Giving Compass' Take:

• With the pandemic adding new value to remote accessibility, Cailin Crowe, at Smart Cities Dive, reports on a survey showing how drastically government services are digitizing.

• How do consumer expectations contribute to the digitization of government services throughout coronavirus? After the crisis, what can we learn from the rate at which government services are digitizing?

• Read more about how mobile innovation can help industries like government services make progress post-COVID-19.

Eighty-two percent of government officials believe their operations should be more technologically advanced, according to a recent survey by Granicus, a company that modernizes government web services and strategies.

Sixty-one percent of government officials believe the pandemic has expedited the digitization of their operations, and 52% of citizens said they noticed their local governments are now offering more services online.

Citizens and government officials believe the pandemic has changed expectations for how governments should operate. Fifty-four percent of citizens now expect government services to be offered online and 30% of citizens expect those processes to become simpler.

Tight budgets, legacy systems and bureaucracy have historically prevented many governments from digitizing. But the pandemic has finally tipped the scale for cities, counties and states to reevaluate their operations, Granicus Chief Product Officer Bob Ainsbury said.

The pandemic has also created a demand for governments to quickly share and reach residents with critical information. Email open and click rates surged at the onset of the coronavirus, according to Granicus. Traffic to local government websites increased 25%.

As residents look to their local governments for more information, city officials could also seize this opportunity to increase and sustain civic engagement, according to Granicus. Thirty percent of government officials believe their organization provides in-person civic engagement opportunities, "indicating significant room for improvement," according to a company statement.

The pandemic has also spurred an "infodemic," according to Granicus, due to the spread of misinformation. "Government has an opportunity to replace unreliable sources with proactive, consistent communication with constituents," according to a company statement.

Read the full article about how rapidly government services are digitizing by Cailin Crowe at Smart Cities Dive.