humanservices.gov.au

Technology Plan 2016–20

Message from the Secretary ���������������������������������������������������������� 3

The Technology Plan 2016–20 is recommended by ����������������� 4

Our plan ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5

1� Our transformation journey ������������������������������������������������������� 6

2� Delivering quality customer services �������������������������������������� 7

3� Our objectives ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8

4� Building a Digital Services Platform ��������������������������������������� 9

5� Summary ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������10

Glossary �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������11

Contents

3Technology Plan 2016–20

Message from the Secretary

The Department of Human Services (the department) vision is the excellence in the provision of government services to every Australian.

The department has an impressive record of implementing government policy, providing correct payments to the right people, protecting peoples’ information and providing support to all Australians in emergencies.

We are now in the process of transforming our payment processes and customer services. We will provide simple, secure and convenient online services that will be attractive to our customers, so that digital becomes their channel of choice when interacting with the department. Our customer services will be comparable in terms of efficiency, cost and reliability to digital services such as banking and shopping.

The Technology Plan 2016–20 sets out how we will do this using digital platforms and online services whilst continuing to perform our core role.

Our ICT vision Information and communications technology (ICT) continues to be a key catalyst, enabler and driver of the department’s customer service transformation. Technology will be the vehicle for us to deliver on our mission of ‘connecting Australians to the services they need’. Now, more than ever before, we need to align our business and technology strategies so we can accelerate our delivery of digital services.

To support the department’s vision of service provision excellence to our customers, our Technology Plan vision is that we ensure ‘the provision of government services through a trusted Digital Services Platform’.

We aim to be a leading provider of digital channels for Citizen to Government services supporting the Digital Transformation Agency. Our Technology Plan will enable: • customers to engage and interact with us and other

agencies using any available digital device or channel • customers to interact via a digital marketplace• customer interactions and experiences to be driven

based on individual needs and circumstances.

In addition, we will:• provide customer-centric services to other

government agencies, service partners and service providers

• ensure technology and services within the department will be driven through customer needs and requirements

• provide technology to the department as a service—ensuring agility and high quality

• access information within the department in a secure and seamless way based on customer requirements.

A primary goal of the Technology Plan is to introduce an improved system of technology planning extending at least five years into the future. This will enable us to be more responsive and agile in how we deliver on business needs.

We have a unique opportunity to help shape the next generation of community and government services, and to lead the world in innovative service delivery. With the next steps of our technology transformation mapped out in the Technology Plan, everyone in the department has a role to play in our exciting future.

Kathryn Campbell, CSC Secretary Department of Human Services

4 Department of Human Services

The Technology Plan 2016–20 is recommended by:

Kathryn CampbellSecretary

Gary Sterrenberg Chief Information Officer

John MurphyDeputy Secretary Payments Reform

Barry JacksonDeputy Secretary Service Delivery Operations

Malisa GolightlyDeputy Secretary Integrity and Information

Jill CharkerDeputy Secretary Programme Design

Caroline EdwardsDeputy Secretary Health and Aged Care

Jonathan HutsonDeputy Secretary Enabling Services

Kim Terrell, A/gDeputy Secretary Shared Services

Charles McHardieChief Technology Officer

Our ICT vision

The provision of government services through a trusted Digital Services Platform�

5Technology Plan 2016–20

Our plan

The Department of Human Services (the department) has taken significant steps to transform our technology environment to support the shift to digital channels and self-managed online services.

Technology underpins and will be integral to the success of our business and our major transformational programmes of work including Welfare Payments Infrastructure Transformation (WPIT), Health payment reforms and Shared Services.

Our Technology Plan 2016–20 (Technology Plan) builds on our transformation so far, providing a high-level roadmap of work for us to deliver the capabilities the department needs for the next five years and beyond.

6 Department of Human Services

Our transformation

We have come a long way and now need to accelerate the rate of transformationWe need to continue our transformation, moving faster and further towards digital service delivery, so that all but our most vulnerable customers can manage their interactions through easy-to-use, secure, integrated digital channels. To meet the expectations of our customers, our services will be comparable in terms of ease of use, efficiency, cost and reliability to digital services such as banks and shopping at the same time ensuring the security of our systems and the privacy of the information.

