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

• The Service Modernisation Roadmap

• The Public Service AI Framework

• Responsible AI Guidance for the Public Service

• A survey of NZ government use cases for AI

• For the AI Community of Practice, email gcdo@dia.govt.nz and ask to join