Should public sector companies be placing more emphasis on strategic technology?

 

Privately owned and operated businesses will typically only be accountable to those with a vested financial interest in their operations. Moreover, while their publicly traded equivalents have shareholders to satisfy, they are ultimately guided by much of the intuition coming from the C-suite.

In the public sector, accountability is a term which holds increased weight. When there’s tax payers money at stake, making the right decisions is an absolute must. Of course, much of that process can be streamlined when the entity in question has distinct strategic planning processes in place.

Public sector entities and tech

Technology plays a huge part in the modern enterprise, but are public sector companies progressive enough in the digital space?

The answer is a relatively clouded one, especially as many publicly accountable businesses will have to deal with cuts in funding. In fact, according to research collated by Gartner, spending on technology in particular by national, federal and local governments is set to decline 1.8 per cent from $439 billion to $431 billion by the end of 2015.

However, when it comes to enforcing and driving technological change, the role of the chief information officer (CIO) within a public sector entity is markedly similar to any other company.

Following an example

“Public sector CIOs can gain support for digital innovation from public officials and administrators by explaining digital innovation in terms of business priorities and presenting relevant examples of what the consumer service industry or other digitally savvy government agencies have done, how they have done it, and what the results have been,” explained research director at Gartner Rick Howard.

As alluded to, one of the best ways for public sector companies to learn and grow is to look at the best practices of their private equivalents. With regards to technology, the wider enterprise world is continually changing and shifting, and no company, regardless of its categorization, can afford to fall too far behind.