Global GovTech Case Studies
Public services are being redesigned around shared digital infrastructure, trusted identity, reusable components and the needs of the people who use them. These 12 case studies examine recent programmes with measurable outcomes, including the difficult parts of delivery. Each study draws on programme-owner data and at least one additional government, audit or institutional source. Figures are dated so readers can distinguish current results from earlier baselines.
Case studies at a glance
- ScotAccount, Scotland
- NHS App, England
- GOV.UK One Login, United Kingdom
- IRS Direct File, United States
- GOV.BR, Brazil
- Diia, Ukraine
- LifeSG, Singapore
- MitID, Denmark
- e-Residency, Estonia
- U-WIN, India
- myGov passkeys, Australia
- SmartStart, New Zealand
1. ScotAccount: reusable identity for Scottish public services
Overview
| Outcome | A reusable sign-in and identity-verification service supporting complete online public-service journeys |
|---|---|
| Scale | Supports more than 450,000 online Disclosure Scotland applications a year, alongside a growing group of other services |
| Tools and technology | Two-factor authentication, photo-ID verification, knowledge-based security questions and reusable verified attributes |
| Timeframe | Discovery and alpha followed by public beta; live with Disclosure Scotland since February 2023 |
| Context | Scotland needed a common identity component so individual public bodies would not repeatedly build separate sign-in and verification systems. |
Context and situation
People often have to create different accounts and prove the same facts repeatedly when moving between public services. For agencies, separate identity systems duplicate procurement, assurance, support and fraud controls. ScotAccount was created by the Scottish Government as common digital infrastructure that services can adopt rather than rebuild.
Baseline
Disclosure applications previously relied on more paperwork and a less complete digital journey. Across government, identity checking was fragmented by service. No single public metric captures the total cost of that fragmentation, so the programme should be judged against service adoption, completion and inclusion rather than an invented savings figure.
What was done
The team used an agile, user-centred process through discovery, alpha and beta. More than 1,000 people had participated in research by July 2025. The service combined secure sign-in with optional identity verification and allowed verified information to be reused. It launched with Disclosure Scotland, then expanded to services including Witness Gateway, debt management and regulated-sector registrations.
Challenges and complications
Digital identity can exclude people without photographic identification or strong digital skills. ScotAccount added verification through security questions and has explored vouching. A common component must also meet different agencies’ assurance needs while keeping the citizen experience consistent.
Results and outcomes
Disclosure Scotland now supports the full online journey from application to result through ScotAccount, covering more than 450,000 applications annually. The component is reused across multiple services, reducing the need for each organisation to operate its own identity check. Published programme information does not yet provide a verified before-and-after completion rate or cash saving.
Stakeholder perspective
Programme Director Trudy Nicolson’s 2025 update emphasised that adoption has been deliberately phased and that user research continues to shape inclusion methods.
Lessons learned and what is next
Shared identity is most valuable when treated as a service with continuing research, not a one-off technology deployment. Scottish suppliers can contribute integration, accessibility, fraud prevention and assisted-digital capability around the common core.
Sources: Scottish Government Digital Directorate; ScotAccount service information.
2. NHS App: turning a national app into a service channel
Overview
| Outcome | More patients can manage prescriptions, records, appointments and referrals without contacting a practice by phone or in person |
|---|---|
| Scale | 37.4 million registered users and 11.4 million monthly users reported in May 2025 |
| Tools and technology | Mobile and web app, NHS login, interoperable APIs, digital records, messaging and real-time prescription status |
| Timeframe | Continuous national expansion, with major usage growth during 2024 and 2025 |
| Context | The NHS needed a consistent front door that could connect nationally to thousands of local care providers. |
Context and situation
Patients had to navigate different local systems for records, appointments and prescriptions. Routine status questions created avoidable workload for general practices and pharmacies. NHS England positioned the app as a national access layer rather than attempting to replace every clinical system.
Baseline
In March 2024, monthly activity stood below the following year’s levels: prescription management was about 49% lower, record access about 70% lower and primary-care appointment management about 36% lower. Separately, pharmacies estimated that 45% of their calls concerned whether a prescription was ready.
