Government Technology Services (GTS)
Who we are, and what we can do for you
Notes from a presentation to the Government Web Community on 4th December 2009.
GTS Briefing by Tina Sutton, Director of Government Technology Services (GTS) DIA.
In July 2009, the Government Technology Services group (GTS) moved from the State Services Commission to the Department of Internal Affairs. GTS provides many services to government agencies from Risk Management to Web Management. The Web Management role covers Web Standards to managing newzealand.govt.nz and the govt.nz domain space.
The GTS looks after policy, operational strategy and operational delivery. The GCI Office looks after ICT strategy and more substantive policy, integrated governance and system wide change.
Why is the GTS undertaking these roles? Because the New Zealand government has to do more with less. The drivers are shared services. Need to aggregate on demand and look to economies of scale.
The GTS aims to build strong foundations by focusing on architecture and standards. The GTS vision for 2012 is that it will be recognised as the ICT Centre of Excellence in government.
- Communications programme - one.govt agreement (WAN and Internet) which will replace the GSN; Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Transitions; SeeMail (secure email); mobile and voice agreements
- Government web domain
- Management of government websites - newzealand.govt.nz: data.govt.nz; and Public Sector Intranet (PSI)
- Identity - igovt login; Identity Verification Services (pilot); Identity standards
- Managed desktop and enterprise software - to reduce cost, improve flexibility and improve interoperability.
Access to the Government Technology Service (GTS) is currently available only to Public Sector agencies.
Web 360: Managing Your Online Channel
Why do we care about good quality websites? Because users have high expectations. Many government agencies have 1990’s brochure sites which proclaim how good they are. Government is trying to change the culture of their organisations in order to change the online channel.
Most government agency websites suffer from a lack of executive ownership, have a legacy infrastructure, and consist of a collection of ad hoc websites.
There are over 600 websites identified as New Zealand government websites - they are usually fragmented websites. The user experience of these websites is generally not good. The result is poor value for money in this economic climate. The issue is not about government spending, but about spending the money wisely.
A web investment framework consists of:
- leadership
- strategy
- implementation
- measurement
This is the holistic web channel management = Web 360.
The Web Advisory group seeks to improve the State Sector performance and give the citizen a better experience online. It provides resourcing and expertise through all of the life-cycle stages. It is an independent, credible consultancy with government insight. Web 360 is designed to deliver results.
Reactive web management is: - Diagnosis - Web Advisory Service - Holistic Management.
“There is nothing like paying for a report to get people to read it.”
Totally Virtual - presented by Elyssa Pallai
The Read Write Web (RWW) is a virtual only company. It has very little operating overheads and has staff working around the globe. The company was started by New Zealander Richard MacManus. RWW is the fifth read technology blog in the world. RWW discusses lightweight technologies in the cloud. It is a place to not only read and write, but a place to participate.
RWW uses online tools such as Basecamp for keeping track of projects and assigning tasks to people. Skype chat rooms are used for communication. Google calendar is another tool used as different time zones can be set. This is useful because RWW has staff working all over the world. Cubetree is a tool that integrates wikis and blogs.
Working virtually requires a mind-shift but it is a productive environment. We need to leverage the web to be able to do our work efficiently.
There are problems with using open source tools in government. And the longer we sit and wait, the further behind we will become in using this technology.
