Governments around the world will move towards more hybrid working, a greater use of robotic process automation (RPA) and the adoption of zero trust security policies, according to IT market analyst Forrester.
It has published a set of global public sector predictions for 2022, saying governments will make changes in response to major economic and social trends.
Among these is that one-third of civil servants around the world will become permanent hybrid workers. This derives from the surge in home working during Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, although organisations have now identified long term benefits from the change.
Forrester says that national governments in New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and the US were among those with policies for hybrid or even remote work during the pandemic, and most will resemble the approach taken in the UK where departments have differed on requiring staff to return to their offices.
Another prediction is that 10% of government administrative workloads will be executed by RPA. The company’s survey of 67 government infrastructure decision makers showed 22% saying their departments will use the technology by the end of this year, seeing how it can leave employees with more time for higher value work.
But it also warns that not all RPA implementations will go smoothly.
Security priority
On the security front, at least five governments will adopt a zero trust approach in their digital services. Forrester says that 17% of government purchase influencers told it their organisations are implementing a zero trust strategy as a high priority in the coming year.
Governments hope the visible indicators of better cyber security will stabilise public trust in digital services.
Fourthly, the world will see the first carbon-neutral national government in a developed country. Forrester says this is likely to be a smaller country with modest military operations, developed renewable energy sources and aggressive net-zero goals, and cites Costa Rica, Iceland and Uruguay as top contenders.
Finally, there is a downside in anemic government IT accounting for a failure to spend 20% of stimulus funds globally. This comes from a history of government IT procurements having a history of failing to use similar funds effectively.
Image from iStock, Nadia
