The key to NSW’s 21st century policy design and service delivery is through a focus on data as vital infrastructure, Victor Dominello, the state's Minister for Finance, Services and Property said today as he launched the government's Digital Strategy at CeBIT.
He said while there may need to be a human face in many government and customer transactions — the customer experience — the back-end must be “digital by default” – a reform of digitising existing processes.
A website would be home for all digital government initiatives, tools, and communication to drive the transformation of the NSW Public Sector.
Dominello said that there were four enablers – technology, cyber security, legislation/regulation and delivery capability.
{loadposition ray}A great customer focused experience would be to combine these and meaningfully use the data across the whole of government. Service NSW already provides over 300 customer services online of its 970 over-the counter services.
He referred to some of the more visible examples of digital transformation – Fuelcheck, E-Planning, and Digital Licences. These would be followed by the voluntary rollout of “smart meters” to replace the old, inefficient analogue system of reading meters, sending out bills and lots of paperwork, not to mention the red tape in installing an analogue meter.
“We have to make it easy for thousands of licenced electricians to install these meters so we have introduced the MO Smart Meter Tool,” he said.
He said a key next step was the development of the NSW Data Ecosystem that would provide government and citizens with the capability to unleash the full potential of our data. It would make it easier and faster for people to turn data into insight and impact.
Part of that is NSW Trends, a comprehensive approach to dashboards and reporting that removes the information silos to deliver information in real-time to lift the accountability and performance of government.
“We have to make it effortless for government and citizens to engage with data and to easily draw insights e.g. Where are the fires? Where are the fire trucks? Where are the water supplies? Where are the hospitals, and what is the current queue for emergency departments? NSW Live will allow anyone to see exactly what is going on across NSW on a map in real time,” he said.
“These tools are powered by the NSW dMarketplace – our “TripAdvisor for data” to make it much easier to discover and access the data you need. Data can be rated for quality, recommendations for other data you may find useful, an ability to pose questions to the data owner, tag your favourites” he added.
Dominello concluded that data at our fingertips enabled NSW to keep a finger on the pulse of what was happening right now and to use these insights to support better regulation and focus our efforts on the areas of greatest need.
A full version of the NSW Digital strategy is here.
