When residents and businesses don’t have the digital connectivity they need, there’s a negative impact on their ability to access critical services and on their quality of life. The result is a digital divide between those who have access to adequate connectivity and those who don’t. By improving connectivity in NSW, including in rural and remote areas, people are better able to access the services they need and engage more fully with their community.
Identifying opportunities for All-of-Government efficiencies
The Customer Success team within the Digital Strategy, Investment and Assurance (DSIA) branch of the Department of Customer Service recently identified an important issue affecting connectivity in NSW. While many branches are working across connectivity, the Customer Success team realised there could be better visibility and transparency of projects, especially in rural and remote areas. By sharing resources and working collaboratively, the government can create more effective solutions to solving connectivity issues.
At an Infrastructure Services and Strategic Investment (ISSI) meeting, the Customer Success team saw that three similar connectivity projects were in progress. The team then resolved to engage with NSW Telco Authority and the sector to identify possible ways to encourage greater collaboration and efficiencies.
The goal of the roundtable was to investigate if there was an appetite for a more coordinated approach, and if there was, what that would involve.
Designing the connectivity roundtable
To open this conversation, the connectivity roundtable was held on 27 September 2023, facilitated by Geoffrey Emerson, Portfolio Cluster Manager. “When designing a virtual roundtable, it’s important to understand your audience and the outcomes you want to achieve. We held some pre-workshop meetings to uncover key topics and assist in design, including people in charge of infrastructure or digital services for Health and Transport for NSW, as well as TAFE and the NSW Telco Authority,” Geoffrey says.
After the session, Geoffrey engaged with the stakeholders further to get quantitative data on what topics participants felt should be carried forward.
Quenching the thirst for collaboration
Throughout the roundtable discussion, it was clear that there was a strong appetite for collaboration from the PoAs. The next steps are to elevate this conversation and have a co-design session around connectivity for the State Digital Strategy. This will help to identify what type of governance structure might be appropriate.
The Customer Success team were encouraged to see such enthusiastic collaboration and look forward to seeing this develop with the different PoAs.
If you want to explore other opportunities for working together in Government, contact the Customer Success team at custsx@customerservice.com.au.