IDC Urges Govts’ To Adopt Best Practices for Digital Transformation

International Data Corporation (IDC) Government Insights recently released its first international benchmark study, ‘The Efficiency of Government IT Investment: An Econometric Comparison of European Countries- IDCGI #CEMA40558116’, saying that adopting best practices will help unleash digital transformation.

This IDC research paper combines data on government ICT spending with publicly available egovernment# international benchmarks.

As part of this research, a model is used to make ICT spending comparable with respect to a country's economic performance and population size.

European countries have starkly different levels of ICT spending, and the efficiency of this spending is increasingly being discussed, as the performance against various international egovernment benchmarks does not always correlate with the level of investment. This study, therefore, provides an opportunity for public sector stakeholders and vendors to:

Review how particular countries stand in terms of standardized ICT spending in comparison with their peers

Assess whether a country's overall spending is consistent with the outcomes in terms of international egovernment benchmarking

 See which countries are efficiently leveraging their ICT spending

The results of this analysis suggest that there are indeed measurable differences in the capabilities of countries to leverage their ICT spending. Additionally, it confirms that the level of spending to a large extent determines egovernment quality, even when controlled for population size and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

"Although the level of spending is important, what we see is that how you use that spending matters," said Jan Alexa, senior research analyst, IDC Government Insights, CEMA. "The results of our modeling hint at a major divergence across European countries in their ability to use IT spending efficiently to deliver the best egovernment services possible."