Connecting with citizens through targeted and engaging communications

The way we all communicate has changed. The invention of the telephone was a genuine game-changer, but now nearly a century and a half later, communication takes many forms, particularly in the digital space, and government agencies need to be at the forefront of this revolution. In Australia, many of the federal agencies in particular have embraced social media and have re-created their digital strategies to match the expectations of their communities. This paper showcases examples from three of those agencies. The experience of social media is now fundamental to the creative, artistic and cultural industries within Australia and across …

State-wide Connectivity

“With the right policy reforms, the right projects and some good strategic investment in the digital space, our regional communities will be uniquely positioned to leverage opportunities in a post-COVID digital economy for accelerated growth in key sectors.

Architecting the Future Smart City

Cities and regions all over the world need to continually adapt to keep up with technology and with the expectations of their citizens. In New Zealand, given the size of the country and the spread of the population, there are significant differences and challenges between the largest cities and the smallest regions. Wellington is the capital and one of the largest cities. “People said that we were absolutely mad to go down the Zealandia journey, but now we’re doing something even more extraordinary, which is to try and get rid of predators from across the entire city. No major urban …

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 …

Driving service excellence in state government through digital transformation

The first two decades of the current century have seen enormous technological changes in almost every field. Digital technology continues to have a disruptive impact on businesses and the economy, and it is not an exaggeration to say that any organisation or sector that doesn’t keep up with the pace of digital transformation will be left behind. Digitisation however is not only about the use of technology. It is about being able to work seamlessly in the digital age. At a state level, the process to digitise is often more complicated because there is not an equivalent transformation agency in …

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 …

Scaling, Digitising & Maturing NZ Public Sector Shared Services

The goal of any business, particularly a large-scale operation, is to be as efficient as possible, delivering the best possible services whilst expending the least number of resources, thereby maximising profit. For large institutions with long histories, changing behaviours and becoming more efficient is often particularly difficult. But not impossible. However, like every organisation of significant size, there are constant roadblocks. The finance team, in particular, they are constantly involved in “firefighting, managing our backlogs, solving problems, and coaching our people to be more efficient, though there’s never enough time to actually develop our people.” The goal of course is …

Enhancing Interoperability and Management Operations through ICT

Enhancing Interoperability and Management Operations through ICT