Key Takeaways

• Although the public services industry has made progress in digitalization, the sector is still slow to adopt and innovate new technologies and reach citizens effectively.

• The primary difference between a modern or headless CMS and a traditional or legacy CMS is that the headless CMS decouples the content repository (back-end) from the presentation layer (front-end), freeing developers to use whatever technology they want and giving marketing users infinitely customizable tools.

• Advanced personalization is the answer to solving government digital experience challenges for all audiences, including citizens and public employees.

• Only a modern or headless CMS can help deliver truly advanced personalized experiences because of its flexibility.

• If you’re looking for built-in personalization and also want to make a more strategic investment, consider a DXP that also includes a modern CMS.

The Public Sector Still Needs Better Digital Experiences

A decade ago, Director of the London Office of Technology & Innovation Eddie Copeland asked: “What if public services could be more like Amazon’s?” Unfortunately, ten years later, many working in government are still asking the same question, as digital transformation efforts around the world lag behind other industries that have less red tape and more investing power. 

A recent survey of 1,400 government leaders on how digital solutions are improving efficiency uncovered areas of significant growth as well as remaining challenges. We've included a few insights from that survey below.

Areas of Growth

• Engagement. Now, almost 70% of government program engagement practitioners are interacting with citizens on digital platforms.

• Operations. Digitalization is making strides in areas like community meetings or forums, record management, and transparency.

• Service delivery. Form completion is up by 80%, and citizens are flocking to take advantage of self-service for bill payment, permit applications, and more.

Remaining Challenges

• Engagement. Many citizens are still underserved digitally, limiting the overall effectiveness of public services websites.

• Operations. Public records have increased in complexity by more than 50% in the last five years alone as a result of an uptick in requests and larger file sizes. Plus, 80% of government agencies don’t offer basic accessibility options like closed captioning during public meetings.

• Service delivery. Newer tools including automation and AI have not yet been meaningfully integrated into digital technology. Citizens are also clamoring for better experiences, but agencies frequently lack the internal resources to fulfill those demands.

More critical than these challenges, however, is often that the digital foundation of the solutions themselves is inadequate and difficult to maintain.

Legacy Technology: A Crumbling Digital Foundation

According to a 2023 report, the US government by itself spends $100 billion on IT—a staggering economic investment. And of this number, “agencies have typically reported spending about 80 percent on operations and maintenance of existing IT, including legacy systems.” This even includes systems that have known security vulnerabilities and are out of support.

Almost unbelievably, the report found that in some cases, systems have technology components that are at least 50 years old.

This technology gap and lack of modernization isn’t just affecting low-value systems with minimal risk. Some of the most critical governmental systems are built on outdated and/or insecure technologies.

If you’re working in public administration or in a private business subject to governmental regulation, these difficulties with legacy systems may represent a disheartening, all-too-familiar refrain. How can you meet the Amazon-like demands of your citizens, business partners, suppliers, and employees with a faulty or compromised digital foundation?

What Is a Modern CMS?

A modern Content Management System (CMS) can help you repair or even replace your digital foundation so you can create better, more secure web experiences and step into the future of public services. 

A CMS is technology that allows users to create, edit, and manage content easily with minimal or no coding, prioritizing user-friendly functionality. Content Management Systems help you decrease go-to-market and allocate your IT resources more effectively. A modern or headless CMS is specifically designed to take this user-friendly functionality a step further. 

The main distinction between a headless CMS and a traditional or legacy CMS is the way that content ultimately gets presented to the user. With a legacy CMS, the back-end and front-end are tightly coupled together - in fact, a legacy CMS is often referred to as monolithic, because all the content creation, file storage, management, and presentation are handled in the same place. Over time, this can make a legacy CMS hard to maintain. 

A modern CMS, on the other hand, de-couples the front and back ends. Modern CMSes use APIs to send content to any front-end application – e.g., website, mobile applications, kiosks, wearable devices.

Modern CMSes v. Traditional or Legacy CMSes

This difference has significant implications in outcomes on the user and agency levels.

In some public sector scenarios, a traditional or legacy CMS may still be a good option:

• Small or medium-sized departments or agencies with websites that have limited scaling needs and can benefit from easy setup.

