GovTech Leaders 2020: What Does GovTech Really Need?
We have just published the GovTech Leaders 2020 list. In it, we have featured exceptional individuals who have been proving that GovTech revolution is in its full swing around the world. We have created this list because we wanted to present all the great individuals we have encountered in our GovTech work all in one place but also inspire the next generation of GovTech leadership. There is space for many more people — startups, investors, government officials and innovation experts — for the GovTech to achieve its full potential.
We are excited to present you with the GovTech Leaders 2020 list which consists of some of the most successful GovTech experts worldwide. Of course, we are aware that we might have missed some incredible people — we hope to include all the rising stars of GovTech next year.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, the whole world has acknowledged the urgency to make governmental and municipal operations and services more innovative. GovTech creates a real chance to adopt technologies and innovative operational models quickly, efficiently and with the resident-centric approach. If you are asking yourself how this can be achieved, have a look at the interviews with the GovTech Leaders 2020.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE GOVTECH LEADERS 2020 LIST
What is GovTech?
GovTech simply means “Government Technology”. There is no single, scientific definition of GovTech. Rather, it can be understood as set of activities with a core mission to make the public sector more innovative, efficient and effective through the utilization of emerging technologies. GovTech carries the potential to influence every single person in a specific city and a country by providing support to citizens in their communities, streamlining local or central services, reducing costs of public services and changing the way citizens receive information, support, services and more.
“Govtech is the ecosystem in which governments collaborate with start-ups and scale-ups that use data intelligence, digital technologies, and innovative methodologies to provide products and services to solve public problems. These ecosystems and start-ups represent a new form of public-private partnerships for absorbing digital and data-related innovation in government. Their objective is to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency in the provision of public services. As such, GovTech is about changing the region’s bureaucratic ethos. Governments, too, need to be in a start-up mode, now more than ever.”
Carlos Santiso, Regional Director, Governance Practice — Digital Innovation in Government, Development Bank of Latin America CAF
Currently, the GovTech market is estimated to be worth over $400 billion. With an extraordinary growth rate of 15%, it is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2025.[1] The biggest market for GovTech enterprises is the United States[2]. In Europe, the leading country in terms of GovTech investments is the United Kingdom.
However, there is potential for GovTech everywhere: every country should be interested to reduce costs, increase transparency and equality as well as promote specific causes and lifestyle choices through the smart use of technology. In the GovTech Leaders 2020, we included great leaders from everywhere around the world, showing that GovTech is not a domain of privileged nations, but can be the reality (and necessity) of all nations.
What does GovTech Need?
GovTech has an incredible potential to change the lives of citizens but also reduce spending and allocate public resources in a more effective and efficient manner. However, it has a fairly hard time reaching its enormous potential. There are many challenges in making innovation and technology excellence the golden standard of public sector. The GovTech Leaders we interviewed gave us a few thoughts on the most difficult aspects of implementing the GovTech mindset in the public sector.
“I consider the biggest obstacle, at least in the U.S., to be government culture. There needs to be a shift towards innovation and an openness to trying new solutions. We need more government leaders that want to disrupt the status quo.”
Sarah Kremer, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, CivStart
Some of the most urgent needs include the following:
· People — there are still not enough people in the public sector who see innovation and digital transformation as THEIR task. We need more champions in the public space and more support in the private space to create great GovTech solutions that touch the lives of millions.
“GovTech is not about a particular technology, or trend, but about people. It is their creativity that creates this relatively new field of digital innovation. This is beautiful, because the only limits this sphere knows is human creativity. On the other hand, the constant evolution of this area makes one need to constantly redefine plans, tools and frameworks, but this somehow just makes this field even more interesting.”
Justyna Orlowska, Head of GovTech Poland, Prime Minister’s Office.
· Bureaucracy — even if there are great individuals that promote innovation and technology inside the public sector, it’s often difficult to choose the best technology available in a fair and standardized way. The procedures have not yet been created for “innovation projects” to be able to compete in complex and time-consuming administrative processes. These processes have been geared towards “ordering solutions”, not “solving challenges”, which makes it difficult for the most innovative ideas to even get a chance to present themselves to the relevant stakeholders.
“The biggest obstacle in GovTech is probably procurement. Government’s way of buying technology makes it inherently challenging to innovate.”
Eyal Feder Levy, Co-Founder and CEO, Zen City
· Relevant challenges vis-a-vis suitable solutions — the public sector has yet to learn to communicate their challenges in a way that makes it to the market. Solutions need to be designed to solve existing, important needs of governments — many of them include back-office procedures we are not always aware of. To solve them, startup founders need to be in a dialogue with government experts and learn from each other.
“Even with the best procurement laws, if the public doesn’t learn how to use a problem-based approach, doesn’t design services focused on the citizen, or doesn’t experiment and assess before buying at scale, GovTech won’t be able to compete in the public procurement market.”
Idoia Ortiz de Artiñano, Managing Director at the Publictech Lab, IE School of Global and Public Affairs
· Time — governments are used to having the time to create and implement projects, promote changes and add new types of activities to their portfolios. There is no sense of urgency that requires a quick action. Startups’ pace is different and the founders do not have time to wait for a slow decision-making and implementation.
“The slow pace of operations inside public administrations makes sales cycles longer and fast agile product development a bit more challenging.”
Faruk Tuncer, CEO & Co-Founder, Polyteia
Who are GovTech Leaders?
THIS COLLECTION of GovTech experts has been discovered through our work over the course of the last few years. Each expert included in this list makes contribution to GovTech in their own special way: we have featured public officials, GovTech hub founders, investors and entrepreneurs making a real change in the world of public sector innovation. This variety of experts is needed to expand the GovTech ecosystem and build its innovative capacity globally.
If you are interested to learn more about what GovTech Leaders 2020 have to say about the challenges of GovTech as well as its opportunities and the future of the industry, make sure to check out the list HERE.
Want to know more about GovTech?
We hope that you will enjoy the perspectives of GovTech Leaders. If you would like to get to know this sector better, we have just published the GovTech Report about the most prominent programs and best practices from around the world. You can download the report HERE.
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[1] Public.io: State of the UK GovTech Market (file:///run/arc/sdcard/write/emulated/0/Documents/CREATORS/Public_GovTech_marke_UKt.pdf)
[2] Ahmed, T., Dowson, I. (2016), GovTech: An Emerging Sector Revolutionising Public Services, https://www.govtechresearch.com
