Large amounts of data provide new opportunities for govts: DTA CEO

As the amount of information governments create increases exponentially, it brings technological changes to deal with mass data or big data environments.

Chris Fechner, CEO, of the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) said governments have a great opportunity to further harness the massive value of systems and data in this digital age.

Speaking at the Innovate Australia 2023 conference in Canberra, Fechner said a key challenge for governments is to be responsive to this acceleration and change now and into the future.

“We should not be looking to the past, to the historical implementation of government,” he said.

“We need to change our mindset from spending hundreds of millions of dollars creating systems that are meant to last for decades, to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on hundreds of systems for hundreds of solutions that provide services to people who need them, when they need them, where they need them, at a cost that represents value to all people.”

Fechner said this is what will separate really advanced digital nations from less advanced ones.

“The more successful we are as a digital government, the more likely it is that we will be successful as a digital nation,” he said.

Fechner said the breadth of different skills and experience that governments need in data and digital now is vastly different than the past ‘in-demand’ roles of system administrators, coders and database administrators.

“In government, we still need some of these but we also need people who are thinking about policy within the digital and data landscape, using information to obtain new insights into wicked problems, and contemporary data science and digital product capabilities to improve service delivery,” he said.

“The technologies available to us today have infinite abilities for good if they are administered and leveraged by people who are conscious and aware of the implications of how data and digital are to be used.”

Fechner explained that they need to make sure that we’ve got people who are talking about digital democracy.

“How we use technology to support better customer experience, how we break down silos in government, how we share information for the benefit of people and businesses, and how we make our policy decisions work much better through using technology while not forgetting to keep people at the centre of our design,” he explained.

He said these are the things that will make the “biggest difference” to the people and businesses of Australia.

“This is how we will transition to a future-ready economy. What’s important for us all is that we continue to drive that ongoing investment and participation in how the next generation public sector is going to be fit for the digital age,” he ended.