What was done
NHS teams expanded the app through integrations with GP, hospital and pharmacy systems. Services included repeat prescriptions, record access, referral and appointment management, messaging and prescription tracking. Rollout depended on national standards and local supplier integration rather than a single replacement platform.
Challenges and complications
Adoption varies by provider and patient. Data must flow accurately from many clinical systems, and assisted channels remain essential for people who cannot or do not want to use an app. Usage growth does not, by itself, prove better clinical outcomes.
Results and outcomes
In March 2025, users managed 5.5 million prescriptions, accessed 24.6 million records and managed 415,000 primary-care appointments, alongside 2.4 million online consultation interactions. NHS England also reported that app and online-service innovations freed an estimated 2.6 million practice hours during the preceding year. Prescription tracking reached nearly 1,500 pharmacies by May 2025.
Stakeholder perspective
NHS clinical leaders have framed the app as a way to give patients more control while reducing administrative work, particularly calls that provide routine status updates.
Lessons learned and what is next
A national front door succeeds through dependable integration and incremental service growth. Departments should measure channel shift and time saved, while testing whether benefits reach people with accessibility or digital-confidence barriers.
Sources: NHS England 2024/25 appendices; NHS England prescription-tracking release; NHS England digital access update.
3. GOV.UK One Login: consolidating fragmented government identity
Overview
| Outcome | A common account and identity-verification route replacing many separate central-government sign-ins |
|---|---|
| Scale | Around 12 million accounts and more than 200 connected services reported in 2026 |
| Tools and technology | Shared authentication, mobile identity checking, document verification, fraud controls and reusable platform APIs |
| Timeframe | Programme launched in 2021; expanded through 2026, with further migration planned |
| Context | Citizens faced a landscape of roughly 190 accounts and 44 sign-in methods across central government. |
Context and situation
Government services had accumulated separate accounts, identity checks and support processes. This increased cost, confused users and made consistent security and fraud controls harder. One Login was designed as a common front door while departments retained responsibility for their underlying services.
Baseline
Official programme reporting describes approximately 190 individual accounts and 44 sign-in methods before consolidation. Existing systems also had large installed user bases, making migration a service-continuity problem rather than a simple technical switch.
What was done
The Government Digital Service built shared authentication and identity proofing, onboarded services in stages and provided integration patterns for departments. Migration expanded from smaller services to organisations including DVLA, Companies House, DWP and HMRC. The programme used phased releases so security, support and completion data could shape later onboarding.
Challenges and complications
Major systems cannot all migrate at once. Legacy credentials must coexist during transition, users may encounter more than one sign-in route and departments have different risk profiles. The government’s major-project reporting retained an amber delivery-confidence rating for 2024/25 and extended the programme end date to March 2028.
Results and outcomes
By the 2025/26 reporting period, One Login had around 12 million accounts and supported more than 200 services. The central benefit is reuse: each newly connected service can draw on an established account, identity and support capability. A complete independently validated savings total has not yet been published.
Stakeholder perspective
HMRC presented its 2026 onboarding as a simpler route for new customers, who can create an account with an email address and password instead of retaining a separate 10 to 12 digit identifier.
Lessons learned and what is next
Common platforms require long migration horizons, transparent delivery assurance and support for coexistence. Suppliers should design for open integration and clear handoffs rather than assume a single cutover.
Sources: HMRC One Login announcement; Government major-project data; DSIT annual report 2025/26.
4. IRS Direct File: testing free digital tax filing in the United States
Overview
| Outcome | Eligible taxpayers could prepare and submit a federal return directly to the IRS at no charge |
|---|---|
| Scale | 140,803 accepted returns covering 154,328 taxpayers in the 2024 pilot |
| Tools and technology | Responsive interview-based filing service, identity authentication, live support and state-system handoffs |
| Timeframe | Built and piloted for the February to April 2024 filing season |
| Context | The pilot tested whether government could offer a usable free filing route alongside commercial products. |
Context and situation
US taxpayers often use commercial software or paid preparers even when their returns are relatively simple. Congress directed the IRS to study a direct filing option. The policy challenge combined digital service delivery, tax accuracy, customer support, state integration and a contested market.
Baseline
Before the pilot, eligible users did not have an IRS-built interview service for filing directly online. The IRS estimated that pilot participants could collectively save about $21 million in compliance costs, but the Government Accountability Office warned that early cost estimates omitted some start-up costs.
