Digital Government Transformation: Infosys and Adobe on Citizen-Centric Innovation

Ajay Thukral:

Hi, I'm Ajay Thukral and I am CTO of Infosys Public Services. Today I am speaking with Chris Lim, Senior Evangelist for State and Local Government at Adobe. Chris is at the forefront of helping government modernize their digital services. We'll be talking about what it takes to build truly citizen-centric digital experiences. Welcome, Chris.

Chris Lim:

Thank you, AJ. It's a pleasure to be here sharing this time with you.

Ajay Thukral:

So Chris, based on our experience, what is your vision of digital government and how can agencies best achieve it?

Chris Lim:

My vision for government in digital itself is very simple. It's rooted in three principles. It has to be connected. It has to be data-driven. And more importantly, it has to be citizen first or constituent first. In that vernacular, it has to bring a seamless experience, frictionless, but more important, impactful. Now for me, when I think about digital government, digital government is a piece of the puzzle. There are many pieces in there when we look at what enables that. For me, it is an all-of-government approach. You have the digital infrastructure that needs to be part of it. You need the digital society. You need the digital economy. You need digital security and, finally, digital government. And all these five pieces are what I believe enables an all-of-government approach as it relates to digital.

And AJ, actually let me ask you this. When it comes to those five components, I'm really curious on your perspective about digital security. And how can government make it safer and make it easy? Because bad actors are always out there in the marketplace trying to derail what government wants to do for their constituents. What have you seen out there for digital security?

Ajay Thukral:

I think cybersecurity is the major concern for all the governments nowadays and we know that the way the AI is advantage or there are many other constituents has come up. It's very easy to imitate an attack to the government infrastructure and any business-critical services are getting affected once we have a cyber-attack happening. So those days are gone when we have to plan for cybersecurity as the aftermath of the situation. Now we have to plan the cybersecurity as we design the systems.

So at Infosys we always try to make sure that we plan the cybersecurity at the start of the engagement. We follow the policies of security by design. We follow the privacy by design guidelines and overall cybersecurity is embedded in the complete SDLC of our program. We make sure that at the start of the program we capture all the security requirements and the design we capture some of the security design guidelines and then we test it with the penetration testing to ensure that the security is properly there. And all of this is augmented by constantly monitoring our security systems and ensuring that whenever any new technologies or new services are coming, we always implement or patch our systems to make sure that we always stay at the forefront of the cybersecurity side of it.

So Chris, could you provide a success story of a government agency using innovative digital tools to streamline operations and measure outcomes?

Chris Lim:

Oh, definitely. In fact, there are plenty of who, in my experience of working with government agencies, both at the federal, state level, where they actually have seen success. But let me share a few. Now, one, back in 2020, the US Census had to conduct their census. We were actually part of the enabling technology behind that event. And that was actually the first time where they have brought digital into the census. The estimate is that for every 1% of the interviews that they can move online, it delivers an immediate impact of about $55 million savings. That is huge. Plus, a lot of us prefer to do it online than having someone come in or we have to fill up a paperwork.

Now another one that I can speak to very well is actually a state not too far from us where the digital government, the transformation was actually led at the very senior level, the governor themself. And they brought a cohesive branding and also consistency in how a resident would interact with their digital properties. Now what that really translated into from a results-oriented, we were able to provide the analytics that showed that any residents, if they're searching for government service, they will find it in less than two clicks. And that is so crucial where they are not figuring out what to do. And sometimes when you turn to government, you're at a point, you're at a midnight hour when you need help. Getting that to them very quickly is so crucial in making sure that their lives can get better. And then I've got so many more that I can share. But, it is so meaningful what we do to help government deliver services to their residents and constituents in a digital way.

Ajay Thukral:

Chris, what are the biggest hurdle in digitizing government services like business permits and legal documents and what technological strategies are best suited to address them?

Chris Lim:

I'm glad you asked that question. In my role as a senior evangelist, I work with many chief information officers, chief digital officers. And what they have expressed as a big hurdle is the silo, that the agencies and the departments are so siloed that data sharing can become very cumbersome. Now, I get the reasons why, but the data has been one of the challenges.

Now if I want to elevate that conversation a little bit higher because again I have the opportunity to interact with governors, lieutenant governors and legislature. What I've seen to bring about an all-of-government transformation is alignment at the very senior level. My personal experience and data suggest that when we have the governor or lieutenant governor or the cabinet secretary behind it, that transformation becomes so much more deeper and impactful that it really brings about a monumental shift in how whatever services, whether it's permitting, is actually delivered to the residents or the businesses.

Now let me turn it back to you as a premier system integrator. How have you seen some of those challenges or the opportunities that have come from improving those services around business permits and licensing?

