Internet the key to IT innovation in Government
Spurred on by the need for improved service delivery, Australian governments will be making 2004 a year of massive investment in information technology, with a number of striking innovations on the cards. IT is now so all-pervasive across government that a close watch on IT tenders is essential, not just for recognised IT suppliers, but for virtually anyone with a serious interest in government business.
Underpinning the IT drive will be integration of a whole range of separate IT functions with greater penetration of network systems, from the internet itself to intranets, extranets and virtual private networks (that is, your own fenced off section of the internet). The industry word for this trend is convergence, nowadays going much further than just putting phone traffic on the internet.
Prospects for convergence between IT and telecommunications gets a lot of air play because of the cash sums potentially involved. Large volumes of voice, fax and data traffic would be transferred onto the internet, under the banner of IP telephony. Instead of voice traffic being translated into analogue signals over the copper wiring telephone system for transmission at telephone call rates, it would be digitised and despatched in high speed, priority data packets at much lower internet rates, for reassembly and conversion back to voice at the other end.
So far, this nightmare prospect for telephone network suppliers has been held up by quality problems, with a discernible jerkiness in some IP telephony transmissions, sufficient to give pause to potential converts. But as the programming of routers (electronic traffic controllers) and servers (master network computers) improves, we can expect a lot more attention to these possibilities in government departments and Australian business.
Convergence will also feature in the security area, attracting a lot of attention these days with the threat of international terrorism, internet fraud, street crime and computer viruses. Traditionally, video surveillance systems have had their own wiring, to carry signals from low resolution black and white closed circuit cameras for recording (often at just one frame per second) on long play video tape, changed periodically by security staff.
The results are often unsatisfactory. It is possible to watch an actual shoplifting being carried out by three or four people, right under the camera, and still be unable to positively identify them because of poor quality of the photography and taping.
With a new, integrated approach, high resolution, colour cameras will be connected in to an organisation's internet backbone, for recording on high quality, durable electronic media. The feed will be displayed on either central consoles, individual desktop computers, or to remote computers such as an executive's home study computer at night, for far more flexible management and surveillance.
Using an organisations' central wiring network, the video data can be synchronised and cross-matched with other security information, also available as digital data being collected, co-ordinated and collated over an internal network or the internet. An organisation may collect key card entry data, identity card records, logs for microwave, radar and infrared systems, fire protection data, records of security and emergency phone calls and other relevant data.
Software becoming available will make it possible to quickly retrieve, sort and cross-match all this data for a relevant time period or area, without laborious hours of manual searching. The systems will also identify, index, time and date stamp and authenticate digitised data, making it difficult for anyone to tamper with the evidence.
During 2004, advanced artificial intelligence computer systems will be installed to help public and private customer service personnel make head or tail of the intricate tangle of legislative rules and regulations which governments generate monthly. The detail of some of these regulations has to be seen to be believed. As just one sample, in calculations for government subsidies for solar hot water systems, all the postcodes in Australia have been allocated to one of four different eligibility zones, so every individual installation postcode has to be checked against this master list.
All the maze of possibilities are set out in a sequence of rules. This allows counter staff, back office workers or call centre operators to feed in customer data and get an immediate, definitive answer. The Australian-developed software installed in Veterans' Affairs is a model of how these systems can transform slow service, confusion and conflicting answers into a prompt, accurate and well-regarded service.
Finally, watch out for a trend to open operating systems, opening government and business markets to more IT suppliers. The Linux open operating system, once regarded as an internet toy for programmers in their spare time, is now being seriously considered by several large government departments.
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Christopher Jay is a writer for the Australian Financial Review. He is a regular contributor to its Tenderwatch column in the Friday Government & Business Section.
As published in TenderSearch Magazine - Spring/Summer 03 Issue
