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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (28 February) . . Page.. 420 ..

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (3.47): The ACT Government has a large investment in IT infrastructure and a number of critical business applications. It has a wide area network connecting most of its offices and a modern telephone network provided by Telstra. Most of its equipment and software is relatively up to date; but, as I think we all know in the Assembly, there are shortcomings in the current arrangements. For example, a significant number of telephones are not part of the corporate system. This reduces convenience and adds to cost. There are separate data networks which are not well integrated. Although we have more than 6,700 computers connected to the system, only 4,200 have access to electronic mail. Clearly, this is inefficient, and it leads to underutilisation of this strategic resource. There is too much diversity in equipment, standards and applications, which means that opportunities to communicate and to share information are often lost. There is a large number of very small IT groups and processing centres, which means that the Government loses economies of scale.

As anybody in this Assembly would know, in the area of information technology it is extremely important that we achieve an integrated system that achieves the outcomes that the ACT Government and, of course, the ACT taxpayers require. The corporate telephone system has approximately 11,700 services, with a further 2,700 services being connected to separate systems. The existence of separate telephone systems means that the Government is missing out on benefits such as economies of scale in facilities management and switchboard operations.

The Government wants to have an information technology environment that provides its staff with access to modern systems and improves the working environment. Information technology systems should directly contribute to the delivery of services to the community and to the achievement of high levels of administrative efficiency. The information technology environment should have the following features: The use of technology adds to the efficiency and effectiveness of agency operations; the Government and agencies achieve value for money; there are clear, documented and well understood standards and protocols within which IT is managed; there is open communication between office systems and applications; there is the widest possible access to corporate desktop systems such as electronic mail; the services are carefully planned to meet business and customer commitment objectives; and the systems should be user friendly and contribute to user satisfaction. Again, I do not think anybody would doubt any of those objectives, but, unfortunately, in the past they simply have not all been met.

The Government decided, during the budget process last year, to undertake a strategic review of information technology service delivery arrangements. Its objectives were to improve service delivery and to cut costs. The consultant firms Planning and Support Inc. and Price Waterhouse were engaged to undertake this project and it was completed late in 1995. The consultants have advised that information technology services cost the ACT Government $53m per annum, or more than $1m every week. There is a need to improve information technology planning and the way in which managers specify their information technology requirements. There is too much diversity in equipment, standards and applications, which leads to duplication and lost communication opportunities. The Government can improve standards of service and value for money by standardisation, rationalisation and aggregation of its information technology equipment and support arrangements. Outsourcing is the best way of achieving these objectives.

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