RESTON, Va., Sept. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey
sponsored by Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) found that 69
percent of U.S. federal, state and local government respondents
have initiated or are interested in adopting digital government
programs, while the remaining 31 percent reported skepticism of
digital government's benefits outside of narrowly-defined problem
areas.
With regard to the challenges that face government agencies that
pursue digital government initiatives, 57 percent of respondents
said their agencies were "very concerned" about potential security
risks – with another 35 percent "somewhat concerned." Lack of staff
expertise was also viewed as a challenge by most respondents, with
47 percent "very concerned" and 41 percent "somewhat
concerned."
Respondents reported that the most important benefits of digital
government were to improve internal business processes and service
delivery, with 66 percent and 65 percent, respectively reporting
these benefits as "very important."
Fewer respondents appeared to be focused on pulling citizens
into digital government initiatives, with only 45 percent ranking
citizen participation as "very important."
The survey defined digital government as the process by which
government agencies harness various digital technologies –
including cloud, virtualization, advanced data analytics, and
mobile – to deliver superior services to citizens, stakeholders and
other government employees.
The results showed a government divided almost in half in terms
of respondents whose agencies see a clear value in digital
government, and those who do not. Slightly more than half of
respondents (55 percent) agreed with the statement that their
agency wants to offer more innovative digital government
service, while 45 percent were neutral or disagreed.
"While it is encouraging to see more federal, state and local
governments using digital government tools to simplify government,
we still have work to do in terms of educating many government
leaders about the benefits of these initiatives," said Mark Forman, global head of public sector at
Unisys. "Government agencies must meet citizens' expectations of
customer service based on what they see in commercial companies,
and they should not hesitate to reap the benefits digital
government can offer in terms of cost savings, enhanced security
and a more efficient workforce."
This survey shows that agencies that are further along the path
to digital government are more likely to have superior capabilities
in areas such as security, cloud, mobility and IT service
management than those agencies from which respondents expressed
skepticism about digital government.
"Beyond the direct benefits offered by digital government, there
are multiple indirect benefits to government agencies in terms of
more mature capabilities and forward-looking workplace cultures,"
said Casey Coleman, group vice
president for civilian agencies at Unisys Federal. "For these
reasons, we believe more agencies will take the appropriate
security measures and embrace digital government in the
future."
For more information on the digital government survey or to
download the report, visit www.unisys.com/digital-government.
About Unisys
Unisys is a global information technology company that works
with many of the world's largest companies and government
organizations to solve their most pressing IT and business
challenges. Unisys specializes in providing integrated,
leading-edge solutions to clients in the government, financial
services and commercial markets. With more than 20,000 employees
serving clients around the world, Unisys offerings include cloud
and infrastructure services, application services, security
solutions, and high-end server technology. For more information,
visit www.unisys.com.
Follow Unisys on Twitter and LinkedIn.
RELEASE NO.: 0915/9449
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as well as their respective logos, are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Unisys Corporation. Any other brand or product
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SOURCE Unisys Corporation