The Software and IT Services Market in the Swiss Public Sector

Digitalization has been significantly changing the Swiss public sector. PAC divides the public sector into three major sub-sectors, namely government, health & social services, and defense.

Although the country has been making significant progress in terms of digitalization, the Swiss public sector is still lagging behind other countries. According to the 2022 "eGovernment Benchmark", a yearly monitoring instrument of the European Commission, Switzerland ranks 28th out of 36 countries surveyed, which shows that there are still gaps in the Swiss authorities’ e-services offering.

Particularly at the cantonal and municipal levels, the current demand from people and businesses for e-services is only in part covered by the existing offerings. The "National E-Government Study 2022" shows that people and businesses have difficulties finding the right services offered and many websites are still not optimized for mobile devices. Businesses also see the lack of centralization of government offerings as a problem. The customer experience (CX) is a challenge for the public sector as citizens are used to a certain CX standard from private-sector companies.

Moreover, digital projects such as SUPERB, FITANIA, NEPRO, and many more are centered around legacy modernization and/or cloud adoption. The consolidation of public IT is one of the biggest and most complex tasks for public administration and, at the same time, the biggest growth driver for the public sector-related IT services market. This includes infrastructures, technologies, and processes, and incorporates technological, economic, and political aspects. In light of required enhancements of service quality, efficiency, convenience, and standardization, and the increasing shortage of specialists, especially with an IT background, the consolidation of public IT has become inevitable, and is being pursued vigorously.

As all public authorities handle and store highly sensitive, often personal data, the protection of IT landscapes and applications is of utmost importance and creates project opportunities for cybersecurity specialists and IT services providers at all government levels. Moreover, building trust in digital communications between public authorities and citizens has become a huge challenge that needs to be addressed. This is also true for the Swiss healthcare sector (i.e., hospitals, laboratories, and doctors' practices), which has recently been an attractive target for cyberattacks. This is where particularly sensitive data is handled, and where an incident can have serious consequences and people are quickly getting concerned when their medical records are leaked.

All in all, demand for external support with solutions and services is expected to increase further, particularly as topics such as cybersecurity, e-health, and e-government continue to gain in importance. Find out more in PAC’s recently published report Public Sector - InSight Analysis -Switzerland 2022 to get a better understanding of the characteristics of the IT market (incl. IT market KPIs) and the software and IT services provider landscape in Switzerland. This local market report provides insights into ongoing digital initiatives, major growth drivers and obstacles to future market development, sector-specific IT trends, and more.