Victoria to establish new data agency

The Victorian Government plans to establish a new data agency tasked with improving data sharing between agencies and helping foster more informed policy decisions.

Establishment of the agency forms part of the government’s new Information Technology Strategy, announced late last week. The strategy calls for the establishment of the agency by January 2017.

The new agency will aim to identify legislative and other barriers to information sharing, and to develop new arrangements for information sharing and data and risk management across government.

“Insights generated through the analytics work undertaken by this new function will be used by policy designers and decision-makers to improve policy, service design and operational delivery,” the strategy document states.

“Greater emphasis will be placed on creating a ‘single source of truth’ for data, better document management and standardised data formats. Similarly, government will aim to maintain one set of common records across functions, removing the risk of duplication and improving the productivity of government employees.”

The new strategy also calls for technology reform involving the modernisation of staff productivity systems, the adoption of shared corporate systems and technology services, emphasis on cloud-based systems and improved security.

The government will also aim to strengthen ICT project delivery, procurement practices and expertise. This will be achieved through initiatives including targeted training for executives on the role of boards in ICT projects, as well as the establishment of a public dashboard listing ICT projects over $1 million.

Image courtesy of Terrazzo under CC