I think the answer is for the government to implement data object standards, ones that can describe all the most commonly described items that software has to deal with from employees, to claimants, to suppliers, to stock items, to asset management and so on. With data standards in place, with a level of flexibility, then software can be written to handle those objects through processes as required, and things can be shared between different software platforms without a lock-in.
It's no different to manufacturing using standard parts, if all your data components meet the specification, then you can use a variety of ways to put them together.