Digital governance refers to the set of policies, procedures and practices implemented within organizations to safely manage their digital ecosystems in an effective manner. This encompasses multiple areas such as cybersecurity, data ownership and compliance as well as e-commerce.
An effective digital governance strategy is of increasing importance for businesses today, so here are a few key points to remember when creating your governance framework: 1. Governance must contribute towards meeting organizational goals and objectives
1. Security
Digital governance encompasses how information is distributed across platforms – websites, social media channels, apps, intranet portals, e-commerce tools – while protecting an organization’s mission against malicious actors.
Digital governance must become part of your organization’s culture for it to succeed, with leadership prioritizing compliance with policy as the cornerstone. Furthermore, processes for digital governance must be fully contained and secure – for instance collaborating and communicating on your board management system rather than via emails or non-secure tools such as chat will help ensure data remains safe.
Security in Digital Governance is an intricate topic. Each organization should tailor its approach to governance to best fit its specific circumstances, although best practices have emerged over time.
2. Compliance
Digital technologies continue to develop at an astounding rate, as do their policies and protocols governing them. That is why digital governance should be considered such an essential aspect of any organization’s operations.
Goal of digital content usage ethics and compliance enacting robust cybersecurity protocols to reduce data breach risks that threaten company reputation and customer trust.
Maintaining clear rules and procedures is also key for staying compliant with regulatory bodies like GDPR. This can be accomplished by assigning individual platforms/areas ownership, as well as assigning accountability for policy adherence. This approach can especially prove helpful when managing multiple stakeholders – for instance one team may oversee web, social media, apps, email marketing etc, while another might take control over e-commerce platforms or data management tools.
3. Risk Management
Digital has quickly expanded over time to encompass an expansive set of activities: collaboration, internal and external marketing, client service delivery and even transformation of business operations for forward-looking organizations.
Data is a cornerstone of digital governance, and must be protected from threats that threaten its integrity and hinder expected outcomes. Unfortunately, many organizations still rely on manual review processes for monitoring risks – an ineffective, time-consuming, inefficient way of doing things that relegate subject matter experts to busywork instead of performing the high-level strategic work that they are best qualified for.
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4. Collaboration
Digital governance necessitates an ethical approach that respects different stakeholder concerns and the impact of technology in their lives. A company should enable audiences to opt in or out of communications as quickly as possible, to avoid customer disappointment while simultaneously strengthening brand image.
A strong governance structure provides direction and oversight for all aspects of digital strategy development. This includes content, design, technical infrastructure, security, funding as well as product, project and program management.
Digital governance puts citizen needs first by prioritizing engagement and accountability. Citizen-focused initiatives such as open data and accessible information help increase transparency while holding government entities to account. Contracts that include outcome-based rewards encourage compliance while rewarding performance-based contracts enhance compliance rates further. Digital governance thus complements analog mechanisms while complementing and restricting automated ones.
5. Usability
Digital governance demands that services provide easy accessibility for all. This requires making information readily accessible by people with physical and cognitive limitations as well as making sure the website can be easily navigated by those without extensive computer knowledge.
In order to assess what factors are essential in an e-government system, the Global E-Government Survey systematically surveys large municipalities from around the world in terms of Privacy & Security, Usability, Content Services, Citizen Engagement, and Citizen and Social Engagement. Conducted biannually by researchers at University of Maryland; USA research dominates in digital governance research followed by China, England & India respectively.