Digital initiatives on display at NZ showcase

A digital initiatives showcase has been held in Wellington, demonstrating the use of AI technology on government websites.

The event ‘Working together as one: Government delivering easy and seamless services’, held on 12 November, also explored supporting identity verification for New Zealanders and enabling better mobility for citizens that require assistance.

It focused on what government is doing to make it easier for businesses and people to engage with government services. Better for Business — a collective of 10 agencies committed to making significant improvements to the business experience with government — and the Office of the GCDO (Government Chief Digital Officer), which leads government’s digital change, hosted the ‘All of Government’ showcase.

“Our event demonstrated initiatives where government agencies are working collaboratively to design and deliver more seamless services. Experiencing more integration across local and central government is what businesses expect, and innovating services digitally is how we can best achieve this,” said Lisa Casagranda, Director Better for Business within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

“The showcase was for all government sector workers as well as business representatives and the digital community to see, learn and talk about the innovative and collaborative work we’re doing together so that citizens and business can better access and utilise government services,” said Graeme Osborne, General Manager System Transformation in the Digital Branch of DIA.

Some of the following were showcased:

• Attendees could meet Tai — a digital assistant who can navigate his way through complex information sitting across multiple government websites and provide answers to questions.
• The Digital Identity Transition program (led by DIA) is investigating what government’s role should be in the emerging digital identity ecosystem. The program is working with government agencies and the new industry-led community, Digital Identity NZ, to determine policies, rules, standards and guidelines that will form a trust framework for how people will be recognised on the internet in the future.
• The ‘Better Rules, Better Outcomes’ initiative — a collaboration between Better for Business, DIA, MBIE, Inland Revenue and the Parliamentary Council Office — brings policy design and digital service implementation closer together by developing ‘legislation as code’. This work has recently been shortlisted for an innovation award from the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation.
• The NZTA and Auckland Transport showcased their Mobility as a Service platform (MaaS), hailed as world-leading at the recent ITS World Congress in Copenhagen.
• The New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) is a free, globally unique identifier, available to all Kiwi businesses. It helps businesses better connect and interact with each other and with government through a shared network of information. The NZBN will enable digital innovations such as the trans-Tasman e-Invoicing (electronic invoicing) initiative, which is expected to save Kiwi and Australian businesses $30 billion over 10 years.
• Business.govt.nz is the home for Kiwi businesses online, with information from the public and private sector that is designed to make doing business easier. Every month a quarter of a million businesses use its world-leading services.
• Various innovation labs, including the Department of Internal Affairs Service Innovation Lab, Lightning Lab GovTech Accelerator and the Auckland Co-Design Lab.
   

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Artem

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