DTO wants help designing whole-of-govt digital identities

The Digital Transformation Office has wasted no time after a $5.3 million budget windfall turning to the market to figure out how to spend its new cash on a trusted digital identity solution.

The digital service delivery authority is in the midst of a program it hopes will establish a whole-of-government approach to verifying identity across all the online transaction services offered by Australian agencies.

It envisions a future where Australian businesses and individuals will be able to use the same credentials across all Commonwealth-provided services, rather than having to prove their identity each time.

The DTO has put the call out to Australian and international vendors who think they could contribute to the alpha design phase of this trusted identity verification solution, following the recent completion of a discovery process.

The agency has invited pitches from organisations who think they can “contribute to current thinking about the most appropriate strategy and product for the Commonwealth”.

The office said the solution would need to be able to verify ID documents in unison with the government’s document verification service, manage credentials and deliver “trust broker solutions”.

Its preference is for respondents who can deliver the design in an “iterative or agile manner” and adhere to open standards and protocols.

At this stage the procurement will only cover the alpha phase, but the DTO has flagged the prospect of another approach to market for full deployment down the track.

In the meantime, the DTO will continue its behind the scenes work on the standards and protocols that will define the parameters of the trusted digital identity framework, as well as consulting with lawyers about how to make these standards legally binding and enforceable.

The DTO’s $5.3 million budget allocation for the identity work is due to be spent over two years.