Page 42 - FCW, January/February 2020

Outlook
PREDICTIONS FOR IMPROVING GOVERNMENT SERVICES IN 2020
BY MARTHA A. DORRIS
In the past several years, both govern- ment and the private sector have begun to acknowledge the importance and benefits of improving government ser- vices. The current administration, Con- gress and citizens’ expectations are all driving these improvements. The Presi- dent’s Management Agenda, with its cross-agency priority goal on improv- ing government services, and the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA) have created a framework for agencies to better understand their customers, deliver improved digital services and determine their maturity in delivering services.
There’s much to be done, however. Here are my predictions for the cus- tomer experience (CX) in 2020. 1.Agencies will assess changes
that affect their working envi- ronments (i.e., the presidential election and subsequent leadership changes) and develop plans to defend their suc- cess in delivering their missions. Agen-
cies that provide services directly to citizens will collect performance and customer data. Political appointees and career staff will have very differ- ent objectives in the coming months, but they have one thing in common: demonstrating the benefits and value of their programs.
Senior leaders in citizen-facing
ments to have someone explicitly responsible for CX.
2.
responsibility for customer issues to an executive or create an organization that is responsible for customer data, metrics, performance and more.
Many agencies already have
agencies will increasingly make improving their customers’ experience a priority. IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, for example, recently discussed the importance of employee engage- ment and taxpayer experience. Social Security Administration Commissioner Andrew Saul has similarly stressed the importance of customer service to his agency’s mission.
Those declarations should trickle down throughout agencies, resulting in changes to executives’ performance plans, the collection of customer feed- back, the establishment of metrics to measure success and agency realign-
4.
3.
Agencies will continue to assign
chief customer officers at vari- ous levels, while others have identified a person to focus on customer work without creating a dedicated office. Most agencies, however, will not give those organizations and individuals the authority and resources needed to make significant improvements.
IT modernization and digital
5.
services will continue to attract increased focus and resources. How- ever, without designating an organiza- tion that is responsible for the end-to- end customer journey, government CX will not improve to private-sector standards. CIOs who are responsible
OU? T special events, ranging from traffic jams
2020 PREDICTIONS: THE LONG VIEW
3.Your desk has a single device Accessibility problems are Data lag and packet latency
4.
5.
that serves as a phone, com-
puter, video screen and more. websites. parts of the internet.
“Improvements to voice over IP,TV over “By 2020, we expect to see improved “But will this broader bandwidth come at a IP and shared platforms for social media screen readers, better standardization premium price?”
systems will lead to unified devices that of how text and images are rendered on
no longer look like phones or comput- screen, and other technologies that should
ers. Instead, you will have a large screen, make both working and web surfing a
keyboard and headset. For government, it’s more positive experience. We expect to see
increasingly likely that this unified device the government step up its efforts to help
will be a thin client.” refine global standards and interfaces for
finally solved for government
problems are solved on large
6 assistive technology.”
Smart phones and tablets Proximity networking changes
the way we connect to the Army knife role, but the desktop unified Government has continued to drive internet.
increasingly serve this Swiss
the push for compliance with Sec-
communications client never got the “Connectivity will extend...to include
predicted traction. tion 508 accessibility standards, but the networks that wake up when a possible
42 January/February 2020 FCW.COM
issues are far from solved.The explosion of video and other rich media has compound- ed the challenge for government sites.
connection exists, such as when you
approach a parking space or when tem-
porary peer-to-peer networks form during
4Latency still poses challenges in certain situations, but the improvements have been exponential. The more pressing challenge today is wireless spectrum.
6.
L