DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR THE BENEFIT OF VICTORIANS
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WRITTEN BY
WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY
MIKE SADR
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V I C T O R I A N D E PA R T M E N T O F H E A LT H & H U M A N S E R V I C E S
Dr Steve Hodgkinson, CIO of the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, details the work he and his team have done to digitally transform project delivery through the Platform+Agile model
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The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is dedicated to ensuring the health and wellbeing of all
Victorians, providing a wide range of services 04
ranging from hospital and ambulance services to child protection and family violence programmes and beyond. The department is increasingly finding that digital solutions can offer communities improved services, whether that’s people with a disability being able to easily register for a companion card using its Companion Card System or those applying for public housing using the Housing Register Online Application system. Steve Hodgkinson is CIO at the department, presiding over an ongoing digital transformation alongside his leadership team. “These days, digital transformation is purely driven by your capacity to execute projects,” says Hodgkinson. “If you can’t execute projects then it’s all just talk. My executive leadership team is at the core of achieving that.” Detailing his team’s
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$20.bn Approximate revenue
2015
Year founded
12,000
Approximate number of employees w w w.dhhs.vi c . g ov. a u
V I C T O R I A N D E PA R T M E N T O F H E A LT H & H U M A N S E R V I C E S
“ The pace at which we can deliver digital transformation is now critical to the government’s ability to deliver its reform programs” — Steve Hodgkinson, CIO, The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services
successful process, Hodgkinson says that it starts with Fiona Sparks, Assistant Director, Strategy & Design, who is integral to the upfront work required to mobilise and fund a large portfolio of projects. Ray Baird, Assistant Director, Systems Solutions, then leads development of the applications, creating the structure for delivery. Assistant Director, Solutions Engagement, John Henderson manages the project pipeline, liaising with businesses to ensure projects are steadily delivered. David Stephens is Chief Data Officer, responsible not only
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for data to do with projects but also the broader logic around data collection and information management in a large department, and Liz Hughes, Directorate Manager, provides the support services that keep the branch operating.
PLATFORM+AGILE Alongside his team, Hodgkinson credits the rapid acceleration of the department’s digital transformation efforts to an approach he has pioneered known as Platform+Agile, building out of agile software development methods. “The Platform+Agile model is founded on two main ideas. Firstly, you can’t be agile unless you
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE POWER OF CONTENT WITH STEVE HODGKINSON’ 07 start with a robust, scalable and
of the platform, says Hodgkinson.
sustainable platform. Secondly, public
“Each application is not unique, rather
cloud service platforms are faster,
it’s a variation of things that already
more secure, more affordable and
exist. That enables us to start projects
simply better in all regards than
quickly and cheaply, and then to
anything a government agency could
deliver a minimal viable product much
ever hope to build or own,” says
more rapidly than otherwise possible,
Hodgkinson. Platform+Agile is the
getting feedback from real users and
opposite of the usual government
iterating based on that. That simple
approach which sees each application
process is itself the most important
and system as a unique, one-off event.
accelerant of digital transformation.
“The fundamental mindset of
It is all about increasing the cadence of
Platform+Agile is that each application
project delivery to fuel a compounding
inherits as much as possible of the
organizational learning effect.”
standard and common functionality
By relying on platforms in the way w w w.dhhs.vi c . g ov. a u
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that DHHS does, it is important that
platforms is Microsoft cloud services
platforms are chosen for their
(Azure, Dynamics and Office365),
versatility and long-term sustainability.
which has the advantage of many
“You have to think of platforms
pre-existing synergies such as a
strategically as things that you invest
government-wide enterprise agreement,
in deeply. When the next use case
Microsoft’s necessary federal
comes along, the question is not how
government security certifications,
to solve this by going out to market
the department’s installed base of
and choosing a new technology and a
Microsoft applications, and skills in
new vendor, the question is how to
Microsoft’s development frameworks.
deliver this use case using our
The department also makes use of
strategic platform and the things we
other platforms for different use
have already built and have available.”
cases: Salesforce for CRM-style
One of the department’s strategic
applications; ServiceNow for service
management; SAP’s SuccessFactors
for each application. Vendors need
for human capital management and
to understand that the game has
Oracle Cloud ERP for finance systems.
fundamentally changed. The Game
Hodgkinson observes that the
of Platforms is a long game based on
Platform+Agile approach is transforming
maintaining positive and deep strategic
the logic of technology procurement
relationships, not a transactional game
in his department. It is now a ‘Game of
based on winning tenders.”
Platforms’ as opposed to a more
To be able to scale-up projects to
traditional ‘Game of Tenders’. “Use
deliver new applications in these
cases are increasingly contested
cloud services platforms, DHHS has
across our platforms to select the
developed a procurement mechanism
best existing platform for a new
known as the Solution Delivery Panel.
application rather than in the past
Key vendors on the panel include
where we would have run a tender to
Terra Firma, Access Testing, CSC
select a new vendor and technology
DXC, Datacom, Dialog, DWS, Infosys,
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Steve Hodgkinson, CIO Steve has been DHHS CIO since 2014. He was previously Chief Analyst Public Sector for research & advisory firm Ovum. In earlier years he founded and sold an e-commerce company and worked in a range of executive and consulting roles in the government and utilities sectors in Europe and Australasia. In his university years he worked as a Search & Rescue mountaineer for Aoraki Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand. He has a doctorate in Management Studies from the University of Oxford and a First Class Honours Degree in Information Systems from the University of Otago.
