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Central Government, E-Government, Government CXO, Policy

Australia's GCIO reveals priorities

By James Smith | 7 June 2010

In the wake of major reviews of the cost structure of government IT, and the use of social media by government, FutureGov sat down with Ann Steward, Australian Government Chief Information Officer, and General Manager of the Australian Government Information Management Office.

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From this Section

• INTERVIEW

Australia has endured a challenging but successful ride through the global economic downturn. This has focused minds in government, and drawn attention to ways of saving money, such as in ICT. This has added weight to the job of Ann Steward at a time when change is already sweeping through government in a bid to drive down costs and make efficiency gains.

Here, in her own words, the public sector stalwart with a degree in applied science tells FutureGov how she is making government IT work harder…

The Australian way
I think the hallmark of the work that my office, the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO ), has established is in being collaborative, inclusive, and working with agencies to meet the challenge and to move forward. Through this model we have been able to secure a whole-of government approach to ICT policies and standards.

What is very important is to ensure that these government-wide approaches are fit for purpose and not merely an instance of the centre imposing new demands and constraints on individual agencies, but adding value. This really has to be informed by their expertise and experience, ensuring that we understand their programme needs, as well as what we can deliver to support them. This approach has delivered real benefits in terms of efficiencies, making it easier for end-users to gain access to government services, greater interoperability, and the smart application of technology.

We’ve had strong collaborative engagement from agencies for many years. This was demonstrated by the Gershon review process which was a demanding piece of work, undertaken in a very short period of time. The Gershon Report and its subsequent endorsement by government set the direction across government, and it also signalled a more involved role for the centre.

Background
After a stint working in The Department of Finance from the 1980s to the mid-1990s, I was fortunate to work on secondment with the United Kingdom in the Cabinet Office on its e-government programme. Having worked in central government agencies for some time, on my return to Australia I felt it was important to once again work in a frontline agency that was actively deploying government programmes and services, and was able to demonstrate the importance of technology to support the delivery of high quality services. That’s why I was so pleased for the opportunity to work at Centrelink. Centrelink’s, successful ‘Refresh’ programme - a major new service delivery capability initiative - was particularly important in matching technology to business needs for the future. Having had that line agency experience has enabled me to have a strong appreciation for ensuring policy development is actively informed by those that deliver services.

Innovation
We’ve put a lot of effort into the redesign and rebuild of www.australia.gov.au, the primary web site for the Australian government. This has involved bringing in new technologies to improve service and accessibility, creating an individual customer account, improved authentication and an enriched directory of available government services. We have also tapped into spatial data to deliver online maps that provide easy access to government services matched to locations.

We’ve been actively engaged in looking at how social media can be used more in government, and where the opportunities are for individual agencies as well as government as a whole, building on work that has been done already. In my own group for example, we’ve deployed wiki and blog-based services for five years. And we developed a collaborative environment three and half years ago called GOXDEX, which enables communities within government to share documents and information more openly, securely and effectively.

Recently the Australian government released its response to the Government 2.0 Taskforce Report completed in December 2009 that examined opportunities for the use of social media in creating more open and collaborative government and in support of government operations. The response can be found at http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/govresponse20report/index.html

Cloud
It is important for us to define what cloud means – it is not rebadged shared services in government - that’s not my definition. For me, the cloud is essentially service offerings that can be provided by an external entity and there is potential for a Government Cloud. We have the usual outsourcing arrangements in place, but an external provider could provide us with facilities and service offerings which we could buy on demand. This of course would be subject to the normal conditions that they need to meet for privacy and security. We are formalising our policies for how we could better exploit cloud services. But the environment is far from mature, and it’s early days for many governments.

Our approach to cloud is consistent with our approach to things like open source; we need to be able to demonstrate value for money and the opportunities for improving service delivery and exploiting the technology that we already have. We are working with agencies in examining opportunities as part of our data centre strategy work, and we are looking to identify how cloud servicing may help.

Green
There are various strands to our approach to ICT sustainability. One is a government-wide plan for how agencies should adhere to sustainability requirements, with an emphasis on ICT. We thought it was important to get started with things that agencies could apply in their work practices straight away. We were fortunate to have had valuable experience from the Department of Defence (DOD), that we could share with other agencies. The DOD had put in place major energy efficiency disciplines, such as using black screens instead of active screen savers and automatic computer shutdowns after hours. We are also developing an ICT Procurement kit that sets out our expectations from suppliers so they are clear on our strategic intent from a sustainability perspective, and how they need to respond in terms of full life cycle management of their ITC hardware.

Virtualisation is another big practical measure we’ve taken. A number of agencies have virtualised their data centres and mid range technologies and platforms already. Others will follow suit as they enter a refresh cycle. Also, agencies that are moving into new buildings will be looking to acquire facilities that better manage energy. So there’s a lot of attention being paid to green issues, and plenty of activity as well.

Concluding thoughts
There are numerous centres of excellence in the use of ICT in the Australian government. We continue to leverage these to extend their value across government and look for opportunities, wherever possible, through additional investment where appropriate, to deliver whole-of-government solutions. We work actively with agencies to make this happen, whether that’s in making efficiency gains or cost savings, and support agencies to develop robust business casees. More particularly, we look to identify lead agencies which have developed specialist expertise and capabilities to use as examples for others to follow.