What was done
A multidisciplinary team built an English and Spanish service that worked on phones and computers. Eligibility was deliberately narrow. The IRS began with invited users, monitored demand and progressively opened access across 12 states. Four state tax systems received integrated handoffs.
Challenges and complications
The pilot supported only selected income types, credits and deductions. State participation was uneven, customer-service recruitment lagged and equity was constrained by geography. GAO also required more complete cost and benefit measurement.
Results and outcomes
The IRS accepted 140,803 returns. Seventy-two per cent of users requested refunds totalling about $90.4 million. In a survey of more than 15,000 users, 90% rated the experience excellent or above average. The service experienced little unexpected downtime, but the pilot’s controlled scope means the result should not be treated as proof of performance at universal scale.
Stakeholder perspective
Users told the independent federal auditor that Direct File was easier than methods they had used previously. GAO nevertheless pressed the IRS to improve cost, access and support planning before expansion.
Lessons learned and what is next
Phased pilots can reduce risk when policy, operations and technology must change together. A credible case study should report both strong user satisfaction and the unresolved cost and inclusion questions.
Sources: US Government Accountability Office evaluation; GAO cost and benefit review; IRS pilot report.
5. GOV.BR: a shared digital-government platform for Brazil
Overview
| Outcome | A national account, identity and service platform replaced fragmented access to federal services |
|---|---|
| Scale | More than 156 million registered users and over 4,200 digital services reported in 2024 |
| Tools and technology | Tiered digital identity, biometric verification, single sign-on, digital signatures and secure data exchange |
| Timeframe | Consolidation accelerated from 2019 and continued through the mid-2020s |
| Context | Brazil needed a common platform for a large population served by fragmented and costly systems. |
Context and situation
People previously navigated separate agency sites, repeated identity steps and often visited offices. Digital services existed, but their silos limited reuse and increased cost. Brazil’s Digital Government Secretariat developed GOV.BR as both a citizen front door and reusable infrastructure.
Baseline
The platform began from a base of roughly 20 million users. The problem was not a complete absence of digital services, but inconsistency, duplication and limited interoperability across agencies and levels of government.
What was done
Brazil consolidated accounts and services around a tiered bronze, silver and gold identity model. Agencies could use shared authentication, electronic signatures and the Conecta GOV.BR data-exchange layer. A World Bank-supported identity diagnostic informed the approach, while the government expanded assisted in-person access for people facing digital barriers.
Challenges and complications
Scale increases the consequences of security failures and exclusion. Biometric identity requires strong privacy and redress controls. Broadband cost and regional inequality mean a digital-first platform cannot be the only channel.
Results and outcomes
Brazil reported more than 156 million users and over 90% of federal services available online in 2024. A later World Bank account reported more than 170 million users, over 4,000 federal services and R$12.98 billion in savings. That savings figure comes from the programme partnership’s methodology and should be read as reported impact rather than an independent audit finding.
Stakeholder perspective
Brazilian digital-government leaders consistently pair platform expansion with inclusion, highlighting the need to identify why people cannot use online services and provide immediate alternatives.
Lessons learned and what is next
Digital public infrastructure creates value when agencies can reuse identity, signatures and data exchange. Scotland’s opportunity lies in interoperable components and assisted access, not simply copying a national super-app.
Sources: Government of Brazil digital-inclusion update; World Bank case study; Government of Brazil platform figures.
6. Diia: digital public services designed for continuity during crisis
Overview
| Outcome | A mobile and web ecosystem provides digital documents, signatures and public services, including services created during wartime |
|---|---|
| Scale | More than 23 million app users, 33 digital documents and over 150 portal services reported by the programme |
| Tools and technology | Mobile documents, digital signatures, data sharing, portal transactions and partner integrations |
| Timeframe | Launched in 2020 and expanded rapidly from 2022 through 2026 |
| Context | Ukraine needed simpler services before 2022 and resilient access to identity, benefits and recovery support after the full-scale invasion. |
Context and situation
Paper documents, office visits and fragmented registers created friction before the war. Displacement and infrastructure disruption then made remote access essential. Diia became a delivery channel for identity, business, welfare and reconstruction services.
