Digitising Aotearoa: Designing a connected Public Service

There are foundational choices to be made that will determine the long-term direction of digital in government. While we can point to world-leading technology modernisation success stories like Inland Revenue’s Business Transformation programme, these innovation gains are being outpaced by the growing complexity of government technology and the high costs to maintain it.    

As a result, service experiences may begin to fall behind those of our global peers and the cost of digital could begin to rise beyond sustainable limits for government. This has the potential to impact every New Zealander in the form of slower services and greater friction caused by unnecessary effort, demands, or delays. 

Current estimates are that government technology spend will cost approximately $13 billion over the next five years. As highlighted by Treasury, there are growing pressures on government finances from a range of factors, and a revised approach to managing spend is necessary to combat the long-term fiscal pressures we face as a nation. 

Locally, PwC’s Value in Motion research shows that advanced technology and AI are creating opportunities for innovation in every sector, including citizen-centric services, while global research explains that organisations that use technology effectively can move beyond their own domain to support collaboration between sectors. 

The good news is that New Zealand is not alone in facing these challenges and we can learn from other nations that have implemented solutions. 

The world’s most advanced digital governments all have something in common. Their service-centric and cost-efficient delivery is underpinned by a modern, connected digital foundation with policy, operating model and assurance baked in. 

The goal is to achieve simpler and faster services for citizens, while at the same time delivering substantial savings to the taxpayer.  

Now consider the same entrepreneur starting a business and interacting with a digitally-enabled government. Their journey begins with a common, easily accessible entry point focused on their goal. Behind the scenes, government services are orchestrated around the target outcome of starting a business, and not agency boundaries. Information that is securely held by the user is shared once, with consent, and reused for all registrations and approvals. Communications, tasks and progress are presented to the user in a clear, understandable way, with the Government presenting as a closely coordinated system.  

The quicker we begin to move in this direction, the less cost is locked into the system, and the sooner citizens and businesses can reap the benefits.  

Successful government initiatives overseas show us that true digital efficiency starts with coordinated technology investment that is aligned to the interests of the entire public service, not just the individual agency.   

While tactical interventions such as cloud modernisation and automation are important, they must be underpinned by clear central direction, binding mandates and accountability for digital to the broader public service. These foundations will reduce and stabilise digital cost in government over the long run.  

Instead of individual agencies having their own bespoke systems, technology assets can be shared and reused across multiple agencies, enabling greater efficiencies and larger cost savings.  

To do this requires both investment and consolidation. 

Leading countries have successfully invested in creating a digital public infrastructure. This is a digital layer that connects government-owned technologies and is designed to lift service performance. Similar to the concept of open banking, it enables a complex and fragmented ecosystem to function as a coherent unit through a common set of tools and standards.  

Consolidation may be achieved by moving away from an agency-centric approach to technology and by sharing and reusing assets across multiple agencies to enable greater efficiencies and larger cost savings.  

Nations like Singapore and Denmark have proven that central digital platforms can cut costs and boost service uptake by 30-60%. By slashing friction in cross-agency processing and collaboration, Danish government data suggests these savings have amounted to over USD$300 million per annum.  

While each country is different, with its own unique conditions, there is much we can learn from others. Adopting similar approaches has the potential to realise billions in long term savings, alongside greater service uptake.   

For every year the status quo remains, those potential benefits become harder to achieve, as the cost and complexity of the existing assets continue to rise.  

Important steps are already underway, with the strengthened mandate for, and repositioning of, the Government Chief Digital Office (GCDO) to the Public Service Commission, and significant progress on the Trust Framework and digital identity, signalling a positive direction of travel.  

The task is now for the broader public service to engage with this shift and consider what they need to do to create a more connected and sustainable system.

What leading digital nations show us

When considering the world’s most digitised, service-led governments, seven common themes emerge: