The study, Gov. on the Go: Boosting Public-Sector Productivity by Going Mobile, claims that if mobile adoption rates in government were to double to 70 percent, the public sector could see increased revenue of over $50 billion. Though the past year has seen the introduction of an app to help California veterans navigate their benefits, and another app to reduce waiting times at the DMV by making appointments and allowing digital access to certain documents, the study found that there are many more improvements to be made.
The report highlights three key areas where mobile technology could increase productivity: mobile government workers, increased citizen services, and working with companies and other third parties to develop ways to access publicly available data.
"The state of California has a unique opportunity to leverage mobile technology to increase productivity, especially with so much mobile innovation happening right in Silicon Valley" said Jason Salzetti, Deloitte’s national State government mobile leader.
In the seven steps the report outlines to help the public sector make mobile technology standard, Salzetti particularly emphasized adopting a "mobile first" approach and to focus on the end user in order to make navigating state government bureaucracy more efficient.
"We’ve seen numerous commercial mobile apps really streamline and simplify user interactions," Salzetti said. "The most effective mobile apps come from taking an end user perspective — thinking through what they want and what the best way is to deliver a simple user experience to them."
In a recent call for innovation, one example of an app that Deloitte found demand for was an expectant mother app that helps pregnant woman use the many state services available to them, including genetic disease screening, pre- and post-natal screening, and paid family leave.
However, the expectant mother app would also expose a challenge the government would face in making such a service: the many different departments and agencies involved in these services would have to be brought together into a single app.
Despite the governance challenges, the report concludes that the public sector will be better able to serve the population by adapting more quickly to mobile technology.
Other findings in the report included:
- Mobile data access can help police officers save 30 minutes every day. Assuming half of the 636,410 officers in the U.S. lack access to this technology, adopting it could save them more than 50 million hours or $1.3 billion.
- Greater mobile adoption by caseworkers could result in a 45 percent increase in productive time, and 57 million additional hours of services to the community annually.
- The average American wastes 3.5 to 14 minutes a day looking for parking, or up to 85 hours a year. Mobile parking apps can help citizens save this time, worth about $391 billion to the economy.
