Minister Tremain, a keynote speaker at the FutureGov Forum New Zealand, held Tuesday 28th May in Wellington, said the final blueprint has involved detailed consultation with government and industry — with an imminent launch date.
But this strategy is not a “cookbook” with a defined recipe about technology choices. “This strategy will evolve as technology evolves, while ensuring that everyone understands and appreciates the ICT plan.”
Technology innovation offers opportunities across government, Minister Tremain noted. These innovations will transform the landscape, while directly impacting how services are crafted, managed, and delivered to citizens.
Under the government’s digital agenda, 70 per cent of common transactions will go on-line. “This is a big ask, but it’s also transformational. We don’t under-estimate the impact of our mandate, and using technology as an enabler for change.”
He foreshadowed a move away from “owning and operating technology assets” – while exploring cloud, mobile, and digital information management platforms.
Future tenders factor in tighter financial constraints – at the same time, delivering “huge gains to the taxpayer.”
Stephen Crombie, Chief Information Officer, New Zealand Police, noted that mobile communications, and smartphone apps increasingly support field operations.
New Zealand Police’s technology effort focuses on an “officer-centric design.” This incorporates deployment, command-and-control and information exchange between central and field staff.
“It has taken us 12 months to evaluate field pilot projects. We looked at multiple devices, and apps that could be developed.”
The business case for mobile apps is to improve response time, deliver manpower savings, and support critical operations.
New Zealand Police supports a population of 4.5 million. More than 11,500 staff manage operations, together with 9,000 officers – covering 12 districts, 43 areas, 371 stations, and 3 communications centres.
Paul Ash, Manager, National Cyber Policy Office, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, said that tackling cyber-security threats remains critical in a connected, digital economy.
“Geography offers no protection against cyber-threats. There are high-yield, low-risk opportunities for threat actors.”
These threats are increasingly more advanced, sophisticated, and pervasive. Cyber-attacks compromise intellectual property and proprietary information. Critical government and business infrastructure remains vulnerable.
Mr Ash warned that the scale of cyber-threats is difficult to measure. But the sources encompass criminal, political and industry espionage.
The New Zealand government launched its cyber-security strategy two years ago. Officials are working with international partners, and cyber-security organisations to tackle threats.
Alex Evans, Chief Information Officer, Department of Local Government, Western Australia, charted this council’s foray into cloud services. This journey started in June 2011 – with the migration of systems and data into the cloud. The baseline was a mishmash of computer systems, networks, and infrastructure.
Typically, local government has complicated ICT systems. “There needs to be tighter integration between different platforms. For us, the future is cloudy. There are massive opportunities at the local level in the cloud.”
Ms Evans cautioned that security, privacy, and data sovereignty concerns must be factored in. “It’s important to appreciate who has access to this data. There may be loss of control, unless privacy issues are considered at the outset.”
David Elson, Director Enterprise Systems and Grants Management, Office of State Revenue, Queensland Treasury and Trade, said that Queensland is fast-tracking its cloud roll-out effort.
“The future will be asset-free, and service-based.” Applications being migrated to the cloud include HR, payroll, and enterprise resource planning systems.
The Queensland government is taking a ‘cloud-first’ approach to procuring ICT services. This move may halve email costs across government – while delivering annual savings of upto AUD 7 million.
FutureGov Forum New Zealand galvanised key agencies, solutions providers and industry stakeholders over a dedicated day of discussions and interaction. This forum was supported by leading solutions providers, including Vodafone, Good Technology, Revera, WatchGuard, IBM, HCL and OpenText.
Industry partners hosted highly-interactive discussions tables – while drawing on the expertise of public sector leaders, and technology experts.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Shahida Sweeney
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 31.05.2013
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
