Center for Digital Government’s GovX award recognizes Massachusetts for its use of technology to better serve constituents

Boston - The Healey-Driscoll Administration announced today that Massachusetts has received the first-place Government Experience (GovX) award from the Center for Digital Government. The award recognizes the state’s efforts to continually improve the experience for residents accessing services and information via the web.  

The central component of Massachusetts’ leadership is the Commonwealth Digital Roadmap, which aims to provide accessible, simple, consistent, and secure digital experiences that meet the expectations and needs of our residents as they navigate the digital landscape of state government.

Developed by the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS) and the Massachusetts Digital Service (Mass Digital), the roadmap incorporates diverse perspectives from across the state in the form of direct resident feedback and cross-agency collaboration. Recognizing the critical role that technology plays in the delivery of government services and in the lives of our residents, this enterprise initiative places people at the center of the state's digital strategy.

“The Digital Roadmap is a game-changer, and the GovX award is a testament to our state’s leadership in digital government. Thanks to the hard work of Secretary Snyder and his team, we are making government more accessible and focusing our state agencies on the customer experience to deliver the services and information people are looking for, tailored to their needs,” said Governor Maura Healey. “The Digital Roadmap is how we pair this vision with investment in our state, and we are so proud to accept this award for our nation-leading progress in this area.”

"The GovX award shines a light on our mission of keeping people at the heart of everything we do,” said Lieutenant?Governor Kim Driscoll. “This project is the culmination of cross-agency collaboration to center the needs of the constituent when we think about service delivery. We are so proud to receive this award and look forward to continuing to lead by making government more accessible, safer and more responsive to all residents.”

Launched in July 2022, the Commonwealth Digital Roadmap initiative has already improved the experiences of millions through the implementation of MyMassGov, a multilingual chatbot, strategically organized web content to make it easier for residents to find what they’re looking for, and other personalized features. MyMassGov is a secure single sign-on solution currently serving 1.5 million residents, allowing them to use a single account and password to sign in to all participating Massachusetts state services and applications. Soon, those residents will be able to store additional profile information and choose to share that with agencies to make applying for, accessing, and updating services quick and efficient. Longer term, MyMassGov will enable universal profile management and identity verification to Massachusetts constituents interacting with the state. The multilingual chatbot “Ask MA” serves over 700,000 active monthly users, answering an average of 3.75M visitor messages and 94.7% of responses.  Mass Digital has launched a Live Chat pilot with one agency and will soon launch a pilot LLM-chatbot with another agency partner. 

The Roadmap is supported by Governor Healey's FutureTech Act of 2024, which she signed into law in July, authorizing an additional $110 million for its implementation. 

The Roadmap will continue to deliver value across five focus areas:

- Defining Identity: Helping people create and manage a single secure and recognizable user profile they can use to gain access to all government services.
- Tracking Progress: Improving end-to-end service delivery and better keeping people in the loop about the progress of their requests and transactions.
- Streamlining Communications: Improving our communications channels to meet people where they are, provide simple and clear instructions in their language, and use their feedback to continuously improve.
- Tailoring Moments: Providing personalized and accessible experiences that can adapt and cater to people's diverse and changing needs.
- Finding Answers: Making up-to-date information about the state available online so people know the Commonwealth is a reliable source of truth when making decisions.  ?

“We are deeply humbled to be recognized by the Center for Digital Government for our work to make government more accessible and responsive,” said Technology Services and Security Secretary Jason Snyder. “We are now at a point where the vast majority of residents’ first interactions with government are through the web, and we are actively working to make that experience seamless and fully integrated for all our constituents.” 

“We have been working hard to ensure that you do not have to be an expert in state government to access the critical services that you need,” said Technology Services and Security Assistant Secretary and Chief Engagement Officer Matthew Moran. “By prioritizing research and design, and leveraging feedback and analytics, we are able to deliver the simple, accessible and frictionless end to end experiences our constituents have come to expect in their daily lives.” 

“Excellent digital experiences aren’t about technology, they’re about people.” said Massachusetts Chief Digital Officer Devyn Paros. “Our roadmap is having an impact because we’re designing and delivering digital services for and with the people we serve. We’re excited to be recognized for our efforts to date and look forward to driving even more progress across state government.”  

“We are at the beginning of a new era where agencies must now focus on building the infrastructure to support the multiple paths and technologies constituents will use to interface with their government,” said Dustin Haisler, President of e.Republic. “While many experiences were enhanced by emerging technologies, it was notable to see leading agencies continue their human-centered approaches to service delivery and management.” 

About the Center for Digital Government and GovX Award

A division of e.Republic, the Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute on technology policies and best practices in state and local government. Through its diverse and dynamic programs and services, the Center provides public and private sector leaders with decision support, knowledge, and opportunities to help them effectively incorporate new technologies in the 21^st century.  

The awards recognize the achievements of states, cities and counties that have raised the bar on the experience of government services to create a better engaged constituency and a more responsive government. Top government jurisdictions, agencies and departments are honored during the Government Experience Awards at the GovX Summit. For more information on this year’s GovX awards, please visit: Government Experience Awards 2024 Winners Announced (govtech.com)  

About EOTSS

As the state’s lead technology secretariat, EOTSS is charged with the responsibility of coordinating the Administration’s information technology activities and ensuring that all executive department agencies adhere to its published standards, policies, and procedures. This enterprise approach provides a single, comprehensive framework to ensure that the state is in alignment to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the Commonwealth’s data and information systems.