Service NSW has exceeded its digital services goal two years early, with more than 85 percent of state government transactions now available online.
Budget documents released this week reveal the one-stop shop shot past its target of having 80 percent of services available digitally by 2023-24 over the past 12 months.
It is the first major uptick in the percentage of digital transactions since 2018-19, when the figure jumped from 70 percent to 75.4 percent, surpassing the government’s previous target in the process.
“Performance against this indicator shows that 85.6 percent of Service NSW transactions were available digitally as at March 2022,” the budget said.
“This represents an increase of 6.3 percent points from the 2021-22 budget and exceeds the 80 percent digital migration target by December 2022.”
The government has put the growth down to the pandemic, which saw NSW residents use the Service NSW app on an almost daily basis for the COVID-Safe QR check-in tool.
A number of other services launched since the pandemic, including Dine & Discover vouchers, have also been exclusively digital products.
“The performance of this indicator has been assisted by the previous Covid-19 enforced lockdowns in NSW and customers’ desires to access government services digitally,” budget documents state.
By the end of the 2022-23 financial year, the government is now forecasting that 88 percent of transactions will be available digitally through Service NSW.
The addition of facial verification technology across its digital channels – which will allow customers to prove their identity for a greater number of services – will likely see this figure increase further.
But at least for the moment, the government has not replaced the 80 percent target by 2023-24 with another goal.
In April, Service NSW shortlisted a number of bidders to power the liveness detection and facial matching technology, and is planning a series of pilot programs in the coming months and years.
Tell us once
Budget documents also show a greater number of services now allow customers to ‘tell government once’, one of former premier Gladys Berejiklian's priorities.
“Performance against this indicator is on track to meet the target of 60 services by 2023, with 55 services delivered as at March 2022 – an increase of 16 from last year,” the budget documents state.
The government was expecting to meet this goal ahead of time for at least the past two years, having shifted its focus there in 2020.
Service NSW was granted $77.6 million in recurrent expenses and $150.7 million in capital expenditure from the digital restart fund for 2022-23 in this week’s budget.
The funding is expected to be used by the one-stop shop for digital services to “support whole-of-government future digital transformation strategy and investment”.
