Blog / Barriers to Municipal Digital Transformations
Why digital transformations are so valuable for municipal governments.
As technology evolves it becomes increasingly important for local governance to keep up, and oftentimes means engaging in municipal digital transformations to expand access to services, improve citizen engagement, and streamline services while spurring economic growth. Unfortunately, all too often attempts to modernize government come with significant challenges, both internal and external.
Internal challenges
Oftentimes a lot of the resistance to municipal digital transformations can come from within your organization itself. After all, the leaders and staff that make up municipal governments are still only human, and our resistance to change (despite its inevitability), is well documented. However, there are plenty of other reasons beyond sheer stubbornness for resisting digital transformations.
- Legacy systems – Plenty of municipal services are reliant on old, outdated systems, which you would think would be a reason to invest in an upgrade to one’s digital infrastructure, but actually impede the process, as users are hesitant to untangle the complicated webs of old systems in order to upgrade to newer ones. Digital transformations and modernization require systemic change, which is both costly and time-consuming.
- Limited resources – Municipal governments are in charge of delivering plenty of services, and they all cost money, so it’s not just the cost of a transformation that municipalities have to deal with. There’s plenty of competition for often very limited resources.
- Expanding scope and services – There was a time when local governments were little more than utility providers, but no longer. The scope and depth of services provided now extend well beyond the purely utilitarian, meaning that not only is the demand for digital channels rising, but so too are those channels’ complexity, as does the effort and cost of analyzing and prioritizing channels for modernization and transformation.
External challenges
In addition to the substantial barriers that can be found within your municipality, there are plenty of external challenges to overcome as well. It might be useful to note that many of these are related to the internal challenges, facing the same problem but from a different perspective.
- Complex contracts – Vendor relationships and contract negotiations are complicated affairs, as are the agreements that come out of them. There can also be a discomforting lack of room for negotiation, making the modern technology marketplace dauntingly difficult to navigate without expert help.
- Partnerships and external stakeholders – Many municipalities have discovered the value of partnering up with other organizations, both private and charitable, to better address some issues and improve outcomes, and with plenty of success which means we’re likely to see more of it. All of this is great of course, though it can lead to complications with decision making and prioritization as each partnership represents a new, added layer of complexity.
- Citizen expectations – The growth in scope and depth of municipal services has largely been driven by the demand for such from their citizens.
The value of municipal digital transformations
The great irony of all this is that modernizing services through a robust digital transformation is exactly what municipalities need to do to overcome these barriers to their own modernization. Digital transformations not only force you to untangle you web of old, outdated machines and vendor contracts, but also help streamline services and save money and resources while allowing expanded services at reduced costs.
At TRINUS, we work with municipalities, health clinics, and other clients who need stable, reliable technology to ensure services are safe and secure. Contact us today to talk about how a professionally managed digital transformation can help your municipality, and get some stress-free IT.
Sincerely,
The TRINUS Team
trinustech.com
