Benefits of Cloud Security with Transport NSW

Across NSW Government there is a cloud strategy which “states that we must use public cloud first, as the default. We should only use the traditional data centres if it makes sense for our businesses or if we have no other alternative.” However, there are numerous ways to interpret this and there are a number of public cloud platforms. Before delving further, it is therefore important to understand these, and one way to do so is to think of them as “a cloud pizza model.” This was the model that “helped us to overcome and understand it at Transport NSW.” …

Scaling and maturing automation to drive employee and student experience

The main focus of the automation was bots, software programs designed to perform repetitive tasks. But most of these bots “were on individual computers with no consistent coding.” There also wasn’t a lot of control around the bots, but the biggest problem was that there “was a lot of fear from staff around jobs,” specifically that automation could render some roles redundant. Overall, there were a lot of issues and misconceptions. The purpose of automation and RPA is to have “something that is scalable, easy to use and consistent amongst all environments.” Ultimately it is about reducing risks and errors, …

Bots and the Future of Customer Experience

Before the pandemic, “it was our country’s fourth largest export industry.” To engage with potential or current students, in 2018 ENZ decided to develop a chat-bot, which is a simulation of a human conversation, using artificial intelligence (AI) features. This was “a relatively new communications channel,” meaning that “there isn’t an established formula or methodology for chat-bot implementations.” However, at the time the agency was in no rush, and Jamie Crump was studying a “Masters of Technological Futures and developed an approach for the chat-bot project.” ““Nobody wants to engage with something that is dull, slow and hard to navigate …

Highlights Future Policing- Canada

The OIG therefore has a critical role to play. It works to ensure “that all of our officers and employees act with honesty, dignity and respect toward the public.” This is underpinned by two principles or aphorisms: One is based on an ancient Roman saying of “who will watch the watchers, or in a more modern parlance, who will police the police?” By the nature of their work, the police have the “authority to deprive someone of their freedom or possibly their life.” But they are not above the law and thus “we’ve created some oversight so they can do …

Article: How Microsoft Teams is powering the modernization of municipalities

Municipalities form the backbone of our communities, providing a vast range of services that touch the daily lives of citizens. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic—which abruptly halted most in-person interactions and face-to-face visits—local governments had to reimagine how to deliver vital social services and maintain operations at important institutions. The solution was to transition quickly to a virtual service delivery and operational model. As virtual technologies affect almost every facet of our lives—including how we work, interact with healthcare providers, and educate our children—local governments need to consider how to enable the long-term digital transformation of municipalities with …

Workplace Wellbeing & Experience in a Post-Pandemic World

2020 has gotten a lot of hate. Instead of bashing the year that was some more (although it probably deserves it), I’m here to focus on something positive that 2020 bought us – an accelerated focus on workplace wellbeing & employee experience. For maybe the first time in human history we’re seeing positive developments in terms of how we work. Flexibility, mental health and overall human experience are being put ahead of mere output. Earlier this month we held the Workplace Wellbeing & Employee Experience virtual event, which was attended by almost 200 APS professionals. We surveyed our attendees to …

Highlight Reel: Workforce Transformation in the Public Sector

Like so many organizations, the City of Hamilton in the Province of Ontario experienced tremendous turmoil in 2020 as a result of COVID-19. Nenzi Cocca, the Director of Human Resources (HR) Systems & Operations at the City of Hamilton, says that the pandemic brought with it “a number of unexpected challenges when bringing on new employees, and we had some employees that were retiring too.” Very quickly “we had to figure out a way to make sure that knowledge transfer happened as seamlessly as possible.” This was particularly important because the HR division is one of the most important. “I …

4 Top Tips - Process Excellence and Robotic Process Automation

Process Excellence for councils can be as simple as streamlining existing processes, reducing silos and reducing the number of work steps and staff involved. Other ways of improving processes is by implementing new technologies such as robotic process automation. Overall the aim is to improve efficiencies, cost effectiveness and customer service and experience. Here are some top tips for you to roll out at your council.