Ajay Thukral:

See when we implement this kind of services we have seen at the state and government side of it many of the systems are the legacy systems. The technology debt is increased. We have seen new and new technologies are coming. So if you look into the procurement on the government side of it, procurement happens in silos. And when the silos procurement happens there are multiple packages government is having.

And if you look into the technology landscape of any government agency you find it all the systems, some are new, some are old, and all the technologies pieces are working together to provide the government services. And as a system integrator, as a challenge always remains is how to integrate all the systems. Some of the protocols are not matching, some of the data APIs are not matching, some of the connectors are not working. So we have to make sure that whatever the data that seamlessly flow through each and every system will be available to end customers.

And from that perspective, we always make sure when we design our systems or when we implement our systems we think it is a technology agnostic approach and we know that the technology components are keep changing they keep evolving and when we design our architecture we design our solutions we make sure that even if some of the components we have to replace it change it our systems or critical services will not fall and that's the methodology we always follow to ensure that we will not only provide the scalability to our systems but will provide the necessary robustness to the government efficient critical services.

Ajay Thukral:

So given the need for engaging digital government services, how do you ensure creativity aligns with accessibility and compliance?

Chris Lim:

Well, I'm glad you asked that. Accessibility is such an important topic. And it's actually personal to me as well. But let's talk about the numbers. There are reports out there that suggest that in the US alone, over a quarter of the population here has some type of disability. And government being a government for all has to cater to everyone.

In my line of work, we have seen even residents that still prefer paper mail to them. And that's OK. We need to accommodate for that. From an accessibility standpoint, I truly believe that it has to be part of the value. It has to be part of the ethos of any organization, any government, a software company, or a services company like Infosys. What we have done here at Adobe is to really incorporate that into who we are. That is emphasized very importantly, even in our product level. And it's not just about publishing the VPAT compliance that shows how you're doing it, but actually demonstrate both how you enable it.

For example, in some of the latest solutions that we are rolling out there, where you can actually use text to create an image, where you can actually build in software translation so that people who have an accessibility challenge can still be part of that digital economy that we are all in.

Chris Lim:

Now, AJ, let me turn it back to you. Your team, the whole organization, you're at the ground level working with government agencies in the US and across the world. How have you seen the implementation be done in such a way that 508 compliance is at the front of it and not just an afterthought?

Ajay Thukral:

Look Chris, great question. So, when we are implementing any of the technology solutions, so we know that any government solution, we are implementing it in multiple platforms. And some of these platforms are VPAT compliant, and each platform has a different level of accessibility needs. And when we are issuing these platforms to the citizens' perspective, citizens have certain needs, and for that, you have to customize some of these platforms. And when we are customizing these platforms, some of the accessibility needs are sometimes compromised.

So, we have to ensure that whatever the accessibility guidelines we have set it for citizen-centered perspective, we are meeting those things. So we try to adapt some of the technology tools like Compliance Sheriff or JAWS kind of tools and automatic tools we bring it on the table to ensure that we comply with the initial guidelines part of it. But once we move into the second step of the implementation, we always ensure that we have the people with the specialty needs come on table and start using the system. Because that's where you get the real user feedback.

And although we talk about the VPAT reports and all those reports perspective, but actual user accessing the system will give the feedback what is necessary. So Infosys, when we are trying to make sure that we are implementing 508 compliance perspective, we ensure not only the automatic tools have been leveraged, but also the human feedback can also be incorporated in our solutions to ensure that we meet not only the accessibility standards, but also meet the 508 government regulations also.

Chris Lim:

AJ, I'm so glad you mentioned that because even in our software development process, we co-create with the community in terms of how the creative community is actually using and interacting with our software. And we bring in people that may have some visual challenges or other areas and make sure that their feedback is actually incorporated as part of our product development life cycle as well. Great.

Ajay Thukral:

So Chris, moving to the next question, what impact will emerging technologies have on the future citizen user experience and expectations in the government?

Chris Lim:

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. I think when we start looking at the emerging technologies, I do see a hockey-stick curve coming in how government can accelerate the delivery and transformation of services to their constituents and stakeholders. Now, we talk about AI, right? I think in government that's going to be huge, where you could actually leverage agentic AI to start becoming more proactive and not just a Q&A type session, but incorporating those thinking in there. Now there are certain guardrails we want to put in place so that it's doing good. That's key.

Ajay Thukral:

Thanks Chris for the insights and for the work you are doing to make government more connected, efficient and citizen first. Great talking with you.

Chris Lim:

And AJ, thank you so much for this opportunity to come and just share this thing. I'm really looking forward to how government looks like in the next decade.