[LINK] ICT for Government

[Tom Worthington]

The plenary session after lunch at the ACS Canberra Branch Conference 
was by Ann Steward, Australian Government Chief Information Officer 
<http://www.finance.gov.au/AboutUs/agimo.html> on a "ICT in 
Government - The Way Forward". Whereas Senator Conroy talked in the 
morning broadly about programs for the community, Ann's brief is to 
support and guide those delivering ICT within government agencies. 
She provided a detailed summary of how ICT is to be done in support 
of the new government.

Previously AGIMO could only offer gentle guidance to agencies about 
their ICT strategies. With the change of government, AGIMO can have 
more of a say with agency projects, but still emphasizes consulting 
and guidance, ratehr than enforcement.

Ann mentioned that FedLink will come to tender shortly. ICON, the 
internal system used across government will also progress.

AGIMO is working on templates and patterns, structures and standards. 
AGIMO's business reference model will be in the next APSC State of 
the Services Report.

The acronyms used by AGIMO can get a bit bewildering, but thankfully 
most are standards ones used around the world (an example is SOA: 
Services Oriented Architectures). With AGIMO exclusive ones, there is 
usually a quick summary and detailed report on the AGIMO web site.

One success at a practical level has been the Australia.gov.au search 
facility which agencies can choose to use. Something which will be 
much harder to do is to create a single sign-on for clients of 
agencies. this is being done with the Australian Government Online 
Service Point and the delivery of online services. Rather than just 
do these sort of initiatives and hope for the best, user satisfaction 
surveys have been used to see what is working and is wanted. The 
latest survey, due out soon, shows that 59% of people prefer the web 
as their way to interact with government. Ann made a plea for 
agencies to look to coordinate information channels, including mobile and web.

AGIMO is working with DISRA on simplification of government forms and 
with Centerlink on authentication of clients. Also there is GovDex, 
which provides an online environment for government people to 
coordinate such work.

Ann mentioned ICT skills and the needs of government. One example is 
the ICT Apprenticeship Program. This was a pilot program  in 2007 and 
has been launched last week for 2008, with 51 apprentices in 15 
agencies. Not all the apprentices are young and more are needed. Ann 
described the fact that there were only one or two females amongst 
the apprentices as "unacceptable". There is a female mentoring 
program which may address this.

The PM is leading by example with a "citizen centric" approach to government.

In addition agencies need to work on business continuity, as with the 
e-security national agenda. Agencies need common agreed protocols in 
the event of disruption to services, such as telecommunications.

Ann said that agency based procurement does not necessarily result in 
the possible bulk savings. There may be more coordinated procurement 
for areas other than where it has been done with telecommunications.

AGIMO will participate in CEBIT Australia in May 2008 in Sydney.

One audience question was about the issue of energy savings for 
government computers. Ann responded there was a checklist on the 
AGIMO website on energy saving. Also last week she was in a hookup 
with the Canadian and UK CIOs on Green ICT efficiency. This could be 
using efficient data centers down to energy saving options on desktop PCs.

In answer to another question Ann said that she expected something 
like the online government council would continue with federal and 
state governments working on projects, such as address management, 
mentoring and staff skills, metrics and measurement.

It will be interesting to see how AGIMO steers a path between 
consultation, guidance and enforcement.

ps: Declaration of interest: I have just finished as a "pundit" with 
a few days work as a consultant on a future broadband project for 
AGIMO. In the far distant past I worked with Ann on some ICT policy 
as a public servant.

More on my blog at 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/labels/ACS%20Canberra%20Conference.html>.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, ANU