Baseline
Many transactions required visits, paper copies or intermediaries. Seafarer certification illustrates the problem: the programme reported a complex intermediary market associated with corruption risks estimated at about $150 million annually.
What was done
The Ministry of Digital Transformation developed an app, portal, signature capability and integration services. The team added digital documents and event-driven services, then adapted during the war for displaced-person payments, damaged-property reporting and housing-repair support.
Challenges and complications
Cybersecurity, infrastructure disruption and rapid policy change created exceptional delivery risk. Digital access also varies by age, disability, connectivity and awareness. Independent research published in 2025 found that some people visiting service centres knew online services existed but did not know their required service was available digitally.
Results and outcomes
By early 2025, Diia reported 40 app services, 130 portal services, 160 million documents generated, more than 11 million signature activations and 723,000 sole-proprietor registrations over five years. Seafarer-document use exceeded 30,000 in 2024, more than triple the approximately 9,000 reported for 2023.
Stakeholder perspective
Ukraine’s digital ministry describes each service as a response to a concrete life problem. User research also shows why service awareness and assisted channels must accompany rapid product expansion.
Lessons learned and what is next
Resilience comes from reusable identity, signatures and data exchange already in place before a crisis. Governments should also publish accessibility, security and offline-continuity evidence alongside adoption totals.
Sources: Ministry of Digital Transformation programme page; Diia five-year results; Digital State versus service-centre research.
7. LifeSG: organising Singapore’s services around life events
Overview
| Outcome | Parents and other citizens can complete related transactions across agencies through one life-event journey |
|---|---|
| Scale | More than 250,000 downloads and access to 70 government services in the programme’s published results |
| Tools and technology | Mobile app, Singpass identity, MyInfo prefill, eligibility checkers and cross-agency workflow integration |
| Timeframe | Moments of Life launched in 2018 and was expanded and renamed LifeSG in 2020 |
| Context | Citizens experienced government by agency, even when one life event required several connected services. |
Context and situation
Registering a birth could involve separate applications for registration, financial support, a child-development account and a library membership. Agency-centred design required parents to understand government structure during a demanding life event.
Baseline
The combined birth-registration and Baby Bonus process took about 60 minutes and could require an in-person counter visit. Information about benefits and services was spread across agencies.
What was done
Singapore’s GovTech team and partner agencies designed a single mobile journey around having a child. Singpass supplied authentication and MyInfo reused verified data. The platform later added personalised benefits, calculators, guides and shortcuts to other services.
Challenges and complications
Life-event services require agencies to agree ownership, data-sharing rules and a common user journey. Personalisation can improve relevance but also increases privacy and consent responsibilities.
Results and outcomes
The integrated birth journey reduced the reported transaction time from 60 minutes to 15 minutes. Seven in ten newborns were registered through the app in the published programme figures. MyInfo, a related reusable data component, was reported to reduce transaction time by up to 80% across participating services.
Stakeholder perspective
The programme’s design view is that citizens should not have to understand agency boundaries. Services and support are grouped around parenting, employment, health, housing and other needs.
Lessons learned and what is next
Life-event design produces value when common identity and data components are paired with genuine cross-agency governance. The transferable opportunity is orchestration, not merely putting links into an app.
Sources: Singapore Smart Nation LifeSG factsheet; Transforming Singapore through technology.
8. MitID: replacing Denmark’s national digital identity at population scale
Overview
| Outcome | A modern national identity supports secure access to public and private digital services |
|---|---|
| Scale | 5.5 million registered users and an average of 89 million monthly transactions in 2024 |
| Tools and technology | Mobile authenticator, code display and audio code options, risk controls and shared public-private identity infrastructure |
| Timeframe | Migration from NemID began in 2021; MitID became the main solution in 2022 and continued to mature |
| Context | Denmark needed to replace an ageing identity service used across government, banking and commerce. |
Context and situation
NemID had become critical infrastructure, but its architecture and physical code cards needed replacement. A successor had to serve almost the entire adult population and a large ecosystem of public and private organisations without interrupting essential services.
Baseline
The baseline was a widely adopted but ageing national credential. This meant migration risk was unusually high: failure could prevent access to banking, health and government services.
