Having the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Honourable Peter Dunne, as opening keynote at a digital transformation conference, followed immediately by the Department’s Chief Executive Officer (Government Chief Information Officer – GCIO) Colin MacDonald, was quite a drawcard for this conference which was well attended by captains of industry in the information sector from all over New Zealand. I’m delighted the seduction of a top speaker/topic line up paid dividends and present my highlights of the conference in the paper…

Central Government thinking

Minister Dunne essentially espoused Result 10 (I made some comments about this in an earlier blog) – but more eloquently he noted the typical citizen wants interaction with Government to be minimal, no fuss, and easy with that be a Business StartUp, or just access to information it should be convenient, tailored and of course 24/7:

“it’s pretty simple proposition… while a citizen watches telly, why can’t they interact with Government in their place, on their device, in their time – the focus should be on people’s needs, not Government structures”

and this set the tone for why Digital Transformation is so important. (As an aside, I’m delighted to hear the Minister give a shout out to the National Library for the collaborative efforts to make libraries digital transformation community hubs for New Zealand. In my own experience is never more true than during the global financial crisis and post-earthquakes in Canterbury where the moral capital of libraries really shone.

I also sensed the realist in Minister Dunne (a trait I respect in him). He acknowledges that different government organisations are looking at different rates of progress regarding digital transformation and this presents a constant challenge. He noted that citizen privacy must be respected … at the same time acknowledging the desire for open government.

As our GCIO, Colin MacDonald is a pivotal player in the New Zealand government’s efforts towards digital transformation and he spoke impressively about building a digital ecosystem: how collaboration is delivering truly citizen centric services in Government. He gave us his golden rules....

Key take-homes were ensuring good UI design, great customer & staff experience when implementing digital transformation, championing organisational change, and how might such things impact on my people at my organisations Desktop Imaging and NZ Micrographic Services.

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