With ample evidence of the role of digitisation in increasing citizen confidence and trust, government agencies must consider the foremost lever for the efficient administration of digital services: EUC virtualisation.
Over the past years, numerous studies have arrived at the common conclusion that digitisation improves citizen trust in government agencies and their initiatives.1, 2 Government bodies across the globe have undertaken rapid digital transformation initiatives, and this has enhanced the citizen experience of public services.
However, with rising digital literacy levels and internet use, trust in digital governance has also suffered. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) data shows that governments are trusted less than businesses and NGOs – and this trust level declined further in 2022.3 This data is not surprising, because building trust in digital systems is difficult, and more so for government agencies that handle confidential citizen data and administer critical services, create employment opportunities, and offer public benefits.
The fact is, that digital governance prompts government agencies to act like technology-savvy organisations. To live up to the promise of ambitious initiatives like Digital India, government agencies must consider making strategic technology investments to achieve tactical outcomes across multiple areas – operational efficiency, citizen trust, and employee experience. As e-governance services are built on modern technologies like cloud, dynamic web apps, and service-oriented architectures, it is time to turn the focus on the inside. By adopting modern end-user computing solutions, government organisations can achieve a multifaceted impact while lowering their internal IT expenditure and management overheads.
Examining the gaps in the current government IT infrastructure
Digital governance services run on optimal information and communication technology systems. This not only includes the architecture and infrastructure underpinning digital services but also the IT systems of the entire organisation. These systems enable the delivery of end-to-end services to users.
While the private sector has invested considerably in upgrading its IT infrastructure to function effectively in the digital era, most government organisations still rely on legacy IT systems. This has led to a number of operational gaps that undermine the efficiency and speed of service delivery. Here are some of these key gaps:
- Dated access provisioning: Public agencies typically employ dated techniques to offer access to government network resources – like one-time device registration, and disallowing access to internet resources on government devices, even when it may help bridge knowledge gaps at work.
- Device purchase and upkeep expenses: Most organisations purchase expensive devices to support the technology needs of their employees. This creates expensive upgrade cycles and requires physical maintenance of devices.
- Gaps in policy compliance: Adherence to IT policies set by MEITY is not ensured by periodic audits, which leaves the potential for non-compliance at times.4
- Changing IT requirements: With the digitisation of governance systems and internal operations of public organisations, the IT requirements of organisations keep evolving over time. It becomes difficult to upgrade employee devices frequently, leaving performance issues unaddressed.
- Pivoting to new work models: As employees demand hybrid work, government agencies are unable to support these models as they still apply perimeter-based security strategies to safeguard critical data and resources.
EUC impact on digital governance initiatives
It is no secret that employees’ experience of workplace technology strongly impacts the customer experience in the commercial sector.5 In the public sector, things are not very different. Despite the digitisation of governance services, the computing resources of employees can become a major bottleneck in delivering these services.
Here are a few ways in which the EUC solutions adopted by a government organisation can impact its operations:
- Employee productivity: Suboptimal computing resources and end-user environments can directly affect their ability to execute their daily tasks. Low employee productivity affects the speed of service delivery.
- Citizen experience: Poor employee digital experience also has a strong impact on the citizen experience. Frustration with workplace technology can leave government employees exhausted, which affects their interactions with the consumers of their services.
- Cyber risk exposure: Inability to maintain complete oversight and control over end-user devices exposes sensitive data and government applications to threat actors. This erodes citizen trust and can potentially jeopardise critical services.
- IT expenditure: Lastly, legacy end-user computing solutions like dedicated physical machines pose high capital and operating expenses, and increase the burden on IT teams with already limited resources and bandwidth.
All of these factors slow down government digital transformation programs and introduce critical risks, which undermine the trust of citizens in public sector agencies and services.
Modernising EUC at government organisations with EUC virtualisation
Given EUC’s impact on governance digitisation programs, public organisations would find it prudent to exploit modern solutions that can help them mitigate critical challenges impeding these programs today. In the context of EUC, virtualisation represents one of the most valuable levers for achieving transparency, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness in e-governance.
EUC virtualisation solutions enable public sector organisations to offer secure and performant access to confidential government applications for their employees and contractors. With EUC virtualisation, government organisations can quickly modernise their workplace operations and ensure that the employees have access to the capabilities they need to deliver governance services at pace.
Here are a few key takeaways in which EUC virtualisation can help government organisations achieve these outcomes:
- With EUC virtualisation, government agencies can provision appropriate computing resources for employees, no matter what physical machine they are on. This eliminates the need for expensive upgrades and ensures compatibility with modern apps and services.
- IT administrators do not require physical access to employee devices to ensure compliance with security and usage policies. These include software updates, antivirus installation, etc.
- EUC virtualisation centralises employee access to confidential data and applications. Moreover, access details can be logged, enhancing transparency and citizen trust in government services.
- Lastly, EUC virtualisation solutions are typically deployed with security solutions like zero-trust network access, which enable isolation and role-based secure access in distributed application scenarios. This facilitates secure remote work and protection of distributed data and app architectures.
These success factors are already compelling government organisations in the United States to adopt EUC virtualisation solutions.6
Accops Digital Workspace: 360-degree virtualisation solution for government
Selecting an EUC provider is a tactical decision, and it must be made after thorough consideration and analysis of solutions available in the market. Local EUC providers are typically favoured by government organisations, because they offer greater control over their data.
Accops Digital Workspace is a home-grown EUC solution that has been designed by placing the IT requirements of government organisations at the front and center. It enables secure delivery of critical applications to employees on any device or network in a secure, monitored, and controlled manner.
One of the foremost advantages of Accops Digital Workspace is that it significantly reduces the complexity of VDI infrastructure by eliminating the need for multiple vendors and solutions from the VDI stack. This further lowers the management overheads of the IT teams. With integrated multifactor authentication, productivity monitoring, virtual desktop infrastructure, zero-trust access security, and logging, Digital Workspace fulfils each and every IT requirement of government organisations, especially in the Indian context.
This is why Accops is trusted by DRDO, MoD, Ministry of Home Affairs, NPCIL, CRPF, NIC, and ISRO. With Accops solutions, government organisations have found success in completing their digital transformation programs.
Accops Digital Workspace can do the same for your organisation, by enhancing operational efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing the security and trust in your services. See Digital Workspace in action by getting in touch with us today at contact@accops.com.