Presentation given by Ann Steward at CeBIT eGovernment Forum –
1 June 2011
Slide 1: Insights and aspirations: our vision for the future
Ann Steward
Australian Government Chief Information Officer
Deputy Secretary
Australian Government Information Management Office
Slide 1 Talking points
• Digital Economy Strategy released on 31 May
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Improving public sector productivity is the theme of the draft ICT Strategic Vision.
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Challenge lies in measuring ICT’s contribution to productivity
Slide 2: Productivity
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McKinsey Global Institute, May 2011
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“If internet consumption and expenditure were a sector, its weight in GDP would be
bigger than energy, agriculture or several other critical industries.”
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“The government’s own usage encourages citizen use, and government etransformation creates a large-scale, complex demand that stimulates the supply
ecosystem.”
Slide 2 Talking points
• Various indicators but, worldwide, work in this area is immature
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Infrastructure, internet connectivity and consumption, industry pickup – good indicators of
the internet’s contribution to a nation’s productivity
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Research done locally – the Telstra Productivity Indicator – found that investment in ICT has
consistently featured as a critical contributor to improving productivity in the last three
years.
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May 2011 report by McKinsey Global Institute, titled Internet matters: the Net’s sweeping
impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity
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McKinsey research showed the internet accounts for, on average, 3.4% of Gross
Domestic Product in the 13 countries studied. 6% GDP in advanced countries such
as the United Kingdom and Sweden
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The maturity of the Internet correlates with rising living standards.
•
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The Internet is a powerful catalyst for job creation.
•
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An increase in Internet maturity similar to one experienced in mature
countries over the last 15 years creates an increase in real GDP per capita of
$500 on average. The McKinsey Report notes that the Industrial Revolution
of the 19th century took 50 years to achieve the same results.
Small to Medium Enterprises with strong web presences grew twice as
quickly as those with a minimal presence or none and they created more
than twice the number of jobs.
Report comments that Public decision makers should act as catalysts to unleash the
Internet’s growth potential.
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Governments could leverage Internet public spending as a catalyst for
innovation.
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Programs to push individual usage
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Bringing the internet to businesses
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Modernise public administration and bring government services
online
•
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Our work on the Service Delivery Reform initiative and the
reform of Parliamentary workflow systems
Martha Lane Fox, UK Digital Champion, and Graham Walker, Director of the UK’s Race
Online 2012, to speak about:
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Race Online – a campaign to build a networked nation; brings together government,
commercial entities and charities
Slide 3: Draft ICT Strategic Vision
This figure show how the three strategic priorities and six strategic actions of the vision align to
support the objective of increased public sector productivity. 1. The strategic actions aligned to the
strategic priority “Deliver better services” are “Building capability” and “Enabling better services”. 2.
The strategic actions aligned to the strategic priority “Engage openly” are “Collaborating effectively”
and “Creating knowledge”. The strategic actions aligned to the strategic priority “Improve
Government operations” are “Investing optimally” and “Encouraging innovation”.
Slide 3 Talking points
• Positions government to change its focus from efficient use of ICT toward using ICT to
increase public sector productivity.
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We have delivered over $1 billion in savings without impairing service delivery
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We have established coordinated procurement so agencies aren’t duplicating
purchases
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By shifting the focus, Government can exploit recent efficiency gains to deliver the online
services that Australians now demand.
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This direction is in line with the APS Blueprint, and other directions being set by the
Government.
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Draft ICT Vision referenced in the Digital Economy Strategy
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Draft ICT Vision reflects key elements of the McKinsey report
Slide 4: Implementation Road Map
A timeline of tasks arising from ICT Vision's Strategic Actions from 2011 to 2015. Tasks under the
"Building Capability" include: Lead agency model, share and reuse technology capability, ICT
workforce utilisation, common business processes, ICT-enabled policy delivery. Tasks under the
"Enabling better services action" include: australia.gov.au, integrated online services, personalised
services, automated services, simple government websites. Tasks under the "Creating Knowledge"
action include: business intelligence, open government data, government services enabled by
location data, data analysis tolls. Actions under the "Collaborating effectively" action include:
external collaboration networks, government collaboration networks, broad government
collaboration partnerships. Tasks under the "Investing optimally" action include: investment
information data, coordinated ICT procurement, shared computing resources and services and
portfolio ICT investment. Actions under the "Encouraging innovation" action include open innovation,
Awareness, take-up of new ICT, adopt new technologies and new and better ICT-enabled services.