What was done
Denmark’s Agency for Digital Government and the financial sector jointly delivered MitID. Users migrated in waves, while alternative authenticators were provided for people unable to use the standard app. Organisations integrated through shared broker infrastructure.
Challenges and complications
Migration attracted fraud attempts and required extensive citizen support. Accessibility and delegation were important for people needing help to act digitally. Denmark continued developing digital powers of attorney rather than treating identity as sufficient on its own.
Results and outcomes
Official 2024 figures show 5.5 million users, covering 96.6% of residents aged over 15, and 89 million transactions per month. The same survey reported 83% user satisfaction, 89% feeling secure and 87% using MitID at least weekly.
Stakeholder perspective
User-survey results show strong trust but not unanimity. That remaining gap matters because national identity is infrastructure that citizens may have little practical choice about using.
Lessons learned and what is next
Identity replacement is an operational migration programme as much as a technology project. Assisted routes, delegation, fraud communication and alternative devices must be designed from the beginning.
Sources: Danish Agency for Digital Government statistics; Danish-language product statistics and later comparison data.
9. Estonia’s e-Residency: exporting access to a digital business environment
Overview
| Outcome | Foreign entrepreneurs can establish and administer Estonian companies remotely using a state-issued digital identity |
|---|---|
| Scale | More than 117,000 e-residents and 32,200 companies by mid-2024; later totals continued to rise |
| Tools and technology | Digital ID card, electronic signatures, online company registration, tax filing and a regulated service-provider marketplace |
| Timeframe | Launched in December 2014; economic-impact evidence updated through 2024 and beyond |
| Context | Estonia sought to extend its digital business environment beyond its resident population and generate economic activity. |
Context and situation
Entrepreneurs operating internationally often need a trusted legal entity, signatures, reporting and access to professional services. Those processes traditionally involve travel and local paperwork. Estonia treated secure remote administration as an exportable public service.
Baseline
Before e-Residency, foreign founders could form Estonian companies but lacked a purpose-built remote digital identity and support ecosystem. The programme began with no established international user base and had to demonstrate both trust and economic return.
What was done
Estonia issued qualified digital identities after checks by the Police and Border Guard Board. E-residents could sign documents, register companies, file reports and use tax services online. Enterprise Estonia developed a marketplace for accounting, legal-address and other services.
Challenges and complications
E-Residency is not citizenship, tax residence or a right of entry, distinctions that must be communicated clearly. Anti-money-laundering controls, card collection and cross-border tax obligations add friction. The physical card has also become a constraint in an increasingly mobile-first market.
Results and outcomes
For the first half of 2024, the programme reported €31 million in direct state revenue and 2,450 new companies. For 2023 it reported €67.4 million in direct revenue against about €7 million in programme-related public costs. E-residents were associated with roughly one in five new Estonian companies annually.
Stakeholder perspective
Programme leaders describe the physical card process as the main remaining growth barrier and have argued for a fully mobile credential, subject to security and legal assurance.
Lessons learned and what is next
A digital identity creates economic value only when connected to law, registries, tax services and a trustworthy supplier ecosystem. Governments must measure compliance and risk alongside company formation and revenue.
Sources: Estonian e-Residency 2024 economic update; Official e-Residency statistics dashboard; Official service description.
10. U-WIN: digitising routine immunisation across India
Overview
| Outcome | A national digital record and reminder system supports vaccination for pregnant women, children and adolescents |
|---|---|
| Scale | 7.43 crore beneficiaries, 1.26 crore sessions and 27.77 crore recorded doses by 25 November 2024 |
| Tools and technology | Citizen app, provider workflow, QR certificates, SMS reminders, health-ID integration and offline data entry |
| Timeframe | Piloted in 63 districts, then rolled out nationally in 2024 |
| Context | India needed longitudinal, portable vaccination records for a programme serving tens of millions of mothers and children each year. |
Context and situation
Routine immunisation depends on multiple doses delivered over years, often at different facilities. Paper records can be lost, reminders are inconsistent and aggregated reporting makes it difficult to follow an individual schedule. India’s annual target includes about 2.9 crore pregnant women and 2.6 crore infants.
Baseline
The Universal Immunisation Programme already operated at enormous scale, but beneficiary records and follow-up were not consistently available through a single national digital workflow. The successful CoWIN platform provided a recent technical and operational reference point.