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Business Change Digital Optimisation Cyber Security Looking beyond.
Delivering key business and technology initiatives that propel organisational performance and elevate our customers’ brand.
“ The agility of today’s platforms means the most important thing is to get started, deliver something and iterate upon it” — Steve Hodgkinson, CIO, The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services
brought together a very fragmented application process for public housing and put it online in a form that could be used on a smartphone,” says Hodgkinson. “That whole process was a radical re-engineering and simplification of the way that people applied for public housing. The received wisdom was that the form and the process were far too complicated to work on a mobile phone. Using the Microsoft Azure framework that we had and its ability to work via smart-
Landell, Oakton, Plan IT, PM Partners,
phone applications, we launched
RXP, SMS – ASG Group, TDL/CNI and
the service and found that a large
Third Horizon.
percentage of clients thought that it
Streamlining the process for individ-
was much easier to use than the old
ual projects, the panel allows the de-
paper form process and more
partment to maintain strategic relation-
convenient to access on a mobile
ships with partners rather than relying
phone than a computer. This taught
on a project-by-project approach.
us how the functionality native in the platform can actually drive innovation
PROJECTS Hodgkinson and his team have
in citizen-centric service delivery.” Another project saw the creation
delivered and iteratively refined more
of the Client Incident Management
than 30 major new business systems,
System (CIMS), a unified system for
of which he points out a number of
collecting and managing incident
exemplary projects that demonstrate
reports from over 1,700 agencies in
the impact possible with the
fields such as disability, public housing
Platform+Agile approach. “The
and child protection. Again using
Housing Register Online Application
Microsoft Azure, the large number w w w.dhhs.vi c . g ov. a u
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V I C T O R I A N D E PA R T M E N T O F H E A LT H & H U M A N S E R V I C E S
of agencies and sensitive data involved proved the efficacy of the Platform+Agile approach, with the system in seamless operation for some 18 months. The architecture foundations and microservices laid down for that system were later reused, as Hodgkinson explains: “The Victorian Health Incident Management System (VHIMS) has only recently gone live for a cluster of around 50 health services. Previously, a dysfunctional version of that application had been in place for many years and had defied many attempts to replace it. Using the 12
fact that we had already developed a lot of basic functionality and platform features for CIMS, we were able to reuse much of the logic for VHIMS. The project was delivered on time and on budget and has been praised by nurses for reducing significantly the time taken to record incidents. It demonstrates the strength of platform thinking.” A recent development at DHHS is the launch of SafeScript, a new system for real time prescription monitoring between doctors and pharmacies, preventing the over-prescription of controlled drugs. “SafeScript is an example of the power of the Platform+Agile approach to break
through a Gordian knot,” says Hodgkinson. “A project had been running for many years to create a national real time prescription monitoring system, but it was stalling because of the complexity of getting all of the different stakeholders in Australia to agree on the requirements and how the project would be implemented. The Platform+Agile approach doesn’t bother with that. It’s about making the best call you can, implementing the solution and then relying on the fact that a solution provided as a public cloud service can easily scale and be consumed by other jurisdictions to become the national solution.” Since going live, the system has been acclaimed and is being picked up by other states to form the basis of a national system. As for future projects, Hodgkinson says: “We are still working through a pipeline of applications that need to be modernised or rebuilt. There’s very little that can be done without a digital solution now. The pace at which we can deliver digital transformation is now critical to the government’s ability to deliver its policy and service delivery reform programs.” w w w.dhhs.vi c . g ov. a u
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C O M PA N Y FACT S
• The Client Incident Management System (CIMS) is a unified system for collecting and managing incident reports from over 1,700 agencies in fields such as disability, public housing and child protection
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• Hodgkinson and his team have delivered and iteratively refined more than 30 major new business systems
It’s clear that DHHS’s digital transformation approach has had a transformative impact on the ways Victorians can interact with the department and draw on its resources. For Hodgkinson, the role of the CIO as it pertains to digital transformation is that of the catalyst. “People have a propensity to want to try and solve the whole of the problem – until they can see a way to solve for the whole then they don’t even get started. The agility that is possible using today’s cloud services platforms means that, as long as you’ve got a sufficient awareness of the big picture and where it can go to, the most important thing is to get started, deliver something and iterate upon it as opposed to agonising forever over trying to solve for the whole integrated solution. I like to say that ‘startegy is usually the best strategy’. Getting started and learning fast is often better than spending too long strategising and failing to actually get around to doing.”
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50 Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia T +61 447 476 584 www.dhhs.vic.gov.au