Govt CIOs bullish on analytics but lack resources to push initiatives: Report

Government chief information officers (CIOs) across the world are betting on data analytics and cybersecurity to boost reach and growth in 2019 but many lack the resources to fuel these initiatives, according to a report by market research firm Gartner. 

Cloud, which was until recently a buzzword within government circles, has now taken a backseat. The report said that the Gartner’s 2019 CIO Agenda Survey is a reflection of government CIOs’ acknowledgement that artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics are crucial components for better governance.

“The ability to leverage that data strategically in real time will significantly improve the government’s ability to seamlessly deliver services, despite increased strain on finite resources,” said Rick Howard, research vice-president at Gartner.

Howard also pointed out that data is at the heart of digital governance and is one of the biggest assets to all that the government oversees and provides.

The survey gathered data from 3,102 CIO respondents across 89 countries in most of the major industries. The study also said that it took into consideration inputs from 528 government CIOs, who were segmented into national or federal, state or regional and defence or intelligence sectors.

Among all levels of government, 43% of respondents said that they had increased business intelligence, data analytics and cybersecurity investments. Cloud services followed closely behind at 39%.

However, only 17% of government CIOs planned to increase investments in newer technologies, which was half of the overall average of 34%. Almost half (45%) said that they lacked the IT and business resources to take their digital initiatives forward. 

The survey said that 18% of CIOs across all levels of government have made digital initiatives a top priority for achieving goals, which is lower than the 23% average for all other industries.

More than a quarter of the CIOs (28%) also said that their government is scaling and refining the existing digital initiatives, which is a jump of 15% from the 2018 survey.

However, governments still seem behind other industries, where 33% of respondents said that they were revamping their digital initiatives.  

The defence and intelligence sectors of governments had the lowest percentage of respondents who said that they have scaled their digital initiatives.  

“Government CIOs clearly recognise the potential of digital government and have started developing new digital services, but now need to take digital beyond a vision to execution through digital leadership,” Howard said.