Report 8

Delivering Services Online

Agency responses

Office of the Government Chief Information Officer

The Recommendations in this Report fully align with the State’s proposed new strategic direction for government information and communications technology. In partnership with lead government agencies, the Office is working to improve the number, quality, accessibility and usability of government digital services and online information. The Office is committed to working with other government agencies to provide clear policies, standards and guidelines for digital services and a more streamlined online government presence to improve service delivery and transparency to the community.

Department of Commerce

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) welcomes the opportunity to work with the OAG on this matter as it recognises the importance of a customer focused approach.

The delivery of an online presence has been a challenging process for Commerce on the basis that it is an agency with a wide range of customers often with discrete, narrow transactional needs. While a few customers may have interactions over more than one Division, this is not always the case and often the general public or industry groups are only interested in a specific topic or industry activity. The Government’s Website Governance Framework requires that a single website should be used by the agency; this framework restriction limited the capacity for Commerce to fully deliver a customer focused approach.

Commerce continues to be committed to improving our customers experience and their convenience in engaging with our services, particularly online, utilising customer centred design principles. The department has embarked upon a significant program of work to allow its customers to securely apply for the majority of our licenses completely online. It is intended that in addition to improving the customer’s experience it will reduce the amount of time taken to assess and approve licenses, resulting in our customers being able to more quickly get to work in their chosen occupation and delivering internal efficiencies.

In addition to this major initiative, Commerce is also one of the lead agencies for the Government CIO’s Government Digital Services Portal project, which is a core element of the new WA Digital Strategy. This project will provide the core platform for future online services for not just Commerce but the broader public sector, making it easier, simpler and more secure for customers to interact online with the public service.

Landgate

Landgate welcomes the Delivering Services Online report and supports the recommendations of the OAG audit.

Landgate has made the online delivery of services a top corporate priority and is committed to delivering world class services online.

Landgate has recently completed a number of major initiatives including the development of a new Land Registry System, integration with Australia’s online property transaction system (PEXA), and SLIP Future, the open data platform for location-based information. A project known internally as Koondart will continue the work already undertaken and replace or update Landgate’s legacy online systems, as Landgate continues to provide leadership in the WA Public Sector online.

Synergy

Synergy is pleased the report recognised its digital transformation strategy and the early benefits that have been realised from an increased prioritisation of digital within its business. Synergy concurs with the key findings outlined in the report, and is supportive of the recommendations outlined.

As recognised within your report, customer centricity is a pivotal element of Synergy’s digital transformation, and Synergy has benefited from the adoption of a customer first design approach. The implementation of Synergy‘s new public website in October 2015 has resulted in the accelerated uptake of digital services and realisation of organisational benefits as follows:

  • 23% increase in website traffic over the last six months
  • 50.000 less calls received by Synergy’s call centre
  • A 15% increase in the number of forms processed online
  • An increase in customer with residential net promoter scores (NPS) increasing by 35 percentage points since November 2015
  • The delivery of more than $3.5m in financial savings to date

Synergy intends to continue its investment and prioritisation of digital service delivery, with the intent captured as part of Synergy‘s corporate strategy.

Whilst not a specific recommendation impacting Synergy, the recommendation for the Government Chief Information Officer (GCIO) to review and enhance the Website Governance Framework is also supported by Synergy. Experience with the current framework suggests that it is not always aligned to digital best practice, and the framework could be further extended to provide greater direction to agencies to ensure the effective delivery of services online.

Department of Training and Workforce Development

The Department of Training and Workforce Development has a progressive strategy towards online service delivery. Online service delivery requires a paradigm shift to move from traditional manual processing to online service delivery. It requires significant systems development accompanied by significant business process change and cultural change.

To date, the Department offers a variety of services online, including:

  • processing of applications for international students to study at Western Australian TAFE colleges and government schools;
  • an online jobs board for Aboriginal jobseekers, and capacity for employers to register and advertise vacancies online through the jobs board;
  • assessment of overseas qualifications;
  • career support through online chat via the Career Centre website;
  • applications for skilled migration programs, including Western Australian State nomination and employer certification for the Regional Sponsored Migration Schemes; and
  • information about vocational education and training in Western Australia through the Training Product Search.

While there is still work to do, the Department has a positive track record in investing in online service delivery. The findings of this report provide an informative insight into the provision of services online for Western Australian government agencies. They will be useful as we continue to introduce and implement improvements and enhancements to our own online services across the Department, particularly in context of projects to redesign and redevelop our corporate and service delivery websites which are currently underway and due for completion by 2018.

The Department accepts the recommendations of the report, and will continue to progress towards online service delivery as system development, change management and budget permit.

WA Police

WA Police remains committed to enhancing online service delivery to the community, beyond the services it already offers the public. I understand your office has liaised with representatives of WA Police in recent months and I welcome your invitation to include an agency response regarding this report before it is tabled in Parliament. Those comments are below:

  • WA Police has put considerable resources into enhancing online service solutions. In December 2015 National Police Certificates went wholly online, with 40% of applicants already choosing to use this service. Existing online services include Check My Crime, Report a Hoon, Report My Lost Property, Register a Party, Report Graffiti and a range of infringements. These and other online services will guide Police’s ongoing improvement, development and implementations of further online services.
  • The OAG audit report correctly identifies that internal barriers, regulatory, legislative and other factors can make delivery of some services online harder to achieve, however WA Police remains committed to improving online service delivery where it can do so.

Since the audit concluded, WA Police has taken prompt action to address two immediate matters raised in the report: A ‘Feedback’ button has been placed on the WA Police corporate website home page, which takes the user direct to an online form. This enhances the previous range of ‘contact us’ options. Secondly, WA Police has made information on the police website regarding the reporting of vehicle crashes clearer and more logical.

Page last updated: May 25, 2016

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