Tips for Overcoming Public-Sector IT Modernization Challenges

The state of IT in the public sector today looks quite different than it did five years ago. Constituents today want to engage with the government on their own terms — using whatever device or communication channel they want, wherever they are. To meet these demands, state and local governments are launching digital transformation initiatives (including new applications and portals).

With all of these changes being made to support digital service demands, there’s been an influx of project requests for public-sector IT organizations. However, a recent study by the Center for Digital Government* found that many public-sector organizations struggle to fill open IT positions — slowing down modernization efforts.

According to the survey, many IT organizations have 5 percent or more of their positions vacant and they struggle with employee recruitment. More than 70 percent of IT officials said project timelines are being missed or extended due to staff shortages and skills gaps. More than 60 percent said staff fatigue or burnout is a significant challenge.

STAFFING AND FUNDING CHALLENGES MAKE MODERNIZATION DIFFICULT

When it comes to digital transformation, deploying new, modern applications to assist with things like self-service for citizens can result in some hurdles. As the survey states, the largest hurdle is finding the funding to support the cost of modernizing legacy systems. Another significant barrier to infrastructure modernization for public-sector organizations is the lack of IT staff and gaps in skills needed for IT projects. Many IT organizations say they also struggle to implement and integrate applications due to silos and legacy system complications.

According to the survey, the top 5 challenges public-sector IT departments face when trying to modernize IT infrastructure are:

1. Funding (69 percent)
2. Staffing (65 percent)
3. Time (53 percent)
4. Expertise/Skill Sets (40 percent)
5. Legacy Technologies (35 percent)

Difficulties in the recruitment and retention of IT employees magnify the challenge of staying on top of IT modernization tasks. Many organizations have overburdened IT management teams. Only a third of respondents indicated their workload was properly distributed, the survey states. When asked about the workforce challenges being experienced, IT leaders said the following:

• 93 percent say they struggle to recruit qualified technologists to fill vacancies.
• 86 percent say they have trouble retaining technology staff and talent.
• 86 percent also say competitiveness of pay is a challenge when retaining/recruiting staff.
• 70 percent say talent availability is a challenge when it comes to filling open roles.
• 63 percent say fatigue or burnout is a concern and challenge facing their IT departments.
  

In addition, the survey found that more than 70 percent of public-sector IT organizations say project timelines are being missed or extended as a direct result of the challenges laid out above.

IMPROVING OUTCOMES WITH AUTOMATION AND CLOUD-BASED TECHNOLOGY

According to the Center for Digital Government, cloud-based technologies can streamline operations and administration, improve resiliency and speed up deployments and integrations. Cloud solutions can also increase staff productivity and reduce costs. Implementing an IT Service Management (ITSM) strategy with a cloud-based, codeless ITSM tool can provide an efficient, holistic approach to system management for resource-constrained organizations.

In the survey, IT leaders said cloud-based technologies improve the resilience of applications and digital services (55 percent); provide the ability to manage digital services remotely (54 percent); provide a better user experience (46 percent); improve staff productivity (42 percent); and reduce the cost of providing services (33 percent).

In addition to cloud-based technologies, automation can ease workloads and help with efficiency. As the Center for Digital Government states, automation allows staff to spend less time on low-value tasks like data entry and more time analyzing and interpreting data.

Other recommendations from the Center for Digital Government include:

1. Use tools and technologies that increase efficiency. The survey findings state, “Cloud-based solutions relieve the pressure on technology support staff and improve overall digital transformation. A cloud-based ITSM strategy can help organizations streamline operations and automate repetitive tasks.”
2. Drive smarter resource alignment. “Lean IT organizations coupled with increasing demands require focused and in-depth analysis of workload and workforce to ensure needs are being met,” the findings state. “Robust, integrated tools allow fewer people to effectively manage the enterprise technology portfolio. An ITSM solution, for example, supports team and workforce alignment by providing a consolidated view of all requests, allowing management to analyze historical trends and forecast needs to balance agency and constituent expectations.”
3. Address challenges with incremental investments. Because funding and costs continue to be a barrier for most public-sector agencies, it’s recommended that state and local government IT departments make incremental investments in new technology. “The same approach can be applied to staffing shortages,” the report states. “An ITSM strategy can help organizations identify the areas with the largest gaps to prioritize funding.”
   

PIMA COUNTY EMBRACES AUTOMATION FOR IMPROVED SERVICE

With more than 1 million residents living in Pima County, top-notch service delivery is essential for the Pima County government, and that means investing in the right tools and retaining employees as the county moves through its digital transformation.

For Mark Hayes, an information technology leader at Pima County at the time, much of the digital transformation work starts in IT, “TeamDynamix is a place where we are really trying to kick-start and accelerate the ideology that automation with the right tools can bring value not just to IT, but to other departments within our organization.”

Pima County made the switch to TeamDynamix for IT Service Management after using a different system for the past 10 years. Traditionally, the county has taken in tickets through email, phone and a service catalog with base-level triage, but with TeamDynamix in place, they will be able to leverage self-service and automation to serve its citizens better and reduce the drain on employees and resources.

Aside from performance issues with their old ITSM platform, Hayes said the county was looking at ways to combat resource drain and employee burnout with their new ITSM. “Prior to TeamDynamix, we didn’t have the ability to automate things and build workflows to do things that eliminate toil and redundancy for our employees,” Hayes said.

And with many organizations struggling to maintain or hire new talent, especially in IT, this was critical for the county, “People feel so much more empowered and have so much more worth when they are doing things that are intellectually rigorous and challenging versus when they are just repeating the same mechanical actions over and over and over with very little thought,” Hayes said.

“If all [our IT employees are] doing is handling tickets and doing the same mundane, manual tasks over and over, that’s not particularly great training,” he continued. “So, investing in tools that allow our employees to engage in meaningful work is something that’s important to us as an overall IT organization.”

With TeamDynamix in place, Pima County was looking to automate and integrate as much of the manual ITSM processes into workflows as they could.

Want to read more about Pima County’s experience with automation? Check out the full story here. You can find the full report from the Center of Digital Government here.

*Note: The Center for Digital Government is part of e.Republic, Government Technology's parent company.