How Public Sector Organization Can Escape Due Diligence Limbo and Modernize Technology

The average citizen may not know exactly why a government website is slow to load or difficult to use, but they probably have their suspicions.

At first they might assume, correctly, that the site is hosted and managed on old, possible outdated technology. They might also think—again, correctly—that the platforms and tools exist to make such digital experiences a lot better. Most citizens, however, are also aware that the public sector has a reputation for being plagued with unnecessary bureaucracy and complex regulations.

This doesn’t mean citizens are satisfied, however. Far from it.

According to a survey conducted in late 2024, 74% of citizens worldwide have run up against user experience issues with digital government services in the past two years. They want better: 75% said they expect those services to match the quality of those offered by the private sector.

The challenge is that government organizations are almost always fighting a battle between conducting their proper due diligence and working with speed to improve service delivery. The cost of making the wrong decision can be high, especially when citizens’ personal information is at stake.  

Now that digital technology is becoming so sophisticated that it touches almost every aspect of everyday life, the longstanding bottlenecks within the government sector may be reaching a breaking point.

What’s getting in the way of public sector digital modernization

In From Lagging to Leading: The Opportunity for a Breakthrough in U.S. Digital Service Delivery, the Global Government Forum interviewed CIOs and senior officials about why so many initiatives get stuck. There were multiple culprits, from an overall lack of coordination among departments and agencies to siloed programs and the difficulty of developing multi-year strategies that span administrations.

“There is a lack of a clearly stated ambition, political sponsorship, and representation for technology at the highest levels of government,” the report’s authors wrote. “CIOs told us that their Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries don’t have a bold, impactful vision for the role of technology in support of their agency’s mission, and technology leaders don’t have sufficient influence at the most senior level.”

In many cases, those tech leaders are sincerely doing their best to accelerate modernization and improve digital citizen experiences. Just look at a recent personal essay on Reason by a former CTO of Veterans’ Affairs (VA).

She described an IT environment where “most of our websites had business hours,” and that it took a near-endless series of meetings and demos to convince higher ups to move its hosting environment to the cloud. Eventually, she succeeded.

“But you know what? I shouldn’t have had to waste two and a half years of my life on this, while millions of veterans went without health care and other benefits they had earned,” she wrote.

Failing to deliver on digital expectations doesn’t just frustrate citizens. It can undermine their belief in the public sector’s ability to make the right moves in other areas, like public policy. Already, a global survey by the OECD shows only 41% of people believe their government uses the best available evidence in decision-making.

How to accelerate digital government modernization

It will take time and a lot of cross-functional collaboration to refine some of the processes that are part of public sector due diligence efforts. In the meantime, government departments and agencies need to start somewhere, and there’s no better place than reducing their technical debt.

This doesn’t necessarily mean replacing every platform and tool in your tech stack. It can also be accomplished by bringing on solutions that can address many objectives at once. In the most recent State CIO survey, 90% of public sector IT leaders are consolidating their infrastructure, and 46% are doing the same thing at the application level. The result will be less maintenance and better performance.

While consolidation goals will vary depending on your department or agency’s key priorities and existing tech stack, most modernization initiatives depend on the same core pillars. These include:

• Enterprise-grade platforms that are capable of scaling to meet current and future demands
• Applications that are designed with an eye towards usability and simple workflows
• Data protection features that can mitigate or fend off cybersecurity threats

There’s a lot you can do with the right technology, even when you’re short on time and resources. When it came time to hold the 2020 Democratic National Convention, for example, the world was still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. That meant providing a digital experience was no longer a nice-to-have: it was the only way the DNCC would be able to move forward.

Choosing WordPress VIP allowed the DNCC to not only host the first-ever virtual political convention in U.S. history. It also provided the secure, high performance necessary to support more than 15 live streams, even during high-traffic hours.

Seeing the future through a citizen-centric lens

By paring down tech debt, public sector organizations can adapt to tightening budgets while still providing the efficient digital services citizens are asking for. From there, you can build a modernization roadmap that could incorporate the following areas:

Expanded digital service delivery

Applying for licenses and permits online was a good first step. Governments should now start thinking about how they can provide more digital self-service capabilities—websites that are rich with knowledge center-style resources and simple tools to access and share information.

Enhanced security and compliance

The cyber threats will keep on coming, and they will be increasingly difficult to detect. Investing in platforms with built-in protection and compliant with FedRAMP ATO will be essential for developing a tech stack that provides confidence to internal and external stakeholders alike.

Reduced administrative overhead

The public sector workforce already has enough on its plate. They shouldn’t have to reinvent every wheel as the public sector digitizes. Website modernization becomes a lot easier, for example, when you can tap into solutions that integrate with your existing design system. Always ask your technology providers about the partner ecosystem that could take you further, faster.

Increased client satisfaction

There are all sorts of metrics the government can use to determine how close it is getting to “digital-first,” but ultimately it comes down to providing better outcomes for citizens. And as they see service delivery get better, they won’t be shy in offering feedback and ideas for additional improvement.

Conducting thorough due diligence and modernizing with speed is more possible than you think. The citizens you’re serving deserve nothing less.