • New, big and dynamic data sets are valuable where they make decisions faster and more accurate. Design leadership role, driving the overall strategy and structure of government, as edge innovations and technology through policy and program initiatives. and collate data sets that use new sources and formats. opposed to an implementation-focused, or technical, role. How the CTO uses For example, in the US Government, the role of Chief Technology Officer has been elevated to the Executive Branch with a direct reporting line to the digital platforms and analytics, introduces effective data governance and • Drive data and analytics through the policymaking process. Support the introduction of custom metrics president. In Australia and the UK, the position is an executive role within and analytical tools in policy design, monitoring and evaluation, and budgeting decisions. organizational structures, and builds in-house skills in digital are critical to Cabinet departments. The post can have the broad scope of improving this process. the functioning of government and the well-being of citizens through • Invest in new analytical tools to maximize the value of new, granular information. Public R&D and technology.1 As such, it is highly visible and instrumental to advancing The role of the government CTO is set to elevate the objectives of the government’s own leadership. Focusing on digital innovation teams are important. The rapidly evolving digital landscape opens up a significant new role transformation and functional aspects of technology, and working to for the government CTO. With digital increasingly ubiquitous in the enable significant change, the government CTO can be expected to take an economy and society, IT leadership has been recast in government, from increasingly influential role in policy in the coming years. 2. What is the most effective way to use digital platforms of how the government creates information, manages it, and to transform government programs? organizes and presents it. Along with increased decision-making power, digital platforms Five key questions for the government CTO in driving Second, rethink policy issues from citizens’ perspectives, and also offer significant opportunity for governments to make their see how digital platforms can repackage, or realign, government activities more relevant to their citizens and address changing digital transformation services to meet these issues. These tasks are at the foundation of policy challenges. The key issue for the government CTO is how the Republic of Korea’s National Action Plan for Open Government To drive the policy agenda forward through technology, CTOs analytics on everything from law enforcement to cybersecurity and to use digital to make “citizen-centric” services more effective, Partnership, which is a best-practice example. The partnership aims can ask five key questions to focus investment and programming health are suggesting new approaches to policy issues, and new including through enabling more complex offerings. It’s also critical to drive a service-oriented government, and administrators are decisions. issues altogether, which administrations need to address. The CTO for the CTO to increase the efficiency of operations. In a nutshell, making significant use of mobile technologies in service delivery. can support government departments in applying new data sets how can governments disrupt their core activities for the better? 1. How can the public sector leverage new analytics to They have also started to combine related government entities, and powerful analytical tools, such as predictive analytics and also This will mean a government that is lean, responsive, adaptive make better decisions? including local and central government agencies, which contribute behavioral economics in policy. This is from the investigation and and capable of rapid response to societal shifts.6 Government to a common end-user service for citizens, such as disaster The government CTO can unlock significant decision-making power policy design stages to the monitoring, evaluation and reform programs and services use and generate huge amounts of data, management or welfare services.12 The e-government model in by using data analytics effectively. Governments are the original of activities. The ability to develop and use customized metrics with increased processing power and digital technologies providing Estonia is another example of an effective way a government has “big data” entities and manage technologies that provide services supports specific policy design and more accurate measurement. new channels for disruption. In practice, the CTO has several focal transformed its operations through digital. An e-government portal to billions of people across the globe. The critical issue is how Custom metrics can also feed into budget appropriations and points. provides access to some 3,000 services for citizens. This required policymakers can best use new, big and dynamic data sets to make forecasts. As result, the CTO could encourage, or mandate, the all agencies to put their data online, and also the use of mandatory policy decisions, from designing policies to monitoring and evaluat- use of data and analytics techniques through the policy process, in First, ensure citizen engagement. A disrupted government model is digital citizen identification. This has streamlined services and also ing them. For the CTO, supporting better decisions involves several conjunction with the Treasury and other executive functions. Big one centered on digital platforms to enable citizens to connect, and provides citizens with the ability to track the composition and use of key considerations. data has brought value to public policy decision-making, including in it engages citizens by developing a new, digital approach. The UK their data.13 health, education, public sector efficiency andin how tailored ser- Government’s Digital Transformation Programme is a best-practice First, tackle how data is designed and collated. Greater processing example of a citizen-centric approach, with a digital by default vices are provided to citizens. In the US, the Centers for Medicare & Third, take an immersive approach to the design of proposed power and the extensive reach of digital platforms mean the strategy for major services.7 Similarly, in South Korea, under the Medicaid Services are using an integrated data repository to make reforms and new offerings. The CTO can take advantage of the CTO has access to increasingly high-volume, frequent and high- “National Action Plan for Open Government Partnership,” the their services more effective and uncover fraud and waste in the powerful information and insights digital can provide, to model value information. This suggests that the CTO will need to drive Government is using digital to provide customized services to target system. This involves using several years of historical data to outcomes and ultimately decide on effective policy. This means a comprehensive data strategy informed by the government’s groups of citizens. This program aims to identify new services the support data-driven decisions on many activities, including health rethinking how to design and test new policy, with new emphasis on overall economic and social agenda. Key considerations include public needs.8 Engagement can also mean co-creating with citizens, care costs, medical trends and usage, policy analysis, and program experimentation. Digital platforms allow for frequent feedback from the types and sources of data needed to support policy priorities. working together to determine public service needs, deliver them, integrity. The What Works Cities Initiative in the US is also an citizens on their experiences, enabling the CTO to run program For example, with the proliferation of mobile and social media, and share data.9 For example, the US cities’ open data initiative10 important example of how governments are using data analytics. trials and make purposeful changes in real time. For example, governments could need to access new types of data, and more encourages the private sector, nonprofits and the general public to These cities are deploying “innovation teams” to focus on data- path analysis of citizens’ use of a digital platform, like that used frequently, to provide the services their citizens demand. This collaborate on developing solutions. Citizen-centric development driven idea generation and solutions development, including for by private companies, can provide the CTO with information on could mean that data in unconventional formats, including web and 3 and engagement is also about reallocating government spending economic development