NSW govt releases strategic framework

NSW Minister for Finance and Services Greg Pearce yesterday released the state government's draft information and communications technology strategic framework.

The minister asked industry to be involved in the creation of the strategy in June this year, and created a board to formulate the strategy a month later.

The strategy lays out milestones that will see the government head towards better services and value for money.

This month, the government said it would convene working groups on five key capabilities: better information sharing; services anytime, anywhere; community and industry collaboration; citizen-based services; and managing performance.

Enablers for these goals would be common standards for data and security across government, implementing better sourcing processes, keeping an eye on new IT developments and products that could be used in the government, hiring the right people and the consolidation of duplicated IT infrastructure.

The working groups will provide draft implementation plans to the ICT leadership group in March, with outlined timeframes. These plans will be considered, and priority actions will be pulled out.

Implementation plans will be reviewed, with renewed versions to be released in September.

"For 16 years under Labor, NSW suffered from a lack of direction and whole-of-government coordination leading to disjointed investment, duplication, waste and poorer services for citizens," Pearce said in a statement.

"In contrast, the NSW Liberals and Nationals Government is committed to making it easier for NSW citizens to interact with government, to harnessing the opportunities provided by ICT to improve government operations and to developing the ICT industry in NSW."

The government has launched a new website so that it can receive input on the new strategy.