Slide 4 Talking points
• This slide provides an overview of how we could potentially expand on each of the priorities
and strategic actions with possible timeframes.
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Consulting with agencies to discuss implementation in more detail.
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Reflect on comments provided to the Draft and revise Vision and Implementation Plan for
SIGB’s consideration.
Draft ICT Strategic Vision
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Posted draft Vision on our blog – generally constructive feedback;
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Feedback focused on the need for greater breadth, depth and alignment of the Vision with
other government strategic approaches, including NBN, digital economy and addressing the
cross-jurisdictional service delivery challenges that eHealth is tackling. Not all new policy,
(eg, Digital Economy Strategy) could be included in the draft before release as it was subject
to normal government approvals processes.
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Feedback also received on the need for stronger governance and a clarification of the
respective roles of AGIMO, SIGB, CIOC, and the Minister overseeing ICT matters, and the
need for a closer dialogue and partnership with industry.
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Offline/direct feedback received from industry – AIIA, Telstra, Gartner, CSC, Wipro, with
suggestions for:
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more details on activities, milestones, performance measures, KPIs, success factors
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Cross-jurisdictional/vertical integration of ICT needed
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A stronger, centralised role for AGIMO
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Emphasis australia.gov.au as a platform for alternative channel and application
development
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Clear links between NBN and new government online services
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Address change management and spontaneous innovation
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Strengthen industry dialogue on ICT supply and demand and on ICT management
issues
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Develop ICT-enabled service partnering capability emphasizing consultation, codesign and co-production
Andrea di Maio, Gartner: commented that the draft focused on external engagement with
citizens but not enough on
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employee centricity to better engage public servants who have a vested interest
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App store paradigm – similar to US approach: using a significant range of apps to
push public sector information to citizens; eg. USA jobs, product recalls, travel
advice
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Australian examples do exist already:
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Swap it – don’t stop it campaign; app is one element of a campaign to
improve activity and nutrition
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The Bureau of Meteorology has an app to give users access to a singlesource of information for more than 250 publicly-owned water storages
across Australia
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We are interested to see what would be a value-add for consumer/citizen? Where and how
can we make best use of public sector information?
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We are exploring this as we finalise the Vision and the implementation plan
Benchmarking:
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IT spending by government for the last three years has been stable. Government has not
caused a contraction.
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Government ICT is becoming more efficient. Virtualisation is up from 1.45 operating system
instances per physical server to 2.03, against an industry average calculated by Gartner as
1.5.
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This is good news. Government has improved consistently in the last 12 months and
appears to be ahead of Gartner’s industry average.
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Government ICT is becoming more sustainable. There are fewer devices per user and more
users per printer.
Slide 5: Digital Economy Strategy
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By 2020, Australia aims to be one of the world’s leading digital economies
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Improved online government services delivery and engagement
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Finance will work on:
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“tell us once” and data.gov.au
Cloud Computing Strategy
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Established Cloud Information Community (CLIC)
Slide 5 Talking points
• Digital Economy Strategy announced by Senator Conroy yesterday (31 March) here at CeBIT.
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By 2020, Australia aims to be one of the world’s leading digital economies.
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Eight goals to realise the vision of that strategy and measure progress, including:
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Build online participation, engagement, management and service delivery
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Involves all sectors
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Requires action by all levels of government
AGIMO has a role delivering the outcomes of that strategy and this fits under the broad
work Finance (Deregulation Group and AGIMO) is doing on the Service Delivery Reform
Initiative:
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undertaking a scoping study and technical pilot to explore how clients of
government services might be able to update their contact details to multiple
agencies at the same time; the “tell us once” pilot. A better Service for citizens.