• Websites that are primarily content-driven, like a news site or education platform.

• Solutions that need to launch fast with pre-built themes and plugins.

Personalization as the Key to Improving Digital Experiences in Public Services

Most websites built for public services, however, have more complex, unique needs and can benefit from the flexibility of a modern CMS rather than a traditional CMS to capture citizen interests and engagement.

In order to do so effectively, a modern CMS must be combined with the cornerstone of great citizen experiences, personalization. A Deloitte survey discovered that “personalized service was the most important factor among respondents for driving customer satisfaction.”

That’s another major advantage of modern or headless CMSes: they enable truly advanced personalization through integration with the right tools.

What Is Advanced Personalization?

Personalization, or using data to tailor content to user preferences and interests, is everything in public services as an industry that deals with so many aspects of people’s personal lives from birth onward. 

With personalization as with other areas of digitalization, however, the public services industry is racing to catch up. As McKinsey notes, “federal government services rank near or at the bottom in customer experience ratings, with most customers rating their experience as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor.’”

Open Text also points out that “Personalization not only offers a better citizen experience, it can deliver the holy grail of agile, low cost operations.”

Basic personalization, however, is no longer enough. Governments need to tap into technology that offers advanced personalization capabilities. Understanding the user through data involves collecting real-time information on, for example:

• Demographics like the user’s age and location.

• Behavior across your websites, including search history, clicks, and downloads.

• Preferences like interests the user has selected and language.

• Context, including device type and when the solution gets accessed. 

For example: if one of your citizens often searches information about property taxes, advanced personalization capabilities enable you to show resources like payment options, news about upcoming tax changes, or alerts regarding deadlines. 

Advanced personalization keeps citizens on your site longer, because they see content and options that fit their needs instantly. The most sophisticated implementation of personalization becomes the “government for one,” where every citizen gets exactly the information and resources they need when they need them. 

Are Advanced Personalization and Hyper-Personalization the Same Thing?

You may have also heard of hyper-personalization. For the most part, advanced personalization and hyper-personalization are interchangeable terms. Sometimes, hyper-personalization is used specifically to describe the use of data in real time and artificial intelligence, but this also applies to advanced personalization.

Why a Modern CMS Is the Only Way to Deliver Truly Advanced Personalization

We mentioned that modern CMSes are flexible. Because of their ability to offer omnichannel experiences, modern CMSes can deliver personalized experiences to every user, everywhere.

Unlike traditional or legacy CMSes, which may either not come with personalization at all or only offer inadequate capabilities, headless CMSes allow you to integrate with the personalization technology of your choice. 

Four Audiences Advanced Personalization Helps

Advanced personalization, as implemented in a modern CMS, has a broad range of applications for everyone working in or interacting with public services. Citizens and public administration employees benefit from advanced personalization in solutions like a citizen portal and intranet, while agencies and policymakers can use advanced personalization capabilities to improve efficiency and better understand their audiences.

In short, advanced personalization is at the core of positive digital experiences—a “major factor in boosting respondents’ trust in government.”

How a DXP Solves the Integration Question

The nature of a modern CMS, however, means that although it is the ideal vehicle for advanced personalization, those tools don’t come out of the box.

That’s often not the case with a Digital Experience Platform (DXP.) A DXP is software that combines multiple products or tools into a single place to create interactive, engaging, and useful journeys at scale.

Many DXPs offer both a modern CMS and advanced personalization with one investment, lowering your total cost of ownership and consolidating your tech stack. DXPs may also help you meet strict technology guidelines. For example, several leading DXPs are also open source—a requirement for some governments or companies working in the public sector. And some, like Liferay DXP, also offer integration-friendly capabilities if you need the benefits of modern technology but can’t yet ditch your legacy systems. 

Truly Personalized Experiences Are at the Heart of the Future of Public Service

Are you ready to transform your relationships with your citizens to deliver the digital experiences they expect and need and increase your ability to improve the public good?

With the right technology foundation, advanced personalization can help you focus on delivering Amazon or Google-like experiences that leave citizens happy instead of frustrated when interacting with your digital solutions.

Contact us to learn more how a DXP like Liferay can help.