Using Technology to meet your Customer Needs

“To improve our customer service, we needed to make the customer experience frictionless and take the unnecessary contact out of the journey, we needed to understand our touchpoints, we needed to deliver 24/7 self-service solutions, we needed to have an unrelenting focus on continuous improvement and to embrace digital transformation, and we need to automate absolutely everything.” Jeffrey Griffith, Deputy General Manager, Devonport City Council Being on the front foot meant that Devonport looked at all their processes and decided to digitise. In terms of the touchpoints at Devonport council, “we have our reception, social media, telephone, email, and our …

Using technology to increase resilience and coordinate response in times of crisis

At the recent Emergency Management Innovation event, we heard from Trevor Jones, Assistant Secretary, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Joe Buffone, Director-General, Emergency Management Australia, Department of Home Affairs as they discuss developing standards and technologies to enable collaborative emergency response. In this article they explore: The framework is the primary mechanism by which all Commonwealth agencies work collectively to deliver a national effort in support of a particular jurisdiction that has an operational responsibility in dealing with the crisis at hand - Trevor Jones, Assistant Secretary, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet In other words, whilst the …

Modernising & Maturing Australian Corporate Shared Services

The agency itself was created in 2012 through a merger of other organisations, but by 2019, the founding CEO had resigned and things started to feel stale. “Often with a new CEO comes a bit of change,” and one of the first things that the new CEO implemented “was the first-ever employment engagement survey.” This also led to a new 10-year strategy, which was “endorsed by the board in March 2020.” Separate from that, other changes happened in the sector and across government at around the same time, and just before COVID-19 became the focus of everyone’s attention, it was …

The Future of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Public Sector

At the recent Diversity and Inclusion event, we heard from Suelyn Knight, Manager, Equity, Inclusion, and Human Rights as she dived into how to bridge the diversity gap through allyship. These conversations may be a bit difficult or triggering for some people, but in order to truly advance the needle on these issues, within the Toronto Police Service, we are having these difficult conversations and we are showing up for our members. Hopefully that will also translate into our ability to recruit and retain members who are diverse, and who add to the very the fabric of our organization. To …

How Technology is Transforming the Emergency Management Cycle in 2021

Whilst the specific models may vary, they cover the same tasks, with which technology can assist. In fact, digital transformation is already occurring across each stage of the Emergency Management Cycle to streamline operations among agencies who share a common goal; to improve safety, resilience and recovery outcomes in Australian communities during and after disasters occur. Preventative actions reduce the likelihood of a disaster event occurring, and the severity of the disaster should it eventuate. Prevention activities are ongoing, with technology helping to improve preventative initiatives across emergency management portfolios. Local governments, disaster districts and the state prepare for disasters …

5 Innovations Transforming Australia’s Mobility Landscape

In Australia, emerging innovations in mobility technologies are helping to connect communities locally and across regional areas. As an added bonus, these projects are delivering a broad range of social, environmental and economic outcomes, demonstrating the benefits of future mobility in Australia’s states and territories. By integrating real-time data, communications and vehicle-sensing technologies, ITS can monitor and improve the safety, efficiency, management and operations of vehicles and transport systems. Some of the primary benefits of ITS include improving traffic management, increasing motorway efficiency and the development of smart motorways. TfNSW Centre for Road Safety’s Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) CAVs …

5 New IoT Applications in 2021

Over the past decade, Australian cities have begun using IoT to improve infrastructure, traffic congestion, low carbon living and environmental management. Although these are fantastic use cases for IoT, smarter and more innovative applications are now being developed. The IoT-enabled hardhat comes with a sweatband sensor array that measures the heart rate and the temperature of the wearer. Additionally, it’s fitted with an accelerometer for orientation and shock, and contains a global positioning system (GPS) device to track employee location. The data collected through IoT technology is delivering positive health and safety outcomes for construction workers, alerting supervisors if they …

Sustainable IT Service Management (ITSM) for the Public Sector

Government departments and organisations are ideally about providing services to citizens. Obviously, they are mostly about implementing the work of the government, but if that can be achieved in a way that benefits the citizens too, then that is the ultimate aim. To achieve the dual goals, Revenue NSW began the “Assured Revenue program, which has three goals:” The program is designed to “remove friction across the system” and began in September 2020. Since then, Revenue NSW has “conducted 54 interviews and 13 workshops with individual and business customers across NSW, other part of Australia and even overseas,” including with …