Transforming public utilities: how digitalisation is the next progression for society

GITEX GLOBAL is the largest event for global enterprise and government technology, with public digital transformation top of the agenda. Though different countries had slightly different priorities, they were all rebuilding from the pandemic through initiatives in three areas:

• Digital public utilities, which include e-services for essentials such as gas, water, and communication systems
• Digital economy initiatives, such as lowering the barriers to entry for businesses to transform and expand
• Digital society, focusing on simplifying citizen-government interactions  

The blueprint for national digital transformation

Huawei’s Global Chief Public Services Industry Scientist, Hong-Eng Koh, detailed Huawei’s long involvement in digital transformation.

“Over the past decade, Huawei has been involved in over 700 cities and 100 countries in terms of public services and transformation. And we’ve noticed certain similarities required for public service digital transformation to be successful,” says Koh.

Government agencies tasked with digital transformation projects should keep some key considerations in mind to ensure success. Koh further outlined seven questions transformation leaders should ask themselves:

1. Do you have a vision and a champion that can drive the transformation?
2. Have you identified the department, governor, and process to implement the transformation? If none are suitable, can you create a department dedicated to it?
3. Do you know which laws and regulations are impacted by the transformation?
4. Have you planned for an operating model that is sustainable from a budget standpoint?
5. Do you have the right skillsets/talent in place to execute the transformation?
6. Do you have a digital and data strategy in place?
7. Do you have the right technology ecosystem to support transformation?

Developing the technology ecosystem

Huawei’s experience in public digital transformation projects has given it a leading position in the technology ecosystem that supports them. “Data is a new crude oil. By itself, it has no value. At Huawei, we have the end-to-end technologies to process the data and extract value from it,” Koh explains.

It’s important to select a full-stack tech vendor that can support all the foundational elements of transformed business processes. This includes data awareness technologies, such as Wi-Fi 6, LTE, and IoT platforms that provide the mesh of communication technologies across wide areas to efficiently collect data from sensors across the community.

Transmitting data to edge processing points and central data centres also needs to be both high-performing and cost-efficient. Huawei supports more than 50% of global national backbones and last-mile connectivity.

In the zettabyte era where data growth is unprecedented, Huawei builds data centres and other essential computing infrastructure—in particular, storage—to provide a robust infrastructure that efficiently supports the data.

However, as Koh pointed out, data will only deliver value when processed and refined. On that end, Huawei offers the software (such as database-as-a-service, security-as-a-service, and computing-as-a-service) the platform (cloud with AI), and the advanced services such as AI and ML frameworks to support and speed up the data processing process, and reduce time-to-value.

The digital transformation imperative

 The recent pandemic has served as a catalyst to advance the business case for digitisation of governments globally. And with citizens having experienced how digital has enabled a semblance of normalcy during lockdowns and border closures, they will only continue demanding for more efficient and digital government delivery that can ultimately enhance their way of life.

As a result, leading governments that have embraced this opportunity are reaping the benefits of improved productivity, shorter lead times to action community requests, reduced rates of error, and improved workforce and community satisfaction.

Find out more at HUAWEI CONNECT 2022

Accelerate your government’s digital transformation agenda by attending HUAWEI CONNECT 2022 in Bangkok, Dubai, Paris, or Shenzhen.

Learn how enterprise, ecosystem partners, application providers, and developers can work best together to lead best practice industry development and build an open, sound ecosystem.

Join us there to Unleash Digital. For more information, visit https://www.huawei.com/en/events/huaweiconnect