What was done
U-WIN was tested across 63 districts in 35 states and union territories before national rollout. It supports registration, appointment and dose records, QR certificates, automated reminders and portability across facilities. Offline entry was included for vaccinators working with unreliable connectivity.
Challenges and complications
National scale brings connectivity, training, data-quality, language and inclusion risks. A digital count is useful only if frontline staff can correct errors and no child is excluded because a family lacks a device or identifier.
Results and outcomes
By 25 November 2024, the government reported 7.43 crore registered beneficiaries, 1.26 crore vaccination sessions and 27.77 crore recorded doses. Automated alerts are sent for confirmation, completed doses and upcoming vaccinations. These are programme-adoption results; long-term effects on missed-dose rates require further evaluation.
Stakeholder perspective
India’s health ministry presents U-WIN as an anytime, anywhere record, allowing families to continue a vaccination schedule across locations rather than remain tied to one facility.
Lessons learned and what is next
Successful crisis infrastructure can be adapted for routine services, but the workflow must change with the policy problem. Offline capability, correction routes and frontline training are core product features.
Sources: Government of India U-WIN update; Ministry of Health and Family Welfare annual report 2024/25; Economic Survey account of CoWIN foundations.
11. Australia’s myGov passkeys: strengthening a high-value public-service account
Overview
| Outcome | Users can replace phishable passwords with device-bound passkeys when accessing government services |
|---|---|
| Scale | More than 1.3 million passkeys created during 2024/25; over 755,000 accounts disabled password sign-in |
| Tools and technology | FIDO-style passkeys, device biometrics, Digital ID connection and account-security prompts |
| Timeframe | Passkey beta and rollout during 2024, followed by expanded security prompts in 2025 |
| Context | myGov is a gateway to 18 government services and therefore a valuable target for phishing and credential theft. |
Context and situation
Australians use myGov to reach services including tax, welfare and health. Criminals created convincing fake sites and reused stolen credentials. The account needed stronger authentication without making access unmanageable.
Baseline
Password-based sign-in remained vulnerable to phishing. Services Australia reported blocking 15 to 20 million malicious connection attempts each week and disrupting about 350 fake myGov sites during 2023/24.
What was done
Services Australia introduced passkeys that use a device’s biometric or local security control and work only on the legitimate site. Users could connect Digital ID, create a passkey and disable password access. Research and privacy assessments accompanied rollout, followed by personalised security-review prompts.
Challenges and complications
Not all users have compatible devices or understand passkeys. Account recovery can become harder when a device is lost. Government therefore retained user choice and multiple secure sign-in routes rather than forcing an immediate universal switch.
Results and outcomes
More than 1.3 million passkeys were created in 2024/25, and users of over 755,000 accounts turned off passwords. By August 2025, Services Australia reported nearly 1.8 million passkeys and more than 2.3 million users adopting a passkey or connected Digital ID. Adoption demonstrates reach, although a published before-and-after account-takeover rate was not available.
Stakeholder perspective
Services Australia describes passkeys as protection against fake sites because the credential is bound to the legitimate service and cannot simply be typed into a phishing page.
Lessons learned and what is next
Security improvements need a migration and recovery design, not just a stronger authenticator. Public reporting should move from adoption totals towards measured reductions in fraud and support burden.
Sources: Services Australia annual report 2024/25; Services Australia security update; Services Australia annual report 2023/24.
12. SmartStart: New Zealand’s life-event service for new parents
Overview
| Outcome | Parents can find trusted information and complete connected birth-related tasks through one service |
|---|---|
| Scale | More than 170,000 users in its first year |
| Tools and technology | Responsive web service, personalised timeline, RealMe authentication, consent-based data sharing and cross-agency integration |
| Timeframe | Developed in under six months and launched in December 2016, with later service development and renewed documentation |
| Context | New parents had to understand and contact several agencies during one life event. |
Context and situation
Pregnancy and birth trigger health, registration, tax and benefit interactions. Information and transactions were organised around agencies rather than parents’ needs, leading to repeated forms and identity information.
Baseline
People could need separate contacts with the Department of Internal Affairs, Inland Revenue, the Ministry of Social Development and health organisations. No single service provided an integrated timeline or connected birth registration to related tasks.