We will support the government’s Digital Transformation Agenda by working with the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) as the lead agency for Citizen to Government business.

Technology continues to be a key catalyst, enabler and driver of the department’s customer service transformation. Technology is the vehicle we will use to achieve our mission of ‘connecting Australians to the services they need’.

We have laid the foundation of our transformation

Over the last five years we have rationalised our technology environment.

A dominant stack of technology products

The dominant stack minimises the complexity and associated cost of bespoke or customised software that is supporting core business processes.

Strategic partnerships

Strategic partnerships allow us to put long term plans in place and minimise the risks associated with our long-term programmes of work.

Consolidated data centres

Consolidated data centres rationalise our assets, minimise the complexity of our technology and maximise our returned value against our services.

Software rationalisation

We reduced the number of software products inherited through the integration of Centrelink and Medicare into the department by removing duplicate software products and managing the introduction of new products.

We have established strong foundations that position us for the next stages of our transformation.

This step of our transformation achieves stability and manageability of the department’s technology platform through simplification and consolidation.

We will transform internally as well as transforming externally. We will support our staff in this changing environment providing tools, information and training to build on their skills and take advantage of the new opportunities that these changes will provide.

Excellence in the provision of government services to every Australian

The Technology Plan supports our vision of service provision excellence to our customers. It defines what outcomes need to be achieved in terms of our technology platform design and informing our workforce planning and staff roles.

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7Technology Plan 2016–20

Delivering quality customer services

Our strategy is informed by a number of factors. These include:• our role to implement government policy and provide

services to the public• the expected growth in the demand for services • a push to achieve greater efficiencies in the delivery

of our services• a community expectation that services will be easy

to use, connected and secure• the continuing growth and transformation of

digital channels

A digital location for Citizen to Government services

The public, professionals, service providers and agencies will access services through Government as a Platform. Government as a Platform consists of an eMarketplace and other channels and services that provide a seamless interactive online experience. We will support the DTA as the lead agency providing Citizen to Government services through the whole of government portal. The eMarketplace facilitates direct interaction between customers and service providers, customers and government, and service providers and government.

Integrated services across agencies and channel partners will deliver services to better meet customer needs. The services, rather than the customers, will integrate information across agencies. Digital will be the primary channel for dealing with government, though customer choice will be retained.

Faster and more consistent delivery

We will accelerate our delivery of new customer services and government outcomes. We will achieve this by making our underlying technology agnostic to the services located on that technology. We will also transform our technology planning and service delivery processes to be able to respond quickly and effectively to change—be it policy, economic, environmental or due to unexpected emergencies.

The customer experience will be better and more consistent. We are introducing virtual assistants to guide customers through their interactions with the department and our service officers in processing claims.

A reliable, secure and integrated set of information

To connect Australians to the services they need, we will:• develop a reliable, secure and integrated set of

information across the department and other agencies

• transform services through advanced and connected technologies that customers find easy, efficient and highly relevant to their circumstances and needs.

These simple, secure and convenient online services will attract our customers and digital will become their channel of choice to interact with the department. Our customers’ service experience will be similar to online banking and shopping. Any change will include full consideration of privacy issues and the ongoing need to protect personal information.

Unprecedented levels of efficiency and quality in our services

We will transform our customer services and internal services by introducing intelligent automation, which will combine artificial intelligence and automation to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency and quality in our services.

To support our long-term programmes, we will continue to improve our efficiency and effectiveness through strategic partnerships with specialists in the private sector.

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8 Department of Human Services

Our objectives

The Technology Plan will support the transformation of the department and its services to respond to the growing expectations of government and customers.

To achieve our vision, we will focus on eight objectives.

1. Omni-channel customer interaction

Customers will interact with us through an omni-channel experience which is naturally connected and efficient across all touchpoints making services intuitive and easy to access and manage.

2. Online services delivered via an eMarketplace

Customers will be able to access the services and support they need using the eMarketplace.

3. Circumstance driven experience and services

Customers’ individual needs and circumstances will be the driver of their interactions and experiences providing a personalised service.

4. A leading Citizen to Government service provider

We will support the DTA as the leading provider of Citizen to Government services.

