Published on the 30/06/2017 | Written by Jonathan Cotton
Commits $43m to replace struggling infrastructure with a streamlined communications hub…
The project, known as ‘Service Victoria’ and led by Deloitte, will create a new digital platform to improve customer service and tackle the rising costs associated with Victoria’s current inefficient web and phone service platforms.
By all accounts, it’s money worth spending: the Victorian government presently only has the capability to process 1 percent of its government services online.
The project was first revealed in April last year with the stated aim of improving access to government services, and eliminating the myriad government websites and phone hotlines that are causing delays and customer frustration.
“Dealing with government websites is sometimes confusing, slow and annoying,” the statement said. “Great customer service is a core function of any successful business, and government should be no different.”
“We don’t need a thousand different websites and hotlines for things like car registration, birth certificates and fishing licences.”
“Service Victoria is about eliminating the frustrations and delays and lowering the cost to the taxpayer.”
At the same time, a $15m budget was set aside for planning work alone.
When completed users will be able to perform car registrations and register births, deaths and marriages, along with similar tasks at a single, centralised hub, services currently provided by disparate agencies.
The operation will be located at the $48m GovHub facility in Ballarat, due to open 2020. Deloitte’s digital arm will build and run the service for three years.
The project reflects similar moves made by other governments in recent times. In June last year New South Wales pledged an extra $31.8m for its own customer service hub, Service NSW.
Similarly, New Zealand has invested in a rationalisation project of its own fragmented customer-facing systems, to make dealing with the government more efficient and less expensive.
The project, dubbed Result 10, has a very clear performance measure to deliver 70 percent of commonly used government services digitally by 2017.
While seemingly a long (long) way ahead of GovHub, there’s still a ways to go. The latest survey results – current December 2016 – show the measure is at 58 percent, but tracking over 18 quarters has shown steady progress. For further background, refer to our 2015 story Govt digital targets under pressure.
Result 9 meanwhile is measuring the performance for businesses, looking at the gap between public and private sector digital services. “The gap between the public and private sector is now nine index points, an improvement of eight index points since 2013,” the survey says. “Overall satisfaction with government service delivery has not changed significantly in the last two years, with results fluctuating between 57 percent and 60 percent.”
“The use of digital services…increased over the six months to December 2016 from 55 percent to 62 percent.”
