Making Government Modernization Work
June 12, 2024 •Kaye Burton

In today’s fast-paced landscape, the concept of modernization often gets misunderstood. Many organizations fall into the trap of thinking that modernization merely involves moving a tool or system from one platform to another. However, true modernization is about much more than a simple lift-and-shift approach; it’s about enhancing the entire ecosystem to better serve customer needs and deliver greater value.
Move Beyond the Lift-and-Shift Mentality
The lift-and-shift strategy involves migrating existing applications and infrastructure to a new platform with minimal changes in functionality. While this can be a quick and sometimes necessary first step, it doesn’t leverage the full potential of modernization. Simply replicating old processes on new platforms can lead to missed opportunities for innovation and optimization. Worse, it can leave you facing many of the same challenges the modernization effort was expected to solve.Modernization in the Federal Government
In the public sector, we have the benefit of working with organizations with a strong mission statement. Their goals are to serve the public—our citizens—by providing tools, services, and funding to help improve their daily lives. For modernization efforts, like all efforts of the federal government, we need to keep the U.S. citizens that we serve at the forefront of our minds when determining the best path forward.
Improve Value and Citizen Experience
Modernization should be driven by the goal of providing more value to our citizens and improving the citizen experience. This requires a deep understanding of citizens’ needs, preferences, and pain points. Effective modernization efforts should focus on engaging with citizens and gathering feedback to better understand what they actually need and aligning systems to meet those needs. Here are some ways to ensure your modernization efforts are citizen-centric and produce value:
- Citizen engagement: Proactively engage with citizens through surveys, focus groups, and public forums. Regularly solicit feedback on their experiences with existing services and gather input on their expectations and needs.
- Feedback loops: Implement continuous feedback loops to capture citizen input on an ongoing basis. Use tools such as online feedback forms and customer service interactions to gather real-time data on citizen satisfaction and pain points.
- Agility: Adopt agile methodologies to increase flexibility and responsiveness. Being able to quickly adapt to policy changes and citizen feedback is crucial in a dynamic environment.
- Automation: Implement automation to streamline repetitive tasks, reducing errors and freeing up human resources for more strategic work. Automation can significantly enhance productivity and speed up service delivery.
Embrace Change
One of the biggest hurdles in any organization is often overcoming the “way it’s always been done” mentality. Throwing out systems, tools, and approaches that are not achieving the desired results can pave the way for innovation to better meet citizens’ needs. It can often be more costly to attempt to retrofit old systems to meet new needs than to start fresh, focusing on the requirements that provide the highest value to our citizens.
Measure Success
It’s essential to measure the impact of your modernization efforts. Use key performance indicators such as the number of citizens served, citizen satisfaction scores, service delivery times, and return on investment to evaluate success. Regularly review these metrics to ensure your modernization initiatives are on track and delivering the desired outcomes, not just checking boxes.
Conclusion
Modernization is a continuous journey, not a onetime upgrade. It’s about transforming the way you do business, making strategic improvements, and constantly evolving to meet and exceed citizen expectations. By focusing on enhancing citizen experience and delivering greater value, you can ensure that your modernization efforts truly make a difference to those that matter. As you embark on this journey, remember that the goal is not just to change platforms but to better meet the needs of our citizens. Innovate and improve every step of the way.
Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash
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