Around the world, government leaders are increasingly recognising the value of information technology as a useful tool for enabling social and economic development.

However, this isn’t a new phenomenon. Indeed, in the late 1990s, the advent of the internet drove many governments to ramp up their support for technology investment in both the public and private sectors.

Their primary goals were to increase overall access to technology for individual and enterprises, grow eCommerce, improve public sector service access and delivery, and spur the growth of new businesses.

Technology has now caught up, and the transition to the third platform — mobile computing, social media, cloud computing, and Big Data — is digitally transforming nearly every aspect of individuals’ and enterprises’ lives.

This is all giving added impetus to government efforts, particularly as a new wave of technology breakthroughs — robotics, natural interfaces, 3D printing, internet of Things (IoT), cognitive systems, and next-generation security — are poised to bring further disruption.

But to ensure a lasting impact, governments should embrace digital transformation in a truly holistic manner and avoid the temptation of putting technology in place solely for technology’s sake.

This requires them to look beyond simple platitudes and actively pursue the implementation of technology to make a meaningful impact on the day-to-day lives of all relevant stakeholders.

In this regard, digital transformation is not just about making government paperless, but also about leveraging the power of digital technology to innovate processes so they are more integrated with the front end, more efficient, and more agile in their response to change.

Likewise, simply putting services online is no longer sufficient. Governments must offer a seamless omni-channel experience that provides the convenience of being able to use a combination of channels, such as call centers equipped with new technologies like chatbots.

They must leverage data to optimise service value streams across government programs. In line with this, improvements in cross-departmental collaboration will enable governments to offer a personalised experience to citizens, rather than forcing them to figure out siloed bureaucratic processes for themselves.

Furthermore, governments must leverage digital technologies to make education more student centric and integrate human services and health care ecosystems around the citizen.

To this end, robotics will change how assisted living services for the elderly and disabled are performed, while drones are already making an impact on public safety and defence.

The use of such technologies will not only increase the safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of many industries, but also commoditise the skills of people currently in the workforce.

As such, governments will have to collaborate with industry, academia, and civil society to redesign skills and social norms so as to be ready to embrace that change.

In today’s digital age, governments sit on a treasure trove of data, which can be opened up to spearhead innovation across industries — from smart mobility to environmental protection and resources sustainability, tourism, and fishing and agriculture.

Indeed, data has become a strategic asset, and the more that governments can leverage their data, the more value they create. And crucially, this added value comes at limited marginal cost as long as open standards for interoperability and portability are enforced.

The increased volume, variety, and velocity of data will inevitably drive demand for appropriate storage, archiving, and management, so that it can be accessed on demand for analysis and delivery to multiple devices.

Allied to this will be a simultaneous rise in demand for security tools that can protect data and ensure continuity, integrity, and resilience without stifling data sharing and analysis capabilities.

And besides the quantity and security of data, the issues of data quality, data accessibility, data ownership and governance, effective data usage, valuation, and monetisation should all feature high on the agenda.

On that final point, it is important to remember that the value of data grows the more it is contextualised to the needs of specific constituencies and aggregated across silos to uncover hidden patterns of correlation and cause-and-effect.

As such, there are multiple roles that willing governments can play in driving the emergence of a thriving data economy. And the key to this will be promoting the openness of public, non-sensitive data.

It is this willingness to embrace digital transformation in all its forms that will ultimately determine success, as efficient, effective, and transparent governments will find themselves much better placed to help citizens and businesses to become more productive and engaged with the social fabric of their communities.

The columnist is group vice-president and regional managing director for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey at global ICT market intelligence and advisory firm International Data Corporation (IDC). He can be contacted via Twitter @JyotiIDC. Content for this week’s feature leverages global, regional, and local research studies undertaken by IDC.