Government as a Service (GaaS) is a new approach to delivering government services over the internet. The goal of GaaS is to streamline the delivery of government services and make them more accessible to citizens. It does so by transforming the internal processes of government departments from paper based to digitally based.
However most governments in the Pacific follow a custom build + on premise based approach based on recommendations from international consultants. These approaches fail to take into account the context and constraints (i.e. time, money, capacity etc.) faced by small Pacific Island governments. We’ve seen numerous examples of failed government IT projects over the years. It’s the reason we developed Govcrate as a GaaS platform. It is designed specifically for the resource constraints faced in the Pacific.
As a cloud-based platform, it enables governments to quickly design, develop and deploy digital services to its citizens and businesses. This eliminates the need for governments to absorb the high costs, complexities and risks associated with the large IT investments and implementations. It also reduces the cost and complexities that governments face in digitally transforming their organisations because we provide the frameworks, methods and the multi-disciplinary expertise that is needed. This is especially true in developing countries where critical expertise are either missing or they do exist but there does not exist the frameworks, methods and implementation approaches required to build highly functioning multi-disciplinary teams.
When implemented, Govcrate allows governments to quickly deploy new digital services and customize existing ones based on the needs of citizens. This provides citizens with a better overall experience and makes them more likely to use government services.
These digital services when deployed on the Govcrate platform work like a digital government. Citizens, businesses and public servants can access data, applications, and services in a safe, secure and cost-effective manner. It also helps streamline operations, increases transparency and enables citizens to access services from the comfort of their homes, saving them time and money.
In addition, by providing a unified platform for government applications, any data captured can be made accessible to policy makers. This can be used to form the basis for policy-making / decision-making in near real time with out the need to wait for periodic reports from government departments. Insights can be captured, extracted and policies developed, implemented and monitored in a much more timely manner. The impacts of any new policy measures can then be picked up and measured in real-time as behaviours change in relation to the policy change. This hands decision makers with a very powerful set of tools to see if policies are having the desired effect.
Overall, Govcrate is a revolutionary digital platform that can revolutionize the way governments deliver services to citizens. It has the potential to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of government operations, reduce costs, and provide citizens with better access to services via the internet.
I have always have the same concern. Thanks for already doing a head-start on this. I would like to work with you further on this Ano.
Hi Brian,
Glad you liked it. If you’d like to be involved let me know if there are any Government Departments that might be interested in it in the Solomon Islands. We can then organize a chat.
In developing countries and in particular for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) governments have a duty to the public and operate under law, and therefore, they have a duty of care whilst wanting the service to be efficient and effective. This is a double-edge sword which requires careful navigation when developing an IT solution to speed up the process of public goods and services delivery without compromising public accountability and transparency. The most challenging part is the transition period from paper trail to e-govt trail. Remember, IT is one component of that large legislative and regulatory frameworks which need to be aligned with a new IT innovation. In developing states three problems arise when transition from paper government to e-government. First, whether to remain with the Weberian bureaucratic system but abandon paper paper tail base government for e-government or alternatively, to reform the legislative and regulatory frameworks to embrace New Public Management (NPM) processes and procedures while transition from paper trail govt to e-govt. to deliver public goods and services more efficiently and effectively, without compromising the State’s legislative and regulatory requirements. In these scenario, both bureaucratic systems cannot run parallel or concurrently while introducing e-governance as it can be costly and time consuming to transit.