As state and local governments ramp up digital payment options to better serve citizens, industry and government leaders explained during the PayIt Government Adoption webinar that government leaders should push forward with service offerings that both improve citizen services and boost efficiencies for government.
Setting the stage for that discussion are findings from PayIt’s third Digital Government Adoption Index report issued in March. The survey of 600 government leaders across North America found that fragmented payment systems are costing government agencies time and money, and that agencies are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to improve their systems.
The report also says that while nearly 90 percent of government agencies offer an online payment option, adoption rates for those services have not necessarily kept pace due to mismatches in consumers’ digital behavior and an agency’s online experience.
Kelly Davis-Felner, chief marketing officer at PayIt, explained on the webinar that recent shifts toward digital payments in state and local government reflect both consumer and government preferences to take advantage of tech-enabled options.
“It’s really just an expression of consumer behavior … as we have changed so have government agencies in an effort to keep pace, both in terms of wanting to do stuff online, and then … in terms of the ways that [consumers] want to pay for things,” she said.
The shift toward digital options benefits citizens and agencies alike, said Kristin Nielsen, deputy director of the Tax Claim Bureau in Bucks County, Pa., who said that digital payment options can both improve government employees’ job satisfaction while providing more accessible services to citizens.
“We went from 150 calls a day to a handful” after making digital payment options available, Nielsen said.
“Now the staff is concentrating on improving workflow and implementing digital archiving procedures and policies,” she said, adding that “the business manager … spends more time on reconciling accounts, distributing tax dollars to the tax authorities more quickly, and auditing prior years accounts.”
The two biggest challenges to further digital adoption, Nielsen said, are cultural resistance and technical hurdles encountered in integrating online payment systems. Solving those requires both mindset shifts and database upgrades to streamline processes, she said.
“Two years ago, we had a handful of departments going online, and this year, there are several projects underway,” she said. Nielsen advised government agencies to “keep at it, be patient, and work on and through the changes as a whole team.”
Aligning priorities between business and IT leaders can help the digital adoption process, said Davis-Felner, explaining that leaders can jointly prioritize projects that deliver the biggest operational impact and balance urgent business needs with limited tech resources through collaboration.
“That prioritization exercise and giving everybody that seat at the table has been really helpful,” she said.
Looking to the future, Nielsen said that government agencies should look for solutions that benefit both in-house operations and the public. Davis-Felner added that setting ambitious goals and getting people engaged can help generate high adoption numbers.
“[Governments with high adoption rates] talk about those goals, and everybody is enrolled in making sure that they achieve those adoption goals,” said Davis-Felner. “I think really a lot of that magic happens in being a little bit bold, a little bit proud when you set your goals, and really having that be a shared goal among the whole team, no matter what their kind of day-to-day role is.”
Watch the full webinar here: https://www.meritalkslg.com/event/payit-2025-digital-government-adoption-index-webinar/