Today we shine a spotlight on work the DTA has been doing to develop the digital platforms — Tell Us Once and Notifications. 

Digital Transformation Strategy and roadmap

The Digital Transformation Strategy builds a strong foundation that allows us to take advantage of all of the opportunities of the digital age, for the benefit of people and businesses.

It will be done in a way that ensures privacy and security is built into every single thing we do. Privacy and digital transformation are not mutually exclusive: we will deliver both. 

We do this by having an approach that is both innovative and cautious: we take big ideas, and then we test and run rigorous assessments before we do large scale roll outs. To borrow some words of wisdom – “think big, start small, act fast”.  We make sure to engage with people on this journey, taking the time to understand their needs throughout the whole process.

Our roadmap outlines more than 100 key projects and milestones that will be delivered by over 20 agencies over the next 12 to 24 months. 

To date, around 30 initiatives have been delivered. Some projects have undergone transformation and are delivering measurable outcomes. Other projects have been released in trial or pilot phases and many more are in the pipeline to be rolled out. 

Each year, we will release a performance report on how we are tracking. In collaboration with agencies, we will also continue to update the roadmap in an agile and iterative way. We’ll be adding new products and services that make the most of the opportunities that digital transformation offer and stay ahead of changes in technology and the economy.  

It is important to us that we are transparent and accountable to the roadmap and are responsive to emerging opportunities for digital transformation through to 2025. This is why the Government has committed to doing yearly reviews of the Strategy and roadmap to ensure it stays current. 

Digital platforms

Whole-of-government digital platforms feature heavily on the roadmap, including work to provide continued improvements to myGov, connecting more digital identity pilot services, and releasing pilots of Tell Us Once and Notifications. 

They are central to realising our strategic vision of government services that are easy to deal with, informed by you and fit for the digital age. 

Since late 2017, we’ve been working on Tell Us Once and Notifications. The Discovery and Alpha reports for both platforms are complete and we have now moved to Beta with plans to move to pilots in the near future. 

When up and running, Tell Us Once and Notifications will improve the experience users have when interacting with government services, and at the same time, are expected to deliver savings to government.

Have your details changed? Tell us once 

People’s personal details and circumstances often change. Perhaps you have a new address, phone number, email address or have changed your name. At the moment, you need to update a range of organisations, businesses and government agencies separately, which can be time consuming. If you have changed your name, this often need to be done face-to-face.

Tell Us Once will allow you, if you choose, to easily and quickly tell government just once about a change in your details, saving time and expense for both you and for government alike.

Importantly, there will be strict privacy and security controls that mean you retain control of your information and how you choose to share it with government. Only with your consent will government send your updated information to different agencies.

Tell Us Once is in Beta and we have developed a prototype for the service. We’re continuing to test the service and explore how it can be rolled out to other tiers of government to make sure government is easier to deal with.

So many notifications, so little time 

People make millions of calls and enquiries each year to government agencies to find out about the progress of their applications, payments and obligations, which tells us we have work to do to improve the kind of information people are receiving from us.

Through almost 100 hours of user research, we’ve identified lots of ways people would prefer government to communicate with them. 

This is what you told us:

• You want to receive immediate updates through text message and email with small snippets of useful information. For example, you want us to remind you of an upcoming appointment, to update you when your application has progressed in a queue, or to tell you that your document or card is about to expire.
• You don’t want sensitive information delivered through text messages and emails. Information like the outcome of your tax lodgement, or a decision on your National Disability Insurance Scheme access are things you want delivered through secure channels, but also more accessible than the current myGov Inbox. You told us you also want the ability to stay in the digital channel when responding to these sorts of messages.

What next?

While the story of digital transformation is enormous, we’ll continue to keep you updated on our progress delivering the Digital Transformation Strategy, and ultimately how we are improving government digital services for all Australians.