Local Government

Shared services agency for NSW govt

By Alice Kok | 30 September 2008

The New South Wales state government has created a new shared services agency that will, among other things, provide centralised IT services to a large number of departments and agencies.

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Dubbed ‘ServiceFirst’, the agency’s web site states it has about 540 staff providing services to about 80 agencies with approximately 8,800 staff. It was created over the past few months from the previous CCSU, CSS and Department of Commerce Shared Services branches.

The services listed on the site include a range of IT offerings including desktop support and service centre, web hosting, application management, security and risk management and data centre services. The creation of the department has also seen a number of senior technology staff within the state government shunted into supporting roles.

For example, former Department of Commerce information management and technology general manager Geoff Tye has taken the role of General Manager, strategic IT within the agency. And Wayne Houston, previously with the Department of Primary Industry and Natural Resources and the Department of Education and Training will be ServiceFirst’s Chief Information Officer (CIO).

The Department of Commerce has repeatedly declined to make whole of government CIO Emmanuel Rodriguez available to comment on the progress of the state’s wide-ranging People First technology consolidation program. Rodriguez has declined to comment publicly in detail on the plan since he took up the position in November 2007.

Also, the creation of the agency has raised questions about the fate of BusinessLink, an agency within Commerce which fulfills a similar role to ServiceFirst. BusinessLink provides shared corporate services to the three human services agencies in NSW, the Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care (DADHC), Department of Community Services (DoCS) and Housing NSW (Housing). BusinessLink was formed under the NSW Government program in late 2002 to reform corporate services across the public sector. At these agencies, BusinessLink supports more than 16,000 employees in almost 400 locations.

It is not known if there are any plans to merge the two entities, but both agencies are located within the Department of Commerce and perform essentially identical roles, albeit for different client groups. If they were to merge, the resulting agency would certainly change the face of the NSW Government ICT market and introduce another powerful buyer into the mix.

According to ServiceFirst’s governance model, its advisory board will be directly answerable to Commerce’s Director-General and Minister for Commerce.