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IT industry to profit from public service reform Fran Foo From: The Australian May 11, 2010 12:00AM Increase Text SizeDecrease Text SizePrintEmail Share The 96-page report was prepared by the Advisory Group on Reform of Australian Government Administration, led by Mr Moran, secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The reforms seek to deliver a raft of improvements using technology, from better services to citizens to creating a more open, approachable government. On March 29, Kevin Rudd said the government would respond to the recommendations "later in the year". But over the weekend, the Prime Minister casually mentioned the decision in a speech at the Australian National University. Ovum Australia public sector IT research director Kevin Noonan said the Moran report had "IT opportunities all the way through it". "Whatever comes out of the budget will not be the whole story for IT. The Moran report will have a big impact on industry and offer work for industry over the coming years," Mr Noonan said. "Overall there's a strong push for government 2.0 initiatives." Among the recommendations in the report are simplifying service delivery so that citizens can access multiple government services from a central portal and extending the Standard Business Reporting functionality to ease the regulatory burden imposed by government on business. The government has also been urged to start surveying how the public views agencies' service delivery. The report suggests agencies should be more proactive in integrating myriad services on offer instead of citizens searching high and low for the right agency to match their needs. An efficiency drive among smaller agencies was another area highlighted in the Moran report. It said significant opportunities existed for the 63 agencies -- with fewer than 500 employees -- to share corporate services. Medicare and Centrelink are already leading the way in such back office consolidation with IT services merged under a Human Services Department mega-reshuffle. While the government roped in British efficiency expert Peter Gershon to see how and where IT savings could be delivered, the Moran report was "the other side of the coin to Gershon", Mr Noonan said. "Gershon talked about efficiency but in a business vacuum. Moran's report will look at how the APS revamps itself and that means IT will have a big part to play over the coming years," he said. Meanwhile, the $50 million reinvestment fund borne out of savings from Sir Peter's review was expected to be allocated in the budget, Australian Information Industry Association chief executive Ian Birks said. Mr Birks said funding for electronic health is a logical area. "We hope there's money for (e-health) although overall, it is going to be a low-spending budget," he said. CSC Australia and Gartner also have e-health on their wish list for the budget. The IT services giant would like to see funding for electronic chronic disease management and telehealth models and tools to allow patients to better self-manage and enable clinicians to offer remote or virtual care. "We'd like to see federal funding for e-health, in particular an individual electronic health record," Matthew Day, CSC vice-president of financial services, health and public sector, said.
Gartner research vice-president Geoff Johnson said while a lot of emphasis had been placed on reforming the national healthcare environment, it was unclear if any e-health funding would be contained in the budget.
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