For many years we have believed that technology is something for experts and a special sector of the economy. Private sector companies have taken the lead and innovative applications of e-solutions or web-based applications have moved online to attract huge crowds. Some 20 years later, the scope to move public services online are on top of the agenda as well. Not only in security, defence, infrastructure management and health e-solutions are drivers of innovation and improve the reach out to persons in remote places, where it is hard to keep up equal provision of services otherwise. This is where “Gov Tech” comes into play. Government Technologies I would define as all technolgies that are needed to service your current citizens, past and future citizens as well as “want to be citizens”. This needs a whole of government approach, since there are many cross-cutting issues involved like cyber security and data protection. “Gov Tech” is no longer just nice to have. It has become a “sine qua non” condition of government. The expectations of people have been shaped by private use and habituation to online access and amenities that government and public services have to follow suit in order to be perceived as similarly close and accessible for people. Besides the technological aspects of hardware and software solutions for gov tech there is the huge issue of taking people with you on that e-journey. Even social policies and social inequality are subject to the e-volution of gov tech. There is a potential to reach more people with the same number of administrators by use of new gov tech solutions. At the same time, the risks to loose people who choose to remain off-line or have no access to online services increases as well. Gov Tech poses multiple challenges as well as interesting solutions. Great to see many regions and states taking these issues very seriously.
(Image: SCCON, Berlin 2024-10). 
Digital public management
Countries with large public sectors also have specialized research called administrative science. More than 25 years ago the whole discipline has been hooked on the idea of so-called “new public management”, which introduced “management by objectives” and “benchmarking” as new tools into the field of public sector management. In Germany Naschold and Bogumil (2000) have been publishing extensively on the topic. In 2024 the new public management is well established and the now new challenge is “digital public management”. Berlin just hosted a fair on this topic (SCCON 2024). This allows to speed up administrative procedures, increase the reach of public administration into remote areas and creates new challenges to counter the digital divide of society. The modern public sector may shift from being pushed by private sector companies in terms of digitalization to being a forerunner of digital provision of services. Tax declarations in Germany are a good example, where for many years it is a widespread practice to rely on digital forms of declaration and communication between the tax office and its clients.
Other countries, like Estonia, have taken already many more far reaching forms of digital public management and digital provision of services. The scope of such reforms is huge and the administration of persons in remote areas and aging societies give additional reasons to push ahead with digital public management.
At the time when even emails become outdated among youth, some administrations are proud to feature their latest innovation in digitalization. A machine is opening physical letters and scans the documents automatically and stores them in a secured cloud for example. It is indeed an important “bridging technology” for administrations dealing with a generation of older persons who are used to this form of communicationd by (snail)mail.
Many interesting new digital solutions (hard and software) were on display at the SCCON 2024 and many more are in the pipeline or pilots have been implemented already, well worth studying in more detail. 
Ranking Enterprises
The Spanish economic newspaper has published on its front page an updated ranking of the top 10 Spanish companies using environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria (see below). elEconomista.es on 2024-10-12 shows through this updated ranking that ESG criteria continue to be relevant information for investors. It is not just a nice to have information but gives important information on the sustainability record of a company. Continuous monitoring is key to show and reward the efforts and investments companies have made to improve sustainability. This information needs large distribution in order to keep up the awareness that there is more to a balance sheet than just turnover, profit margins, debts and investment. Churning of employees creates costs to society as a whole as well. Any early information on ESG indicators, therefore, allows a much broader assessment of the full impact of enterprises, 360 degrees and over time. Certainly a good example to follow up on.
