Public Sector Data Governance: Five Reasons Why Information Management Frameworks are Crucial

You’ve likely heard the term ‘rubbish in, rubbish out,’ in reference to data, but what does that actually mean? Well for decades public sector departments and agencies have been collecting data on the citizens they support, the services they deliver and the processes they manage. While early computer systems have become obsolete and are gradually phased out, the data they captured might well still exist —perhaps being used to make business decisions even now. In an era where data-driven organisations win, and the quality of data collected is now more important than ever; the development, integration and adoption of information …

AI in Action: Exploring Practical Applications of AI in the Public Sector

While AI has a number of benefits for business, and for humanity in general – everything from reliable weather forecasting to the elimination of tedious and repetitive tasks, sometimes truly understanding the practical opportunities of AI, and how these can be deployed within your department remain far-fetched and unclear. To help bridge the gap between robots taking over the world and the more relevant, timely and tangible opportunities AI provides we take a look at three public sector use cases from the ATO, Transport for NSW and Services Australia.

API Design and Development: Creating and Executing the Roadmap

It is common knowledge that technology dominates our lives, and that we interact with computers or the technology within them multiple times a day. Computers power our cars, many appliances within our homes, our mobile devices and so many other unseen devices and operations. They are also used heavily within government services, and not just in a visible way. The backend operations of most government agencies are usually busy hives of banks of computers operating all manner of systems and processes. Many of these computers and systems can communicate with each other because of Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, and …

Building a Solid Foundation & Strategy to Enable Digital Acceleration

In the course of a day, “we are confronted with quite often a lot of information.” But most of it isn’t particularly useful. It is necessary to be able “to see what really matters.” This is where data literacy comes in. It is about “the visualisation and the interpretation of critical data.” says David Evans, Director, Business Analytics, WorkSafe Victoria The concept of data integration can mean different things to different people, but for this purpose, it means “joining, combining or linking data from more than one source.” Generally, the data needs to have shared characteristics, so that it should …

Delivering agile citizen-centred services through successful API transformation

There are many technologies that have been designed to improve our lives and enhance the way we interact and communicate, from laptops and mobile phones to smart devices and virtual assistants. Many of them are underpinned by Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, which work behind the scenes but ensure that the devices operate the way they are supposed to. In fact, APIs are so prevalent and versatile that they are used even in fields or workplaces that might at first seem unlikely. Generally, APIs are the back-end software processes that allow devices to run, and they are regular and consistent. …

Driving Data & Analytics Excellence in the NZ Government

Across many industries these days, it is often said that data is the lifeblood of society, and this became, even more, the case during the pandemic. Data helps government agencies to better serve their citizens, which was definitely the case during the height of various COVID-19 strains, but it is also data that makes our smartphones ‘smart’ and allows us to order products online. Yet even within all that, the people who work with data regularly question what it is, and therefore aren’t always sure how to create governance strategies around it, and how it uses it in a holistic …

Accelerating Data and Automation Transformation in the Public Service

When it comes to data verification, there are essential “three possible ways of proving who I say I am: through something I have, like a document or a card; through something that I know, like a name or a password; or through who I am, like fingerprints or facial recognition.” Biometrics is related to the third of these options, and there are a number of reasons why biometrics is the preferred option. Without biometrics, the verification of identity can be time-consuming and often has to be conducted “in service centres in-person.” On top of that, “the transaction is cumbersome both …

New Ways to look at Cyber Vigilance

The problem though, especially from a cyber security perspective, is that the organisation has already been set up so “we are building the house while we’re living in it.” This is especially challenging since because of COVID-19 “we’ve compressed seven years of technological investment into two.” The pandemic has meant that “the concept of work has changed forever,” whilst the impact has been “profound on all of us, individually, collectively and organisationally.” Yet at the end of the day, people and organisations are mostly concerned by what all the chaos and confusion means for them. The “culture of vigilance” needs …