Tech adoption key to government resilience, says IBM
Public sector organizations that experimented with and embraced new technologies were the most equipped to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, according a report published Monday by the IBM Institute for Business Value.
The group, which surveyed 635 government leaders across 44 countries on their resilience plans, called 2019-2023 a “stress test” for governments that revealed strengths and weaknesses regarding incident response and their ability to continue serving their constituents during a time of upheaval.
Most government organizations, the report found, were unprepared.
The survey shows, however, that governments committed to modernization efforts, specifically with regards to technology, improved their crisis management services at a much higher rate, with a 54% increase in readiness, on average.
“The willingness to embrace new technologies is also a strong indicator for success, along with a commitment to automation, cybersecurity, and sustainability,” the report reads.
At the height of the pandemic, 2020 brought huge increases in government spending on health, reaching a high of $9 trillion, or 11% of global GDP.
The survey found that higher performing government organizations increased their investments in six technologies: artificial intelligence, generative AI, cybersecurity services, cloud computing, automation and data analytics.
Cybersecurity preparedness in particular — whether through incident response plans, employee trainings or software purchases — was a key metric in the report. The more organizations spent on strengthening their cybersecurity postures, the better they performed in other areas of crisis management, including workplace culture.
The report says that complacency or resistance to modernizing and adapting can could compromise the ability of governments to protect and serve their citizens.
“As climate change, natural disasters, supply chain disruptions, cyberattacks, and other crisis-level events happen more frequently—and deliver more destabilizing impacts on nations and citizens—local governments, regional bodies, and national government agencies must be more agile and forward-looking,” the report concludes.
