Government agencies making solid DX progress

Australian government agencies are making “solid progress” with their various digital transformation (DX) initiatives, according to Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) CEO Gavin Slater.

During remarks to the Senate Estimates committee yesterday, Slater shared the progress of some of the transformation initiatives underway at both large and small government agencies.

These include a project from the National Blood Authority to transform its Bloodnet digital blood ordering platform using the Digital Service Standard.

The Department of Veteran Affairs has meanwhile changed the registration process for its MyService project from a 16-page form to a two-screen registration and a short survey, and cut the average processing time for rehabilitation claims from 107 days to just 30.

The National Library’s transformation has also adopted digital transformation to simplify and streamline the way the library collects, manages, preserves and delivers its collections, reducing the time taken to digitise an object from weeks to a single day.

Meanwhile, the DTA is seeing increased levels of engagement across the Australian public service, Slater said.

“Increasingly, I am encouraged by the willingness of agencies to work collaboratively with the DTA to bring about change, adopting a digital mindset, actively striving to uplift their skills and capability, and seeking our help and guidance in a range of areas,” he said.

The DTA has had more than 1000 engagements with government departments over the past six months. The agency worked with 39 federal and six state government agencies to develop its Secure Cloud Strategy, and supported 35 agencies with its Women in IT Executive Mentoring and Coaching Program.

In another sign of growing engagement, public service staff from 64 agencies have attended the DTA’s capability investment review and seminars, aimed at increasing digital awareness and skills among APS leaders.

“Since starting this work in May, we have provided advice to government on 47 new and major ICT initiatives put forward by agencies,” Slater said.

Meanwhile, Slater also shared progress with take-up of its Cloud Services Panel, a whole-of-government portal for the procurement of cloud services.

Uptake of the panel has increased by 33% since January last year, and the panel now has 183 suppliers making a combined 502 cloud services available to government buyers, Slater said.

“A total of 137 contracts have been entered into under this arrangement with a value of $47 million — 94 of these contracts have been with small and medium enterprises, which represents 60% of the value.”

Finally, Slater revealed that the DTA is in the process of negotiating a memorandum of understanding with the Australian Information and Industry Association (AIIA) aimed at deepening the agency’s collaboration with industry on key initiatives such as ICT procurement reforms and the government’s digital identity program.

Pictured: Gavin Slater, courtesy DTA.

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