The global market for better government technology is expanding, but it is not developing evenly. The World Bank’s 2025 GovTech Maturity Index offers a useful picture of both progress and unmet need across 198 economies. It also provides a practical starting point for Scottish companies considering international growth in 2026.
The index tracks four broad areas: core government systems and shared digital infrastructure; online public services; digital citizen engagement; and the conditions that enable GovTech, including skills, institutions, regulation and innovation policy. Its latest update shows overall progress since 2022, but also a widening gap between the most and least mature groups of economies.
That gap should not be read as a simple sales ranking. The World Bank is explicit that the index is not designed to rank countries or provide a readiness score. It is better used as a diagnostic: a way to identify recurring problems, understand local context and decide where Scottish experience could be relevant.
Shared digital infrastructure is becoming the foundation
Governments increasingly need reusable capabilities rather than a collection of disconnected portals. Secure identity, payments, notifications, data exchange and cloud platforms can support many services at once. Often described as digital public infrastructure, these foundations make it easier to launch new services without rebuilding the basics every time.
Scotland has useful experience here. Programmes such as ScotAccount and ScotPayments are developing common capabilities for identity and public-sector payments, while the CivTech model connects public problems with companies through challenge-based innovation.
The export opportunity is not necessarily to lift a Scottish system and install it elsewhere. Identity rules, institutions, languages and levels of connectivity differ. The more credible proposition is transferable capability: modular technology, implementation support, service design, governance and lessons learned from operating in a demanding public-service environment.
Four areas of opportunity
First, there is continuing demand for modern core government systems. Revenue, finance, procurement, records and case-management platforms are often difficult to replace, yet they underpin everything else. Scottish firms with strengths in integration, data migration and modular modernisation can help governments improve without relying on a single high-risk replacement programme.
Second, service delivery still needs work. Putting a form online is not the same as redesigning a service. Companies that combine product engineering with user research, accessibility and assisted-digital support can offer something more valuable: services that people can actually complete.
Third, digital participation is an underdeveloped part of GovTech in many places. Consultation platforms, complaints systems, transparent case tracking and tools for participatory decision-making can help governments listen and respond. Scotland’s strong civic, academic and public-service networks provide a good test bed for this kind of work.
Fourth, cyber resilience and trust cut across every category. Governments need secure-by-design systems, effective identity controls, monitoring, incident readiness and supply-chain assurance. Scottish cyber companies can compete here, particularly where they can combine technical expertise with an understanding of public accountability and limited operational capacity.
Choose markets by problem, not by map
“Global GovTech” is too broad to be a useful target market. A small Scottish supplier is unlikely to succeed by pursuing every digital-government tender it finds. A better approach is to choose a repeatable problem and then identify places where that problem is a stated priority.
The World Bank data can support that first scan, but it should be combined with country strategies, procurement plans and conversations with local partners. A business focused on digital permitting, for example, might compare how several governments currently handle applications, which agencies own the process, what donor-funded programmes are active and whether a local implementation partner is essential.
Public procurement also varies significantly. Some opportunities are bought directly by national or municipal government; others are delivered through multilateral development banks, prime contractors or technical-assistance programmes. Companies should understand the route to market before investing heavily in a bid.
Build an exportable evidence pack
International buyers need confidence that a small supplier can deliver and support critical services. Scottish companies should prepare more than a product deck.
A strong evidence pack explains the public problem, the outcomes achieved and the conditions in which the evidence was gathered. It covers accessibility, security, privacy, hosting, interoperability and exit arrangements. It separates what is genuinely reusable from what must be adapted locally. It also explains the delivery model: who will implement, train users, maintain the service and respond when something goes wrong.
Case studies should use numbers where they are available, but avoid presenting a successful pilot as proof of universal fit. Credibility comes from being precise about what worked, what changed and what would need to be different in another jurisdiction.
Scotland’s advantage is practical innovation
Scottish GovTech companies operate in a market shaped by rural and island communities, major cities, devolved institutions, tight public budgets and high expectations of inclusion. Those conditions create experience relevant to many governments, regions and municipalities around the world.
The opportunity in 2026 is to package that experience more deliberately: not simply as software made in Scotland, but as tested capability for solving recognisable public problems. The global maturity gap is real. Scottish businesses can help close it if they enter markets with focus, evidence and strong local partnerships.
Planning international growth in GovTech? The Scottish GovTech Cluster can help businesses connect, refine their proposition and explore routes into new markets.