U.S. Agencies Embrace Services to Modernize Workplaces

State, local and educational organizations facing changes in employee and citizen expectations are sourcing new capabilities, ISG Provider Lens™ report says

Governments and educational institutions in the U.S. are adopting more digital workplace services in response to changing employee and constituent needs, according to a new research report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2023 ISG Provider Lens™ Future of Work (Workplace) Services report for the U.S. public sector finds that major developments over the past few years, including remote work modes introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, a wave of retirements and an influx of federal funds to pay for digital transformation, have changed the game for workplace technologies at U.S. state, local and educational (SLED) organizations.

“The public sector has an unprecedented need and opportunity to modernize the workplace,” said Nathan Frey, partner and lead, ISG Public Sector, in the U.S. “The advances SLED organizations are making through sourcing will improve the experiences of both employees and the constituents they serve.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic, remote work has quickly gone from an experiment to a necessity, while online has become the default mode for most members of the public to engage with government, the report says. SLED organizations have accelerated cloud migrations, making cloud IT the norm for many, and have adopted an expanding array of digital services and tools for collaboration and communication.

Public agencies have grown more interested in using automation and AI to address employee shortages, augmenting and in some cases replacing staff positions in areas such as IT support, ISG says. Some are experimenting with AI-powered chatbots for employee and constituent support, while advanced data analytics has become essential to improving processes. By partnering with leading providers, they can now start to take advantage of large language models to extend their analytics capabilities.

The public sector’s expanding use of the cloud and mobile devices to enable remote work has raised some cybersecurity and data privacy concerns after quick, loosely controlled implementations of mobile applications and web interfaces during the pandemic created security nightmares for some organizations, the report says. This trend, along with increasing regulation, is driving more agencies to impose stronger security measures across increasingly complex hybrid IT and work environments.

“Cybersecurity is still a steep challenge for SLED organizations,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “By integrating security in their offerings, especially managed services, providers are introducing broad, adaptable security capabilities.”

The report also explores other public-sector workplace trends, including the need to integrate new tools with legacy systems and scale services up and down as workloads change.

For more insights into the workplace challenges facing SLED organizations, including how to manage a range of devices, along with ISG’s advice on addressing them, see the ISG Provider Lens™ Focal Points briefing here.

The 2023 ISG Provider Lens™ Future of Work (Workplace) Services report for the U.S. public sector evaluates the capabilities of 30 providers across three quadrants: Employee Experience (EX) Transformation Services, Managed Workplace Services – End-User Technology, and Digital Service Desk and Workplace Support Services.

The report names Accenture, Infosys, Kyndryl and Unisys as Leaders in all three quadrants. It names CGI as a Leader in two quadrants and Deloitte, KPMG, NTT DATA and Tech Mahindra as Leaders in one quadrant each.

In addition, HCLTech is named as a Rising Star — a companies with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition — in two quadrants. DXC Technology and Zones are named as Rising Stars in one quadrant each.

Customized versions of the report are available from NTT DATA and Zones.

The 2023 ISG Provider Lens™ Future of Work (Workplace) Services report for the U.S. public sector is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.

About ISG Provider Lens™ Research

The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe, as well as in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, the U.K., France, Benelux, Germany, Switzerland, the Nordics, Australia and Singapore/Malaysia, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.

A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 900 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,600 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.

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