[LINK] Australian Government 2011 ICT Strategic Vision

[Tom Worthington]

The Australian Government has released a Draft 2011 ICT Strategic Vision 
for comment. The document is available in PDF, DOC and RTF formats: 
<http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/2011/04/13/ict-strategic-vision/>.

It is fine as vision statements go. But I wish AGIMO had provided a HTML 
version. My attempt is at: 
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/2011/04/australian-government-ict-strategic.html#vision>.

Here is the Executive Summary "The ICT Strategic Vision" from the report:

"ICT will increase public sector productivity by enabling the delivery 
of world leading government services for Australian people, communities 
and businesses, supporting open engagement to better inform decisions, 
and improving the operations of government."

Why do we need an ICT Strategic Vision?

Today, the machinery of government depends on ICT. ICT will continue to 
transform government business and services to meet people's expectations 
for better services, and to create a more open Government. Research 
points to the important role that ICT plays in driving productivity. ICT 
capital investment has contributed 17.5% of the total Australian 
productivity improvements since 19851 - it therefore warrants our close 
attention.

The Government's use of ICT is largely agency focussed. The ICT Reform 
Program and coordinated ICT procurement arrangements have achieved 
greater integration, cooperation, and transparency. However, more 
visibility of the ICT design and investment intentions between 
government agencies is desirable. Decisions to acquire or upgrade ICT 
systems should consider the broader implications for government, people 
and business.

Rapid changes in the technology landscape continue, including the 
increasing use by business of technology developed for personal use, 
social media, mobile services, broadband and cloud computing. These 
changes can profoundly influence government and industry choices for ICT 
investment and how services can be delivered. The Government needs to 
balance the potential gains from innovation in ICT with the need to 
provide stable and reliable operations and services.

How will the ICT Strategic Vision address these challenges?

The 2011 ICT Strategic Vision refocuses the Government's ICT priority to 
improving productivity by delivering better services to people, 
communities, and business, engaging openly and improving government 
operations. The Vision is for streamlined interaction within government 
and between Government, people and business. This builds on and extends 
the gains made through the ICT Reform Program that focussed on the 
efficiency of ICT operations and building agency capability.

The Government will deliver the Vision and increase productivity through 
three strategic priorities - Deliver better services, Engage openly, and 
Improve government operations. Two strategic actions support the 
implementation of each strategic priority.

Figure 1: The ICT Strategic Vision

A text description of this image is included at Appendix A.

Deliver Better Services

People expect high quality, easy to use government services. 
Implementing the vision will deliver on this expectation. We will build 
capability in government to better meet people's needs and deliver 
improved services. The Vision builds on the Government's investment in 
the National Broadband Network, to improve the delivery of services to 
all Australians.

The strategic actions to deliver better services are:

     * building capability across government to use ICT in order to 
achieve improved services, effectiveness and efficiencies;
     * enabling better services by using ICT to simplify and integrate 
government services to both people and business while maintaining 
necessary security and privacy.

Engage Openly

The Government is committed to the implementation of transparency 
reforms announced under the Declaration of Open Government and reforms 
to the Freedom of Information Act. Better access to and use of 
government information through services including data.gov.au will 
support policy analysis and improve government decision making. 
Government will use Web 2.0 and other tools to build new systems faster, 
improve collaboration internally and extend its reach outwards.

The strategic actions to engage openly are:

     * creating knowledge to share and manage information and knowledge 
to improve decision-making and drive economic growth;
     * collaborating effectively by building better partnerships to 
improve the effectiveness of government consultations and service delivery.

Improve Government Operations

Continuing fiscal constraint will require the Government to make the 
most effective use of existing and new ICT investments. Better 
understanding how policy implementation influences technology decisions 
will help achieve greater value. The Vision encourages greater 
innovation in government operations, to enable cost effective solutions.

The strategic actions to improve government operations are:

     * investing optimally to enable more effective implementation of 
policy by targeting ICT investments that deliver the greatest value ;
     * encouraging innovation so that government can harness the full 
potential of the digital economy and enhanced technology solutions to 
deliver services more efficiently and effectively. ...

From: Draft 2011 ICT Strategic Vision, AGIMO, 2011: 
<http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/2011/04/13/ict-strategic-vision/>.
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-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
Visiting Scientist, CSIRO ICT Centre: http://bit.ly/csiro_ict_canberra