Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Grigorenko instructed to develop a unified system for assessing the effectiveness of digitalization programs for federal ministries and departments. He voiced this task during a meeting with digital transformation leaders in federal government agencies.
As part of this work, federal RCTs must submit proposals for assessment parameters that will measure the results of digital transformation. Such “effects” of digitalization may include, for example, a reduction in monetary and time costs or the quality of services provided to citizens.
The task is to assess the real “effect” of introducing digital technologies in public administration. This will clearly define areas for further development. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute of the Information Society Yuri Hohlov presented an expert commentary on this matter.
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The development of the information society today means socio-economic changes that occur due to the use of digital technologies on the scale of a country, region or an area of activity, be it a branch of the economy, a social sector or a system of public administration and local government. It is no coincidence that one of the national development goals of the Russian Federation until 2030 is digital transformation, or more precisely, digital development that brings economic and social dividends. The complexity of the studied socio-technological system of digital development lies not only in modeling the processes of innovative development (from production through use to impact) based on digital technologies, but also in the need to create conditions that contribute to the successful functioning of these processes.
It is commendable that the federal government will monitor and evaluate the level of digital transformation of federal government bodies, focusing on the impact that digital technologies have on their activities. However, in order to draw the right conclusions and make management decisions based on monitoring and evaluation, it is necessary to take into account not only the final effects, but also a large number of factors that are not always technological in nature. A similar integrated approach has been implemented in recent years by the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia when assessing the level of digital transformation of priority areas of activity, including the public administration system. Pilot monitoring (based on a limited set of indicators based on Rosstat data) showed that the public administration system is inferior to such areas of activity as financial services, trade or higher education in terms of the socio-economic effects obtained from digital transformation. And the reasons for this are not only the low level of use of digital technologies (especially such as artificial intelligence or big data analytics), but also the lack of qualified personnel, the absence of large volumes of data in digital form, poorly developed digital infrastructure, and other factors. Therefore, a unified system for assessing the effectiveness of digitalization programs for federal government bodies should be comprehensive and allow monitoring all stages of the digital development life cycle and the factors influencing these processes.
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For more detail refer to Cnews publication.