Enabling the digital transformation of public sector services

The nature of service delivery is changing. In recent years, digital technology has enabled people to access goods and services through multiple channels, regardless of their location. Across the globe, this is reshaping consumers’ attitudes and expectations, resulting in a more competitive and innovative market.

Much like the private sector, digital technology and ubiquitous connectivity can be used to effectively deliver public sector services across a number of verticals, including health, transport, education and e-government. Although public sector transformation is not as apparent, policymakers, government officials and industry experts are already engaged in discussions as to how to implement digital solutions in the public sector.

This issue was recently debated at Forum Europe’s conference, ‘Public Sector Transformation: integrating digital into the delivery of public services in Europe’. The event was attended by senior delegates from the European Commission, European Parliament, HP, the GSMA and other industry stakeholders.

The purpose of the event was strengthen the argument for digital transformation of the public sector, by addressing two key issues: what is the value of this transformation? And how can this transformation be scaled?

During the event, the GSMA’s Senior Policy Manager, Tomas Jakimavicius, argued that scaling such services depends on the creation of a trusted, secure and interoperable digital identity solution that citizens can use across a number of verticals:

‘The incredible value of digital services to state institutions and citizens as a means of ensuring greater social protection and to drive adoption of online services in the wider economy, is dependent on developing and delivering trusted digital identities…It is estimated that identity-based digital public services will deliver $50 billion in projected annual cost savings by 2020.’

There a number of signs that mobile could be the most suitable platform for a secure digital identity solution. Perhaps most importantly, is the rapid growth of smartphone ownership- according to research global web index, 2015 will be the year when smartphones owners will reach parity with PC/laptop owners.

Indeed, the uptake of mobile phones is rising; GSMA Intelligence calculate that the number of the number of unique subscribers to mobile services is currently 3.7 billion and set to increase to 4.5 billion by 2020.

People are naturally drawn towards the variety and capability that mobile can offer. Mobile apps such as M-Pesa, WeChat and Alipay that have combined payment functions with other services such as messaging, delivery tracking and restaurant booking have been immensely popular since their launch – a mobile identity solution, which works across a range of different platforms could similarly enable users to seamlessly access a wide array of public services.

With many services being translated to a digital environment, the need to securely verify users has never been so important. Mobile operators are ideally positioned to facilitate governments in seeking to provide citizens with secure access to their digital services – mobile is a ubiquitous telecommunications medium.

Mobile Connect provides a potential solution, as the mobile operator facilitated authentication solution which provides simple, secure and convenient access to online services. It works by combining the user’s unique mobile number and PIN to verify and authenticate them online. The value of the GSMA’s Mobile Connect for governments is in its ability to drive uptake in e-government services – through increased convenience and accessibility for citizens, strong security and enhanced privacy and a reduced cost to serve (Mobile Connect is easy to integrate into existing and new identity architectures).

Tomas Jakimavicius will be speaking at Trustech on November 18 at 3.30-4:00pm, on the subject of ‘Enabling Trust and Creating Value Through Mobile Identity Solutions’. To find out more about his involvement, and to register for the event, please click here. To discover more about mobile identity, download the GSMA paper, ‘Mobile Identity – Unlocking the Potential of the Digital Economy’.

For more information on Mobile Connect, please visit www.gsma.com/mobileconnect.

Ryan Andrew