What is GovTech? The digitalisation of the public administration
GovTech is the flagship bet of many startups, SMEs, and digital consultants to digitalise public administration once and for all.
Taking into account the transformations that the private sector has been experiencing in the last decade, not only within process issues but also involving user experience, the public sector is still far from reaching the standards that most leading companies are setting and that the users are demanding.
Thus, GovTech was born as a response to the evident disconnection between citizens and the public sector, using the latest technological innovations to digitise the relationship between citizens and the various administrations.
GovTech definition & meaning
The GovTech term, compounded by the words Government and Technology, refers to the efforts to digitise (and digitalise) public administrations through innovative technological solutions that allow remote use of the public administration services (such as social security identity verification online, government ID verification, and more). It is primarily based on the implementation of KYC for government accounts based on online authentication, electronic signatures and identification. This term was born after the FinTech term, with which it is related.
GovTech companies, as happens with FinTech, create and offer software and technology to respond to the needs for improvement, optimisation, modernisation, and simplification of the sector's activities, operations, and processes (that is government ID verification)
Citizens must regularly carry out different procedures with public administrations, from their town halls and local corporations to national or regional policies related to taxes or subsidies, which are often difficult to carry out. This highlights the need for online social security identity verification. Hence, most GovTech projects focus on boosting organisations' relationships with their audiences.
GovTech consultancies accompany public administrations to optimise the internal and external processes that a public organisation may have, thanks to the integration of digital tools in their systems.
Public administration GovTech: innovation and digitalisation
Digital transformation has fully affected all companies, but we can see how some public administrations have tiptoed around the digitalisation process with unsuccessful results. However, for them, online identity verification and electronic signature are crucial aspects that, unfortunately, have been superficially undertaken.
Faced with unsuccessful attempts to digitalise public administration processes and the challenges that institutions stand, GovTech urges the administration to transform, offering a triple benefit:
- Exhaustive control of procedures thanks to comprehensive digitisation solutions, maximising transparency and digital recording of all operations.
- Costs and time reduction in all kinds of processes, both internal and those carried out by citizens.
- An impeccable citizen experience when dealing with your local, regional, and national administration, providing a fast, agile, comfortable, and fully accessible service.
Then, what does GovTech do? GovTech solutions and their KYC for government accounts are not only focused on digitally transforming public administration but also on innovating together with it to create new public services and methods of citizen participation, previously unattainable due to technological limitations of administration.
Current GovTech 2024 ecosystem in Europe
GovTech startups, SMEs, and digital consultancies lead the GovTech industry in Europe and accompany the various administrations in their digital transformation, redefinition, and creation of public services in the digitalisation era.
These GovTech companies are not only revealing their total readiness for the administration when it deems it necessary but initiatives are being born urging governments to bet on digital public services.
Many companies are developing citizen participation tools, new public services, and comprehensive solutions for high-risk administration processes, waiting for governments to decide on implementing them.
GovTech R&D (or RTD) in digital public administration is already a reality in which many companies invest to make the citizens-public administration relationship increasingly closer, more transparent and optimised.
From tax declaration, archives consultation, or property registry to libraries and local events or collection and payment of municipal taxes, all public services and procedures can be digitalised, optimised and improved thanks to GovTech.
However, this digitalisation brings many challenges public government institutions need to learn to navigate when performing identity verification processes and building a solid government AML governance framework and implementing GovTech cybersecurity measures becomes crucial.
In this way, the government can (and should) benefit from the latest technologies in government ID verification, authentication and electronic signatures. These are excellent government gateways to an identity verification system that is correct, compliant, and user-friendly.
Due to this, governments have been making an effort to digitalise most procedures to make it easier for citizens to perform their operations. For example, after the implementation of electronic signatures in governments and ID cards, the social security identity verification online process became more widespread than ever (especially during the pandemic). Although the need for citizens to personate themselves in government offices to get their ID cards or carry out certain operations inevitably reveals there is still work to do to achieve a complete government digitalisation.
Read about the European Digital Identity Wallet and its benefits for citizens and governments.
Signicat, KYC for government accounts
EID, now part of Signicat, participates in programs such as GovTechLab Madrid, where local corporations from all over the region can learn first-hand about the Signicat and GovTech software proposal to digitalise the diverse public administrations, organisations, and institutions to their specific needs.
In this way, you can learn about the innovative tools made available to local, regional, and national governments to completely transform the administration and offer new public services through digital channels.
Furthermore, all the leading Signicat solutions flawlessly adapt to the needs and characteristics of the different administrations and public organisations.