Published on the 20/01/2017 | Written by Newsdesk

In the pursuit of transformation, Inland Revenue waves fat chequebook around…

Everyone’s favourite government department, Inland Revenue, is chasing the digital transformation dragon and that pursuit has resulted in its signing of a deal with New Zealand company TEAM Asparona to provide the first stage of a knowledge management system. Governments like to trumpet spend as a measure of value, so the figure of ‘up to’ $25 million over ten years for the complete project was duly rolled out, although what the final number may be is anyone’s guess.

Interestingly, the IRD’s press release described the project as an ‘information knowledge management system’, which not even iStart’s seasoned Google team could track down as a ‘thing’ in the IT world.

In our experience, the ‘information’ bit is generally dispensed with and such initiatives are described as ‘knowledge management systems’.

In a statement, IRD tells us that TEAM Asparona is a partnership between TEAM Informatics and DeloitteAsparona, and the TEAM won the contract ahead of other competitive bids. DeloitteAsparona was the result of Deloitte’s 2013 acquisition of two Auckland companies, Oracle specialist Asparona and SAP specialist Tango.

The project will start with the initial design of a content management system.

IRD’s Deputy Commissioner Transformation Greg James said the new information knowledge management system will cost up to $25 million and described it as ‘an important component of Inland Revenue’s transformation programme’ and a decade-long investment which includes all required software, hardware and services.

Decade long programmes tend to ring alarm bells; knowing what tomorrow might bring is a difficult enough thing in the fast-paced IT world. Executing over a decade is likely to be fraught, as industry commentators have made clear to iStart.

Just what does transformation mean to IRD? “Our transformation is all about being focused on the customer and being smarter in the way we use information,” James said.

“We’re confident that TEAM Asparona will design a solution that meets our objectives and has the flow on effect of simplifying tax for customers.”

In its statement, IRD said the new system will ‘significantly improve the quality, accuracy and consistency of information. Automated workflows will save effort and speed up the time it takes Inland Revenue to respond to customers.’

James said a huge amount of information is gathered by the department and that the new system will radically change the way staff use it. “We’re confident that TEAM Asparona will work with us to design a system that will take Inland Revenue to higher levels of innovation and customer service and we’re pleased to have them on board.”

Did we mention IRD’s chequebook? James said Inland Revenue is actively seeking proposals from providers to establish a panel which can supply advanced analytics products and services.

“We want to develop processes and solutions to better understand our customers and to predict future trends, since better use of information and analytics is a key objective of our transformation. The analytics tools we use need to become an everyday part of doing business and must be accessible to all staff and not just the specialists.”

Here’s your invitation to get in on the action: “If there are local businesses to help us achieve this, then that would be superb,” James said.