An overwhelming number of UK public sector organisations face huge costs associated with poor mobile application quality. A new report from Tricentis suggests that 96 percent of IT pros from the public sector expect poor quality applications to cost their organisation up to £1.95 million in lost revenue.
The 2024 State of Mobile Application Quality Report examines the challenges public sector organisations face as they look to improve the mobile experience that both citizens and public sector workers have when accessing government services and systems.
The mobile applications developed by public sector organisations facilitate critical citizen services such as health service information, emergency notification delivery and tax payment calculation. Government workers also use mobile applications daily to upload data to government systems. Unlike the commercial sector, citizens and workers cannot turn to other providers if they are dissatisfied with the experience. The critical nature of these services places reliability and functionality at the utmost level of importance and leaves little room for error.
Optimism about the use of AI
The report revealed that UK public sector IT pros face challenges of complexity (31 percent) lack of talent/upskilling (28 percent), competing priorities (26 percent), and cross-platform compatibility (23 percent) when implementing mobile app development and testing strategies.
Respondents who reported their mobile application testing and development strategies have failed tie this to cost, access to tools, personnel skilling and lack of management oversight.
If you liked this content…
AI for public good: Why enablement matters as much as the tech
Think Digital Identity and Cybersecurity for Government: Key Takeaways
Frontline public service workers lead AI adoption in the UK’s “invisible AI workforce”
AI and the UK’s public sector: A blueprint for global leadership
Lack of data tools sees public sector failing to recoup fraud losses
However, respondents are optimistic about the use of AI in mobile application testing and development to address failures and save time, with an expectation of saving an average of 38 hours a month by implementing low-code/no-code automation and/or AI into their mobile app testing strategy.
More than half of respondents (51 percent) plan to include AI in their mobile testing strategy within the next 7-12 months, and view device grids (physical and virtual), AI and low-code/no-code automation as areas of technology with the most promise.
“As public sector organisations strive for efficiency and effectiveness in mobile app testing, the integration of low-code/no-code automation and AI promises not just time savings, but a transformational leap in quality and reliability,” said Ben Baldi, SVP of global public sector at Tricentis.
“The report findings underscore the pressing need for government organisations to invest in mobile application quality and testing. Embracing automation will ultimately provide a better experience for the end-user which, in the public sector, is both citizens and government workers.”