What was done
Four agencies worked with Plunket New Zealand and the New Zealand College of Midwives to design a life-event service. Users could personalise guidance using a due date, register a birth and consent to share the registration information needed for a tax number and benefit updates.
Challenges and complications
Cross-agency delivery required shared governance, consistent language and clear consent. The team had to decide which information was authoritative while keeping the experience supportive rather than bureaucratic.
Results and outcomes
SmartStart attracted more than 170,000 users in its first year and established a practical model for life-event services. New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs later reported 59,865 births registered in 2024/25, although that total covers the national registration service and should not be attributed wholly to SmartStart.
Stakeholder perspective
New Zealand’s digital-government team described the project as a break from agency-centred delivery. Research across later life-event work also showed that initial government assumptions can be wrong, reinforcing the value of discovery with real users.
Lessons learned and what is next
Life-event services can be delivered quickly when agencies agree a narrow first journey and reuse identity and data-sharing capability. Outcome measurement should distinguish visits, completed transactions and reduced effort.
Sources: New Zealand Digital Government SmartStart case study; Integrated Services working group; Department of Internal Affairs annual report 2024/25.
What these programmes have in common
The strongest cases do not begin with a fashionable technology. They begin with a repeated service failure: people proving the same identity again, calling for a routine update, carrying information between agencies or losing access when circumstances change. Successful programmes combine user-centred delivery with shared infrastructure, staged adoption, operational support and honest measurement.
For Scottish GovTech businesses, the recurring opportunities are integration, identity, accessibility, assisted digital support, security, consent, workflow orchestration, data quality and outcome measurement. Products that work with public standards and existing platforms are more likely to scale than tools that create another isolated system.
Research note: figures were checked against the linked sources in August 2026. Programme-owner savings and impact estimates are identified as reported figures where an independent audit was not available.
WhereismyTransport founded in Cape Town South Africa as a result of the co-founders spending too much time waiting for a delayed university shuttle, soon realising missing public transport information was a much bigger problem than one route.
The company has developed its data sets as a central source of high-quality mobility and location data for emerging markets, delivering solutions in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Europe, and Asia and is used to working with incomplete, poor-quality data. They have the world’s most complete and accurate data for Transit Data, Real-Time Alerts, Origin-Destination Data, and Point of Interest (POI) in emerging markets.
An Urban Planner has access to high-quality data on how people actually move when and where, transport plans can be based on evidence with integrated formal and informal transport systems datasets. This data set can be used for infrastructure evaluations, site selection and geo-marketing and as economic indicators. Use case examples are Atlas Ai using transit data in their Socioeconomic model of Dar es Salaam, Data-pop Alliance using transit data to understand how women use public transport in Lima and Mexico City.
The lessons for GovTech’s that are analytics and data based is that you can address a global market from any location. Transit data is a feature of many IOT (Internet of Things) city solutions; however, it is the integration of this data with other collaborators that unlocks a system-wide picture of city transport and economic systems.
Funding $28m, including Google, Napsters, SBI Investment, Cathay Innovation.
JADU based in Leicester with a team of 80 is a company that provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Websites and Forms that are accessible, responsive websites that facilitates effective self-service of Local Authority services. Their market is Local Authorities and Higher Education institutions around the world including one-third of UK Local Authorities and 80 Australian Councils.
JADU is an interesting GovTech as its products, websites and intranets could be described as generic acquired at the lowest possible price. JADU’s approach is deep understanding of customers’ needs which are twofold, the customers of the website and the administrators of the system, the product line is segmented into JADU Central and JADU Connect.
Focusing on JADU Central the key sales proposition is “Creating customer digital journeys just got easier” Customers benefits are low code, accessible templates on any device that are secure giving administrators more time to focus on customers rather than tools. Other benefits are user driven accessible websites, integration of forms and payments, multi-site delivery.
JADU has a partnership program which includes Konica Minolta, Hyland and NEC.
Some key learnings for GovTechs from the JADU story are valuable customer segments can be found in what appears to be generic product segments, have laser focus on customer benefits and ease of use, partners can be useful to distribute your product and you can build a GovTech customer base outside of your immediate geographical area.
