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Industry Research indicates that the main factors driving IT Investment in government in Australia at present and in the coming years include:
- Transformation and Simplification:
Government agencies are under growing pressure to transform the way they operate, improve communication with stakeholders and increase the efficiency of processes the efficiency of government operation.
- Whole of Government Approach:
There are both individual agency and whole-of-government business drivers for investment in architecture, governance and purchasing frameworks. Individual agency drivers may differ but the whole-of-government ones are expected to be also applicable to most agencies.
- eGovernment:
Citizens and businesses are coming to expect government bodies to remember the services already provided and the information already gathered.
These expectations apply to all channels of service delivery. eGovernment projects can potentially change the way governments conduct business rather than just how governments can deliver service online.
NEC IT Solutions for government
Melbourne’s Moonee Valley City Council is an example of a government organisation (local government) to switch to an NEC networked IP telephony – a converged solution which carries data, video and voice traffic simultaneously on a single network. The solution greatly improved customer service and provided a measurable return on investment by linking 350 employees across seven sites onto one data and voice network.
“What initially impressed me about this offering was that we could combine NEC’s IP technology with our existing infrastructure, greatly reducing infrastructure costs” said Maureen Tresize, IT Manager at the Council. “We didn’t have to totally replace our system in order to upgrade our technology”.
The problems confronted by Moonee Valley City Council are typical of problems confronting most government departments and agencies. Here you have a situation of many staff located across many disparate sites with a need to link all employees and sites onto one voice and data network with no capital expenditure with the objective of improving customer service.
“Essentially, Council now has state-of-the-art technology for no extra cost”.
Customer service and staff morale have improved according to Council sources. Refer to the Moonee Valley City Council Case Study for further details.
The Victoria Government had similar problems; many agencies, growing IT complexity, an old technology platform. There were also a number of disparate sites given the multitude of state government agencies and departments involved. And with an increased focus on improving customer service, while reducing operational costs simultaneously, NEC provided the Victorian government with a totally managed, hybrid IP telephony network solution, known as VOTS (Victoria Office Telephony Services). The Victorian state government claims cost savings of approximately 15% while enjoying the benefits of a refresh of the technology platform. Features and benefits of this solution, according to a Victoria Government press release of 1 April 2004, which apply to all potential government agencies, authorities and departments who adopt NEC’s IP Solution (hybrid or pure), include:
- Recurrent Cost Savings – approximately 15% are achievable
- Total upgrade of the technology platform to an IP-enabled system, which ensures the continuing convergence of voice and data infrastructure.
- Greatly improved service levels (internally and clients) that ensures minimal down time in the event of an equipment failure.
- Enhanced telephony charge validation function that ensures Government departments/authorities/agencies are being appropriately billed by carriers.
- Minimised conversion costs when government bodies wish to convert from traditional telephony to IP telephony.
- Converged voice and data environment.
According to a recent study on outsourcing in the Australian Public Sector, Government agencies are increasingly reliant on information technology to deliver greater responsiveness and improved quality of service to a wide range of stakeholders. But there is a catch: they must achieve these goals while also constraining expenditure.
The task becomes a difficult balancing act: delivering ever-higher service levels while at the same time reducing costs. A key finding of the IDC study is that outsourcing has already been accepted as a well-marked path to efficiency and cost management for government at all levels. While it can be difficult to accurately measure the benefits, based on examples from both State and Federal governments outsourcing has delivered the following:
- Greater ability to manage costs and deliver improved quality of service.
Best practices on a local and global scale; and
Access to technology and skills.
IT outsourcing
NEC values the importance of IT outsourcing in the public sector, including client requirements, and has a tailored government solution consisting of:
- Wide Area Network and Local Area Networking Services
NEC can provide and manage all network connections including primary connections, backup connections, internet connections and firewalls, on a fully managed basis, with facilities and procedures for trouble shooting and fault restoration available on a 24x7 basis.
- Infrastructure Support Services
Includes the provision a range of services such as establishment and documentation of support arrangements and support agreements from 3rd parties, daily system administration, system support and problem resolution, security management, account management, ongoing server software support, upgrades to operating server operating systems and performance reporting.
- Desktop Services
Includes hands-on resolution of desktop problems, installation and removal of application software, operating system and SOE component upgrades.
- Helpdesk Services
Includes the provision and maintenance of a 24x7 level 1 help desk for government staff members, escalation of priorities, resolution tracking and reporting.
- Security Management Services
Security management covers all the elements of the supported infrastructure including firewalls, routers, servers and desktop systems. Services provided include: configuration and management of firewalls, configuration and management of servers & PCs, management of server accounts and access rights, server virus protection, desktop systems virus protection, email scanning, provision of network security and security reporting.
- Disaster recovery and business continuity services
NEC is able to offer a backup site to house client equipment. Also, as a component of our Disaster Recover Solution, we can provide: Secure Site, Hot site managed 24x7, provision of contingency office space, additional WAN links to Backup site including management of the links, access to the internet for general interactive browsing and operational support.
- Change Management Services
As part of the management of the supported infrastructure, NEC will provide details of the change management procedures to be applied. The procedure incorporates a number of principles as follows: All changes are appropriately authorised before implementation, disruptions to services due to change implementation are minimised, changes to be implemented without undue delay, completion of risk assessment for all changes, the provision of an audit trail for all changes and procedures for emergency changes which address critical path system problems.
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