5. Service provider to government partner agencies and service providers

We will provide citizen-centric cost effective services to the department, other government agencies and service providers.

6. Innovative, customer-driven ICT

Our ICT will be driven by customer needs and requirements.

7. ICT provided As a Service

Our ICT will be provided to the department As a Service, enabling agility and high-quality services both internally and externally.

8. An ecosystem of data

We will develop reliable, secure and integrated information across the department and other agencies. Information within the department will be accessed in a secure and seamless way based on customer requirements and protecting privacy and personal information.

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9Technology Plan 2016–20

Building a Digital Services Platform

Our transformation will deliver a world-class Digital Services Platform.

The Technology Plan is our vehicle for transforming to the Digital Services Platform. We will ensure success by using a common set of digital channels across agencies and by focusing on delivering a comprehensive set of mature services with clear interfaces for both providers and staff.

Our Digital Services Platform consists of three main technology platforms that can support many different business functions and services. A business service may use multiple technology platforms.

Government as a Platform

The platform that provides a digital location for the public, service partners, government and agencies to interact and to access services from the Australian Government and associated providers The introduction of an eMarketplace will provide a digital location for customers, service providers and agencies to interact and to access services.

Digital Business Platform

The platform that drives digital transformation through business-driven collaborative innovation and, supported by industrialised technology, manages business services through the full lifecycle. We will use technology As a Service, develop internal and external business services with embedded automation and statistical quality control. We will deliver services faster, more consistently and at a lower cost.

Industrialised Technology Platform

The platform that provides a service-centric approach to deliver industrialised, service products that are predesigned and preconfigured solutions to support the Digital Business Platform. The services are highly automated and repeatable, scalable and reliable. The department will deliver technology agnostically from the services delivered by that technology.

Industrialised technology will make delivery faster, simpler and more efficient.

The next step of our transformation focuses on the industrialisation of our technology in a similar way to technology supplied in the private sector. We will provide this technology As a Service both in the department and to other government agencies.

Personalised customer experiences

We will improve the productivity and connectedness of our services through consumer technology innovations that will anticipate and deliver personalised services to our customers. Advanced data matching techniques combined with intelligent automation will lead to a better online experience for customers and greatly reduced duplication. Customers will only need to tell their story once to government, and service providers will be able to collaborate and connect the dots on customers’ service requirements.

Increased community co-design of services

The last steps on our transformation will enable communities to be further engaged in co-designing government products and services to more closely align them with real-world requirements. Online self-help communities will be naturally formed by customers, providers and others who share a common interest, with online forums and crowd-sourced assistance. Co-design is the logical progression for these communities.

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10 Department of Human Services

Summary

Technology Plan 2016–20Our vision is the provision of government services through a trusted Digital Services Platform.

The Technology Plan will support the ongoing transformation of the department’s services to meet the growing expectations of government and customers. It will do this by building on the foundations laid by the Technology Plan and by moving the department towards providing services via a Digital Services Platform and introducing intelligent automation.

Our transformed internal planning and service delivery processes will allow us to move faster and further.

Once these changes are in place, we will increase our co-design activities with the community to produce services that address the real-world needs of local communities.

System of planning

Our internal technology planning and service delivery processes will be streamlined, so that we are better placed to respond quickly and effectively to change—be it policy, economic, environmental or due to unexpected emergencies.

Digital Services Platform

The Digital Services Platform will deliver a single digital location for customers, service providers and agencies to interact and access. We will achieve this by transforming and rationalising internal services and introducing industrialised technology.

Intelligent automation

The quality of our services will be unprecedented and intelligent automation will assist and guide our customers in their transactions with us and our staff in our internal operations.

Socialisation and decentralisation

We will work closely with communities to design and deliver services targeted to community needs.

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11Technology Plan 2016–20

Term DefinitionAs a Service As a Service is the delivery of re-usable, fine-grained business, software, platform

and infrastructure components as a managed service through a service catalogue describing each of the catalogue items and the associated price.

