Public Sector Innovation
Digital transformation
in Provincial
governments
How provincial governments are taking control of their digitization and driving true innovation with no-code
Government Reputations
Reputations are meant to be broken
Government organizations have a tough time compared to businesses in the private sector. Budget restrictions, bureaucracy, and complex core systems are massive hurdles that projects must overcome to see the light of day. It's this red-tape that places modernization on the backburner and has left governments with a reputation as outdated, slow, and frustrating to work with for citizens and investors alike.
Unfortunately, the traditional challenges aren't going anywhere because strict processes are a necessity in government. This is why innovators within the sector are embracing technologies like no-code, which provide smart solutions to everyday challenges, rather than attempting to bypass established processes.
By addressing the core issues of software projects such as complexity, time-to-market, and cost, no-code is allowing a very traditional sector to rapidly modernize core systems or even create new lines of business to serve increasingly digital-focused citizens.
Public Sector
Redefining the Standard for Modern Governance
Changing the status-quo
Governments are held to an extremely high standard by investors and citizens which means strict procedures are an absolute must.
For projects both in and outside of IT, the approval process is lengthy, with bureaucracy and budget limitations preventing any major development from ever even being considered.
Instead, third-party solutions that only cover 70-80% of a government's needs are implemented as quick wins that only add to monthly costs and cut into already limited budgets.
Challenges in government
Regulatory red-tape limits communication between developers and innovative thinkers
Large scale projects have limited buy-in from investors
Return on investment is difficult to quantify
Wide-spread "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" mentality
±70% of IT budget is dedicated to maintaining legacy systems
Data-Driven Design
What are the key innovation drivers?
Competition isn’t exactly a motivating factor for the government sector. Rather, innovation is driven by the demand for more effective systems and processes to improve municipalities, cities, or lifestyles as a whole. Advanced technologies are therefore more focused on bettering experiences and optimizing processes across the board — while driving down costs, of course.
Administrative Efficiency
How Zaanstad made sustainable innovation possible with no-code
When the city of Zaanstad required a new system for its youth care services, senior information manager Tom Uleman saw an opportunity to invest in future-proofing the organization's infrastructure. Tom explained the city's frustration in being reliant on third-party tooling: “We had a vision on how youth services should be handled in the region but no available software could support this vision. The application didn’t exist yet.”
The solution
So Tom and his team decided to develop it for themselves using Betty Blocks’ no-code platform. They had the first version of the application in just 10 days. Once live, the application increased administrative efficiency for youth care programs by 40%. And where the GWS system required 10 backend developers to operate, Zaanstad now only needs 4 to maintain.
The initial youth care application was so successful that the City of Zaanstad has now replaced a total of 7 core applications with Betty Blocks in 3 years. Today, the change has them rethinking how they approach their IT projects entirely and enables them to keep innovation at the forefront of the sector. “It’s about doing and experimenting,” says Tom.
Development Velocity
80% faster development speed
No-code played an integral role for Tom Uleman in making sure this and future software projects could be undertaken despite the usual constraints in the sector. Where traditional development would have taken 11 months and incurred the cost of full-stack programmers, Tom’s no-code solution took just 1.5 months from start to finish. Combined with zero maintenance requirements, Zaanstad not only saved budget on the development, but saves €620.000 annually in operational costs.
No-Code Innovation
No-code in the government sector
Zaanstad isn’t the only city embracing RAD tools like no-code to rapidly modernize its IT infrastructure. The Netherlands has new provisions like Common Ground to facilitate large scale data sharing while the Smart Region Consortium in the USA is implementing Internet of Things (IoT)-based solutions across entire states. How are governments making this happen while some private companies are struggling? Let’s take a look at what Betty Blocks does to make it all possible:
01
Shorter time-to-market
For the government sector, a shorter time-to-market means less tax-payer resources spent in development while new services such as community portals and IoT infrastructure can be rolled out more frequently.
02
100% cloud-based
Because Betty Blocks operates 100% in the cloud, it sets you up to start reaping the benefits that cloud-computing offers right from the get-go. It also means security remains paramount, with instant and automated updates across all applications.
03
Fast, easy integration
Betty Blocks ensures governments can innovate without limits while keeping core systems completely intact. Powered by modern technology like GraphQL, nothing needs to be dismantled in place of new systems ever again.
Analysis
Recognized by analysts
Betty Blocks is named as a Strong Performer in the Forrester Wave™: Low-Code Platforms For Business Developers, Q2 2019
Betty Blocks Named a Visionary in Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms
Betty Blocks is named as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Mobile Low-Code Platforms for Business Developers, Q3 2018
Development
Government and citizen development
With Betty Blocks' drag-and-drop interface, municipal workers or even citizens can contribute to building innovative software solutions.
Architectural Freedom
Enterprise-grade certainty
With powerful no-code tools and the flexibility to implement advanced code, no application or tool is out of reach. The only limit is your imagination.
What Now?
Future-Ready Governance
‘Smart’ is a word that gets thrown around a lot in governments. Smart cities, smart waste management, smart systems… you name it. This is the vision that nations around the world are striving towards and with smarter tools like Betty Blocks at their side, the mission is far closer to becoming a reality than ever before.
Making the change happen will depend on whether innovative minds are able to prove the potential of non-traditional technologies to do the exceptional for governments and citizens alike.
Read our government-focused whitepaper to uncover specific examples of organizations that have made true innovation possible with no-code.