According to Gartner IT Glossary terminology, “Digitization is the process of change from analogue to digital form, also known as digital empowerment, in other words digital transformation takes an analog process and changes it to digital without any different changes in the process itself.
The concept of digital transformation expresses a conceptual development from mechanization to automation. Mechanization provides for the use of human muscles while automation provides for the use of human judgment, and mechanization displaces physical labor, while automation removes mental work as well.
Automation is the replacement of human thinking with computers, machines, and expert systems, and it can help create jobs for skilled workers at the expense of unskilled and semi-skilled workers.
Reasons for the need for digital transformation
The need for digital transformation in the provision of government services came for several reasons, including:
The need to get rid of the genetic component of the bureaucracy that impedes the provision of government services, which the electronic transformation has not been able to get rid of.
The need for compatibility with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (AI systems / expert systems / virtual organizations)
The need for a model for rational / smart public administration that manages sustainable development, and that applies e-governance in terms of accountability, transparency and participation between service recipients and service providers.
Requirements for digital transformation
There are several requirements for digital transformation, the most prominent of which are:
The digital strategy is the beginning, not technology, as some believe, and this is what recent studies have proven.
Adherence to digital transformation principles such as: senior management commitment, setting ambitious and clear goals, securing financial investments to launch the transformation, starting quick-incentive projects, appointing a transformation launch team, and conducting the necessary organization for new and agile ways of working (by creating a digital unit in the organizational structure).
Promoting a digital culture that goes beyond everyday business in digital work - it describes something broader and more accurate than that, and it includes appreciation, exploration and shared enjoyment of various digital tools, environments and facts that provide information about work and facilitate its doing; This requires building the necessary momentum to bring about the desired cultural change.
Cyber security, which is broader than cybersecurity; Where the cybersecurity approach possesses multiple layers of protection across computers, networks, programs or data to maintain their integrity in any public organization; This provides safe use of the Internet and various other networks.
Building digital capabilities (updating information technology to play a strategic role).
Adopting a new operating model for management in governmental organizations that is in line with the general principles of digital management and with the privacy of government organizations in the context of their local environment.
Digital Transformation Challenges
While the transition towards digital government faces several challenges, the most prominent of which are:
Providing the necessary financial resources to establish a high-tech infrastructure.
Dealing with the increasing volume of unemployment due to the application of artificial intelligence and expert systems, through large programs for transformational training.
Digital illiteracy among many of the public of those dealing with governmental organizations.