Bimodal ICT Bimodal ICT is the practice of managing two separate, coherent modes of ICT delivery—one focused on stability and the other on agility. Mode 1 is traditional and sequential, emphasising safety and accuracy. Mode 2 is exploratory and nonlinear, emphasising agility and speed.www.gartner.com/it-glossary/bimodal

Capability A capability is an ability that an organisation, person, or system possesses. A capability describes from strategy ‘what’ an organisation needs to do and enables the identification of the elements of ‘people, process, technology and information’ that are required to realise an organisational objective.

Channel A channel is defined by a combination of three factors: a target device, for example, a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or a PC; an interaction paradigm, for example, a graphical user interface (GUI), email, voice response or video; and business practices, that is, channel-specific elements of business that may include payment services, shipment processes, taxation, customer support and authentication.www.gartner.com/it-glossary/channel

Citizen to Government Citizen to Government is the direct interaction between the public and government.

Cognitive computing Cognitive computing refers to systems that learn at scale, reason with purpose, and interact with humans naturally.

Community A community is a constantly changing group of people collaborating and sharing their ideas over an electronic network (for example, the internet). Communities optimise their collective power by affiliation around a common interest, by the compression of the time between member interactions (that is, communicating in real time), and by asynchronous ‘postings’ that potentially reach more participants and permit more reflection time than real-time interactions.www.gartner.com/it-glossary/community

Digital business Digital business is the creation of new business designs by blurring the digital and physical worlds.www.gartner.com/it-glossary/digital-business

Digital customer Digital customers use digital channels—Web, mobile and social—to consume content, engage with brands and complete a transaction.www.gartner.com/it-glossary/digital-customer

Digital disruption Digital disruption refers to changes enabled by digital technologies that occur at a pace and magnitude that disrupt established ways of value creation, social interactions, doing business and more generally our thinking.

Disruption See Digital disruption

DTA Digital Transformation Agency www.dta.gov.au

Ecosystem of data An ecosystem of data is a reliable, secure, and integrated set of information across the department and other agencies.

Glossary

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Term DefinitioneMarketplace An eMarketplace is a platform that facilitates the direct interaction between the

public and service providers as well as between the public and the government and the service providers and the government.

Function Functions are the combination of people, systems, information, and technologies that represent the execution of a business capability, which either directly or indirectly contributes to services.

Government’s Digital Transformation Agenda 2015–16

The agenda consists of:• new services for individuals• new services for business• the Digital Service Standard• the Trusted Digital Identity Framework• better grants administration

www.dta.gov.au/www.dta.gov.au/budget/www.digitalpulse.pwc.com.au/government-255m-digital-transformation-agenda/

ICT Information and communications technology

Industrialised Technology The standardisation of ICT services through predesigned and preconfigured solutions that are highly automated and repeatable, scalable and reliable, and meet the needs of many organisationswww.gartner.com/it-glossary/industrialized-it-services/

Intelligent automation Intelligent automation is the application of natural language processing, machine learning, and machine vision to automate and adapt end-to-end workflows to achieve specific business outcomes.

Managed service See Service

Naturally connected Naturally connected services are automated services behind the scenes saving effort for users and staff, and automated processing across government, providers and business, with the consent of customers.

Other government agencies Australian Government agencies other than the Department of Human Services such as the Australian Tax Office (ATO)

Platform Platforms are the combination of people, systems, information and technologies that are used as a base on which functions and services are developed and executed.

Predictive Analytics Predictive Analytics is a form of advanced analytics which examines data or content to answer the question ‘What is going to happen?’ or more precisely, ‘What is likely to happen?’, and is characterised by techniques such as regression analysis, forecasting, multivariate statistics, pattern matching, predictive modelling, and forecasting.www.gartner.com/it-glossary/predictive-analytics-2

Service Services are the combination of people, systems, information, and technologies that form the logical representation of the benefits to the consumer that result due to the execution of functions to deliver service, as described from the consumers’ point of view.

13Technology Plan 2016–20

Term DefinitionService platform A service platform is the high-level logical grouping of a set of technology

resources that are consumed in the delivery of a related group of managed services and service products.

Service product A service product is a packaged set of services and functions that must be consumed in a standardised way.

Supply chain A supply chain is a system of organisations, people, activities, information, and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer

System Systems are the combination of people, software, information, and technologies that process or interpret information.

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