Why Government Offices are failing to adopt IT?
March 17, 2020 | DWAIPAYAN REGMI
It has been a while now that Government offices have been involved in implementing IT. From custom offices to transport offices – they have been making use of IT. It is important that with improvement and advancement over technology, the state moves ahead accordingly too. Because, at this time it is accepted that the use of IT not only simplifies the transaction but makes every action quick, reliable and efficient.
However, despite all advantages – Government related offices have been failing to make the best use of Information Technology in their daily practice. Here, we discuss the reasons why Government offices have been failing to adopt with IT in recent times. There lies no second question about the investment that these offices have been making over technologies. But, again they have been not achieving the expected level of productivity.
The following are the major reasons why the expected level of productivity is not obtained.
IT skills in staffs
Government Officials enter into the office through the preparation of Lok Sewa. The format of the exam is more about theoretical knowledge and does not prioritize practical sides around. As a result, with passive staff, new entrants without proper IT skills get entered. Again, the level of training that they receive will be from an advanced level. What the trainers fail to realize is that the new staffs lag in the basic level itself.
It is obvious that the older generation staff don’t have an idea about the IT skills required, but the newer generation equally fails in these. They can’t handle normal issues if they appear – from fixing printer, networking to other basic kinds of stuff which are out of their normal routine. Again, if any upgrading takes place – they have to struggle for a while to get adopted with the update thereby.
Friendly Software
The next issue that makes IT a burden in Government Offices is the outlook of the software. The software should have been friendly and comfortable enough, but they are designed in a complicated pattern. The software provider seems to be least concerned about the target user, and hence they make it as per their ease. They expect the users to get familiar with the software rather than building a friendly software.
So, the software prepared and used in these offices is generally tedious and lengthy in the process creating complexities more than ease. Here, the flow of work gets affected because of the same. This software is built in such a manner where a layman would take a large time to get adapted to it. Hence, the objective of using IT in these offices get a reverse reaction than positive.
Network Issues
It should be understood about why quality products don’t appear around during the Government Tender process. And, there lies issues in problems among wires, networking devices like MODEM, router or switch time and again. Despite high investment over it – they keep on failing around. Also, slow internet makes the flow lengthy. The software is not designed in a way where it could operate with minimum internet speed resulting in troublesome environment time and again.
Unlike the banking sector, there would not be any backup of secondary internet either – where if one fails the other could operate. Hence, customers get affected all around. There is a different side about all the dust and dirt present welcoming mouse and spider to block the transferring web as well.
Hardware Issues
Hardware is an important portion that counts in the IT sector. Recently, the local levels are all gifted with fresh, young and talented staff. However, there are not sufficient levels of hardware supplies around. This has resulted in trouble creating an environment for them to operate with. Local levels themselves seem to be confused – if it is them who should work for the infrastructure, or if province will allocate budget for them, confusing for these fresh people. There might be a computer, but they should keep rushing to the next PC for printing, again the next one for scanning. Apart, the old hardware without much maintenance seems to be creating trouble for them.
Software Bugs
Bugs are the errors that appear during the time of operation. The software developer should timely check over it, but this error has been troubling a lot. Failure inaccurate calculation of decimals, sometimes a failure in storing data – they have been creating trouble one way or the other hereby. These bugs should have been quickly fixed, but a tedious and lengthy process in this itself seems to be creating the same mistake time and again.
Conclusion
It is important to move ahead with technological speed. However, the use of technology rather seems to be burden filled. And, there seems to be variation across for the same. While a region provides printed citizenship, the next region still works with the manual. The same is the case with land and property documents. Uniformity must be created. Proper training to staff and wise investment would prove to be productive hereby.