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We will continue to develop data.gov.au as a central access point to and catalogue
of public sector datasets.
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Peter Alexander will discuss these matters in further detail later today.
Role of cloud strategy in digital economy
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Overall, our approach to cloud computing is both tactical and strategic; recognises the
current level of immaturity of cloud offerings. Another sourcing approach.
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Note Glenn Archer’s speech on this topic at Cloud Computing Conference 31 May
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Released in April 2011 – “agencies may choose cloud-based services where they
demonstrate value for money and adequate security”
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A phased approach to use cloud offerings as they mature, noting that cloud services
are still evolving
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Established the Cloud Information Community (CLIC) – predominantly government
agencies
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AIIA Cloud Task Force – an industry group; ex-officio member of the CLIC
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Developing guidance to agencies
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Agencies are already using cloud – data.gov.au hosted on cloud
Drivers of Australian Government’s cloud strategy:
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Cost savings and financial agility
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Responsiveness – reduced implementation times
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Improved availability/reliability
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Functionality – Cloud offers features we couldn’t build ourselves
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Agencies will continue investigating opportunities and implementing cloud solutions where
appropriate,
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Improved access to broadband (e.g. NBN) will drive growth and innovation
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The maturity of standards will be a catalyst for growth
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The privacy and security of information will still be a key government concern
Slide 6: Location-based information
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Aims to “spatially enable” the Australian Government
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Improve coordination, use and reuse of data, information and systems
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A location information governance framework
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Australia.gov.au:
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location of Centrelink and Medicare access points
Slide 6 Talking points
• The Australian Government holds a significant amount of information but it is stored in
many forms across individual agencies and without a consistent geographic reference,
standards or metadata.
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Linking information to location means it can be viewed, analysed and displayed in a
geographic context that enables the user to see not only what happens when, why
and how but also where. Recent examples of how it could assist in times of natural
disasters informs how to leverage for those periods outside emergencies.
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Australian government information is linked to a location, improving decision
making and service delivery, and increasing innovation and productivity
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Most of this information can be potentially linked to a location – thereby increasing the
value/meaningfulness of the data
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Reliable, open and reusable public sector location information will increase the analytical
capabilities of government, provide greater understanding, and support evidence-based
decision making.
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reduce duplication of effort in the collection, capture and management of
information.
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an increased return on investment through better coordination, use and reuse of
data, information and systems.
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will allow location economic data to be compared with government investment.
Exploring what governance framework would be best to provide accountability,
implementation, strategic alignment and advice.
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identifying enabling principles to embed location into the current Australian
Government information management policy
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Note presentation later in the day from Dr Andrew Barnicoat from Geoscience
Australia
Location information already exists on australia.gov.au and includes Centrelink and
Medicare access points.
Slide 7: Parliamentary Workflow solution
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Around 13 different systems in use across 40+ agencies
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Costs more than $10 million each year
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Workload has increased
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Project will:
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improve service and support to Ministers
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facilitate collaboration
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reuse information
Slide 7 Talking points
• A high-level scoping study undertaken and identified.
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Around 13 different systems in use across more than 40 agencies.
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Total cost approximately greater than $10M dollars per year
As part of the business of Government - currently processes around 600,000 parliamentary
workflow items per year, with growth anticipated at between 5-10% in future years.
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Some systems based on out-dated technologies requiring redevelopment or
replacement.
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Lack of interoperability between these parliamentary workflow systems.
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Processes are largely manual
Improving how government manages parliamentary workflow will lead to:
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Better tracking and version control
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Improved service to Ministers’ offices
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An opportunity to integrate the system with web- or social media-based
submissions
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Improved management reporting
Parallel work completed to lay the foundation for common processes across the
Commonwealth including:
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Workflow taxonomy;
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Machinery of Government checklists;
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Ministerial support handbook;
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a business process pattern for referrals;
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standard business process patterns for Ministerial Correspondence, Question Time
Briefs and Parliamentary Questions on Notice; and
Conclusion
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Next steps – revision of ICT Strategic Vision
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Updated guidance for Open Source Software – I have this week signed off on Version 2 and
encourage you to review it.