GovTech over BigTech

Whether in healthcare, public services or energy transition, many organizations face the same problems, such as staff shortages, bureaucracy and complexity. All of these problems have similar digitalization puzzles: How can automation combat staff shortages? How can data exchange between different sectors reduce bureaucracy? How can digitalization help reduce complexity? 

“One problem, however, is that the technology that can be used for this purpose is developed by companies for consumers or for other companies, and not primarily for the government”, says Marijn Janssen, professor of ICT and Governance at TUD. “The government must also include public values such as fairness and equality, while these are of much less importance to a company striving to maximize profits. Some companies use consumers to experiment on how their product does or does not work well. The government can't do that.” 

Digicampus 

For years, when the government wanted to deploy technology for service delivery, it issued a tender to which companies could bid. The winner of the tender went on to develop the technology, but then the government was stuck with that one vendor. 

To encourage a more collaborative and public value-oriented way of technology development for government, Digicampus, an innovation collaboration between government, business and science, was established in 2019. 

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