Far from the banking, financial and manufacturing industries, the public sector is only at the beginning of its digital transformation and automation process. Last year, the IT consulting firm Forrester estimated that robotic process automation (RPA) represented only 10% of the workload of administrative staff. But the movement is accelerating. An investigation of Gartner in fact, revealed that 33% of public sector respondents plan to implement RPA in the next two years. So is the future of AI also at stake on the government side?
A necessary digital transition
During the UiPath AI Summit, the Greater Copenhagen Fire Department shared their experience with automation, outlining the reasons why these technologies are gaining popularity in governments and public agencies around the world.
Like many organizations, the department's initial motivation for adopting RPA was eliminate manual tasks to increase efficiency and reduce errors. And in many ways, it was a typical IT project. But as pointed out by Director of Information (DPI) of the Ministry, Christian Falberg Goth, what started as an IT project quickly grew into a larger digital transformation initiative:
“We don't work in a place where digital technology is natural. Firefighters and paramedics primarily do physical work. The deployment of RPA was therefore an important step in our technological maturity. It was about helping people trust technology more and creating a more engaging workplace for the younger generation — especially in areas like HR and payroll.”
Christian Falberg Goth, Chief Information Officer (DPI)
The department had already been using RPA for some time and started working with Sopra Steria to improve its abilities. So they identified a process that was ready to be transformed - firefighter overtime treatment - and embarked on a five-week project to automate it.
By focusing on organizational development and digital transformation, the team contributed to acculturating the ministry on these subjects. In this, it made it possible to create a more dynamic workplace that attracts younger generations.
Dismantling silos to maximize impact
Too many public sector agencies are still deploying AI and RPA in isolation. As a result, they are not taking full advantage of their benefits. However, they need the right structure and the right strategy. This involves considering a solution under The angle of its organizational impact And of take advantage of synergies for what you want to build now and in the future.
How to adopt automation in your organization?
It is natural at first to focus on The return on investment automation projects, but also Redefining it in terms of benefits for citizens. Indeed, this is the primary virtue of these services. In addition, it is essential to Diversifying the automation team to include more roles and perspectives. As such, a model of center of excellence (CoE) centralized that covers departments and functions can be very beneficial. She must then be coupled with a clear implementation strategy, including a roadmap of potential future technologies.
Today, AI is helping to transform RPA (which was traditionally a back office technology) into a front-office solution oriented towards the citizen. So while automation improves the work environment for public sector employees (as is the case for the Greater Copenhagen Fire Department), it also helps agencies provide better service to citizens. It is a win-win scenario for governments as well as for citizens.
About StoryShaper:
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Sources: StoryShaper, UiPath, Forrester, Gartner
