Q&As fromExternal Briefing
Shaping the future digital public service
The Operating EnvironmentQ. What's changed? This is not the first time government agencies have wanted to do something like this.
A. Firstly and most importantly customers are waiting for this. We are now at a point where we can start making significant change. The technology that has limited our ability to make change is now being upgraded.
There is also much more commitment at all levels of the public service. CEs have clear line of sight of the initiatives and have signed up to the delivery of 5 life events. Ministers are briefed and DCEs of services across agencies are lined up.
Q. There hasn’t been much talk about other constraints on this vision, particularly about legislative barriers and policy requirements.
A. Overall there is nothing in the legislation that is stopping us from doing this work today. This can be validated through the one on one workshops that attendees to the briefing are invited to.
The work to-date is based on the customer providing consent to share information, gets us across some of these barriers. Our research suggests that most people are comfortable with this. Over 94% of customers consent to share their birth information with Inland Revenue to get an IRD number for their child at the same time as registration.
Q. What does the operating model look like for this initiative?
A. The cross agency governance structures are robust and support the vision of the Birth of a Child life event and the building of this service. Maria Robertson, Deputy Chief Executive (DCE), DIAleadsthe Service Innovation Working Group (SIWG) made up of a number of DCEs. This group that is well connected to the ICT Partnership framework linkis committed to delivering change across Government.
This can be discussed further during the one on one workshops that attendees to the briefing are invited to.
Q. Will there be a supplementary programme of work to get agencies ready for working in this new world?
A. No, not at this stage, rather we will need to understand how all the pieces can connect with the 4 major transformations and the Service Innovation Working Group want us to demonstrate a good understanding of them, and how they come together.
This can be discussed further during the one on one workshops that attendees to the briefing are invited to.
Q. Is this, or has this worked in other places?
A. We have someone working through this at present; particularly looking at comparable environmental conditions etc where it has worked successfully. The intention is for us to share this information in greater detail with interested external firms at the one-on-one workshops early in the new year. We hope that you may be able to help us with this.
The Process and the Problems
Have the key processes outlined here been mapped across the system?
Yes we have done some of this work but we need to keep in mind that some of these processes are in place for authenticity and checks/balances and may not be the most customer-centred. We acknowledge there may be better ways to do things; we want to give customers control of their information.
This can be discussed further during the one on one workshops that attendees to the briefing are invited to.
Q: How much work have you done on process definition including the qualitative view of the problem?
A: We don’t see the process as a linear flow of products and services. We see the final product being a collection of potential products and services that clients can pick and choose to get based on their needs. If you think about one persons’ experience as they go through a birth of a child event (from finding out the baby is born through to talking to their Plunket nurse); some people went through a fairly simple process while others didn’t, it was far more complex as their situation was different.
Q. This life journey looks like it is only considering services accessed via public services is this the case?
A. No, it could include other service provider’s not just public service. Our thoughts are that over time Birth of a Child event (and other life events) will include a combination of public, private, NGO service providers.
This can be discussed further during the one on one workshops that attendees to the briefing are invited to.
Q. You say you have been prototyping but are asking for answers about how this service offering might work?
A. The prototypes were built as a way to understand our customers’ needs and wants rather than building what the service could look like. We now think we know what they are comfortable with and some things they are less open to; now we want your help to build a solution.
Technology
Q. Where does Digital Identity Management sit within this work?
A. We are assuming that digital Identity management will continue to be a strong component of the future vision. We are also likely to come up with (and hoping you might come up with) new ideas about identity – for example there are natural ways to connect identity eg a mother and a baby this could be set up in the wider government “system” not just the health system.
Q. A possible solution to some of these questions could be the use of APIs in support of the supply of services?
A: This could be one of many options and services provided. The Result 9 (Better for Business) team have had a team working on APIs, while the focus on this has fallen off in recent months there is hope that it will be reincarnated with some focus on opportunities arising from the work.
We are currently at a stage where we want to make sure that we are asking the right questions. Technology related matters will be addressed in due course. This can be discussed further during the one on one workshops that attendees to the briefing are invited to.
Lots of technology projects are running late or have tended to run late in the past, how do we change the operating model to ensure the sustainability of the project?
A. We will need to build as we go, there will be quick wins but we will need to ensure that we build with a view of the wider eco-system (not just government). We will have a much stronger focus on the customer.
We need to acknowledge that one size does not fit all and we will have to continue to refine and reconsider how we fund, how we build technology, how we develop processes, and how we integrate into business.
Q. Design architecture is not often able to take care of the dark side of technology - has that been considered?
A. Yes, we will need to do more. We need to try and build in security to consent based information and ability to link into systems.
Other questions
Q. Does local government fit in here?
A. No, not at this early stage. Many aspects of business including customer interaction with local government could feature quite naturally in the future as the ecosystem evolves.
Q. Can you talk about readiness and accessibility? Have you thought about customers such as those in the far north who may have issues accessing services?
A. We found that these people were more than ready to embrace new technologies and new services through these technologies. Many of them used smart phones to interact with government and if they weren’t able to that would use those available to them in their local WINZ offices. All these people had one thing in common; to have control over their information.
What does success look like?
We are looking at new ways of tracking benefits outside the traditional criteria. Customer time is valuable and social cost benefit analysis can create compelling part of the argument – part of this process will be trying to quantify this into something. The complexity not in how we track it, it's how we do it. We have system wide criteria but these will need to be developed for each life event.
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