NSW injects millions into digital transformation

NSW is backing its digital rhetoric with millions of dollars in funding to help meet premier Mike Baird's goal of 70 percent of all government transactions completed electronically by 2019.

In state budget papers handed down today, NSW unveiled an extra $31.8 million for Service NSW to help transition more government services to the customer-facing agency in the coming year, and to digitise and improve those it already delivers.

The funding feeds into a headline figure of  $50 million the state is boasting it has committed to reaching the premier's digital transactions target by the end of the budget period.

By the end of 2016-17, Service NSW expects to hit a rate of 49 percent of transactions completed via its digital channels, up 6 percent on figures recorded in 2015-16.

The customer service juggernaut will add 20 new government transactions to its portfolio over the next financial year, taking it to a total of 880. It will also open 15 new Service NSW-branded shop fronts.

Since 2013-14, the agency has grown from 676 full time equivalent employees to a forecasted 1796 in 2016-17.

The state has also dramatically boosted the ranks of the digital bureaucrats overseeing government-wide technology operations.

Inside the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation's IT strategy branch, FTE numbers have grown from just 58 in 2013-14 to an expected 197 in 2016-17.

Some of the growth will come from the establishment of a Data Analytics Centre.

The DFSI has for the first time revealed the budget for the dedicated data agency set up by Innovation Minister Victor Dominello will be $16.8 million across the coming four years.

According to Dominello, the DAC has already started on 10 big data projects with the aim of 'diagnosing the problems confronting many in government and allowing agencies to provide the solutions'.

The state will also back a high-profile move towards digital licences through a $12.3 million funding injection.