GOVIS Events - 2025
Unlock the power of data with the Unified Star Schema
Mon, 24th March 2025, 12-1pm, G.15, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, 15 Stout Street Wellington 6011 - and online
Our thanks to Astrato and OSS Group for sharing their event with GOVIS
The USS is an innovative platform-agnostic approach to data modelling, that makes it easier to access all your data products in one place.
Are you a data architect/engineer/scientist/warehouse developer? Are you that person who always finds themselves saying "what about the schema?" Do you wish it was easier for your BI customers to 'self serve'? Do you wonder about how to leverage genAI tools for data analysis? Then you may be interested in this event...
The evolution of AI is significantly reshaping the way organisations are looking to utilise data, which brings new data modelling challenges. While many tools offer appealing data visualisation techniques, users can still often face difficulties when seeking broader insights.
The Unified Star Schema (USS) aims to tackle this challenge using an innovative data modelling approach. It's designed to enable seamless access to all data products through a single access point, regardless of technology or platform.
Join your peers for an insightful session, where you will:
Explore options to prepare for the impact of AI assistants: As AI develops, it is vital to enable direct access to data for business stakeholders.
Learn how stakeholders benefit from simplifying data analysis and reporting across various products.
Reduce the workload associated with building and maintaining complex reports and dashboards.
Connect with public service and private sector professionals in the Wellington data and analytics community.
Speakers:
Francesco Puppini, inventor of the Unified Star Schema and the Puppini Bridge. Published a book about them in 2020 that was co-authored with legendary 'father of the data warehouse' Bill Inmon. R&D engineer for Astrato.
Konrad Matheis, COO / CTO of Astrato.
You may attend in person at the MBIE offices (limited to 20 people - there will be some food courtesy of OSS Group), or you may tune in online via Microsoft Teams (link will be emailed to you on the morning of the event).
Register here.
Lunchtime forum - Transforming Government through System Leadership
Fri, 14th February 2025, 12-1pm, G.03, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, 15 Stout Street Wellington 6011 - and online
From GOVIS, in partnership with Silverstripe
It was great to hear from Monica Greenan (DIA - General Manager, Agency Partnerships & Capability, Digital Public Service) about some of the many different areas where the GCDO are active, for example:
Taking steps to further centralise digital procurement.
Collecting insights into NZers' (extensive) use of digital channels.
Rationalising the number of digital identities NZers need to interact with government (e.g. ACC's use of 'My Health Account Workforce') and continuing to progress a 'growing ecosystem of digital identity' under the Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Act 2023 (DISTF).
Weighing up the pros and cons of 'sweating' our on-prem IT assets.
Emphasising the impossibility of all agencies getting funding for their digital investment wishlists, and the need for more shared/centralised capabilities (e.g. customer portals, CRMs, case management systems, records management systems, registers...). This is the driver behind the Service Modernisation Roadmap - which highlights the joined-up work that is happening (or ought to happen).
Reminding agencies that we are all responsible for pursing shared solutions - e.g. if you at the point of spending six weeks talking to vendors as part of procurement market investigations, you should also be speaking to other agencies and the GCDO to see whether there might be a way to save money through collaboration.
Advocating with Treasury to make it easier for agencies fund IT investments through opex, not just capex.
Exploring the opportunities presented by Digital Public Infrastructure (imagine if we could achieve theoretical savings of 1% of GDP!)
Lots of AI stuff, including understanding most common agency use cases (e.g. contact center optimisation, CRM enhancements, digital process automation), the high proportion of 'internal use' tools, and the relatively small number that ended up taken through to BAU (15 from 138), for a range of reasons. Also gained some more nuanced understanding of risks and advocating for agencies to proactively publish details of their use of AI (trust through transparency). Finally, there is also an AI Community of Practice, that public servants may request to join.
Here are some key links and resources:
Minister Collins speech: Address to Public Service Leaders | Beehive.govt.nz
Sir Brian Roche speech recording: 2025 New Zealand Economics Forum Day 1
Sir Brian Roche speech transcript: Sir Brian Roche on reorientating the Public Service - Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission
For the AI Community of Practice, email gcdo@dia.govt.nz and ask to join