IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

“It’s a radical departure from ‘traditional’ service portals because we have been guided by what users tell us they want,” said Peter Dunne, Internal Affairs Minister, launching the website yesterday.

Employing a single e-government body to coordinate agencies is a sensible approach that’s attracting international attention to New Zealand, says Canada-based EDS government specialist Michel Brazeau.

The igovt project helps users verify their identities to government service providers securely via the Internet, with two separate, but related services- logon and identity verification.

The logon service gives users the same logon details to access all participating government service provider’s online services. This saves citizens from having to remember multiple logon details for different services. While the identity verification service verifies identities to participating government service providers via the Internet, replacing the process of document submission in service applications.

Central government agencies on both sides of the Tasman have scored poorly in a University of Otago study of e-government responsiveness published online by Government Information Quarterly, the top ranked journal in the field.

Professor Robin Gauld, Director of the Centre for Health Systems in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, says the longitudinal study — carried out in 2006, 2008 and 2013 — involved sending an email to 790 Australian and 115 New Zealand, national, state and local government agencies asking their location and opening hours.

According to Allan Crome, Information Systems Project Manager for the Waikato DHB, prior to the implementation of the electronic whiteboard, nurses had to manually update whiteboards to display relevant medical information of patients such as the assigned doctors and nurses, special dietary requirements, and the discharge time, among others.

“The DHB decided it was time for an upgrade and started investigating electronic whiteboards. After a vendor selection process, which included a series of workshops, Waikato DHB chose to work with Datacom for the implementation of the system. ” he said.

The new ministry will absorb the functions of the Ministry of Economic Development, the Department of Labour, the Ministry of Science and Innovation, and the Department of Building and Housing. The Technology and Communications portfolio has responsibility for communications, fast broadband, cyber security, postal services, radio spectrum and e-government.

The initiative is part of a wider telemedicine initiative by the West Coast and Canterbury district health boards, in which hospitals and health clinics have been fitted out with video conferencing equipment so health professionals can conduct virtual clinics and consult with colleagues in the South Island.

According to Associate Professor Michael Sullivan, clinical leader of the telemedicine initiative, “The key uses of the equipment so far have been in pediatrics, for virtual clinics, and for cancer care, to assess patients undergoing chemotherapy.”

The RealMe service, to be offered jointly by the Department of Internal Affairs and New Zealand Post, is designed with data security and privacy as its top priorities. All users will have full control over their personal information – including their name, date of birth, gender, and address.

“The global threat from cyber intrusions is real and growing, and New Zealanders and the New Zealand economy are not immune,” said Steven Joyce, Minister for Communications and Information Technology.

“Cyber security is becoming increasingly important for New Zealanders, businesses and government. Cyber intrusions have the potential to impact on the reliability of critical infrastructure, government services, and the economy.”

It is trialling a hi-tech system that takes passport and digital photos in 14 of its Postshops, including its Manners St branch in central Wellington.

The software behind the system could also let NZ Post capture fingerprints and voice samples for identification purposes.

Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand (SCCANZ) has announced the addition of Spark New Zealand to its membership cohort.

The telecommunications and digital services company has helped shape smart cities and regions across NZ.

SCCANZ, a network of local government, research organisations and solution providers, says Australian local councils will now have more opportunities to learn from and exchange knowledge with their trans Tasman neighbours.

Details of how this will work are in an article by Tom Pullar-Strecker which I spotted in the Dominion Post on Saturday, 17 January.

In summary, it’s a joint venture between a Waitemata mobile GP service Third Age Health and a private equity firm Hatch Equity. It will cost $99 a month plus minimum $59 per 15-minute video-consultation. Home/office visits will cost $199 or $299 after hours. They are hoping to qualify for capitation funding and to have patients use Doctor2Go as their official primary healthcare provider.

Education chiefs are developing a system for parents needing to put their children back in school once the Covid-19 alert level drops to 3.

The Ministry of Education today released more information on what a potential drop from alert level 4 to level 3 means for school children, who have been learning from home since the country went into lockdown last month.

Hamilton's growing reputation as a tech-savvy, innovative and smart city received an international boost this week when Enlighten Designs was announced as the winner of the 2020 Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Award for New Zealand.

Hamilton City Council Chief Executive Richard Briggs says the award highlights some of the amazing work being done by businesses and individuals in Hamilton and reinforces the value of the city's 'Smart Hamilton' programme.

Details of people's prescriptions are being fed into an online repository from pharmacies across the country.

The Ministry of Health says information is encrypted and kept in a secure system only accessible by approved health professionals.

But it admits that people who aren't satisfied with those measures cannot opt out.

I have been reading with interest the reports from the council demanding the amalgamation of Heart of Gisborne, Tourism Eastland and Activate Tairawhiti.

In my previous role as Heart of Gisborne manager, I gained a very good understanding of the importance of all three organisations but especially Heart of Gisborne. To suggest that the three organisations can be moulded into one is misguided. Each have a very important role to play. It is no more Heart of Gisborne’s role to sort out a paper mill as it is Activate Tairawhiti’s role to make sure our city streets are vibrant or run a Christmas parade. They all contribute to economic development in their respective but distinctive ways.

Wellington City Council is consolidating many of its current separate IT systems onto TechnologyOne’s cloud platform.

The council, New Zealand’s third largest local authority, will use the software vendor’s OneCouncil software-as-a-service offering.

Wellington City Council has more than 120 separate IT systems supporting the council’s business and is aiming to bring together many of those dealing with customer service, finance, HP and property functions onto a single platform.

Claire Govier joined healthAlliance last year to lead a series of major technology upgrades, including the shift to the Windows 7 operating system for its 26,500 users.

Before the end of 2013, she became its chief information officer.

The radical new plan for Taumarunui, Tokoroa and Te Kuiti hospitals will enable doctors at Waikato Hospital to give advice and support to their counterparts even in urgent situations.