In preparation for a change of leadership at the MAV, the MAV Technology Executive Committee resolved to expand in number and skill base, to increase its capability to support the digital transformation of local government in Victoria. Following a call for nominations last month, new committee members were appointed on 7 June 2018.  The expanded committee includes representation from every region of Victoria; a balance of metropolitan, rural and regional councils; and a greater breadth of skills, expertise and experience.

The MAVT Executive Committee members are:

South Gippsland Shire Council – Vanessa Adams, Manager Innovation and Council Business

City of Port Phillip – Rod Apostol, Business Technology Manager

City of Yarra – Margherita Barbante, Manager Information Services

City of Manningham – David Bellchambers, Manager Information Technology

Southern Grampians Shire Council – Russell Bennett, Manager Business Systems

Campaspe Shire Council – Daniel Butel, Business Integration Manager

City of Melbourne – Colin Fairweather, Chief Information Officer

Rural City of Wangaratta – Suzanne Fisher, Manager – Customer & Information Services

Mildura Rural City Council – Paul Kealley, Information Systems Coordinator

Surf Coast Shire Council – Neil McQuinn, IT Manager

City of Boroondara – Gerardine O’Sullivan, Principal Digital Strategist

Casey City Council – Ashley Pratt, A/Manager Information Technology

Moonee Valley City Council – Robert Raiskums, Chief Information Officer

Ballarat City Council – Justine Resta, Transformation Lead

Golden Plains Shire Council – Carolynne Roberts, IS Administrator

Greater Bendigo City Council – Michael Smyth, Manager Information Management

Glen Eira City Council – John Staines, Chief Information Officer

City of Greater Geelong – Matthew Szymczak, Digital and Data Lead

Wyndham City Council – Jane Tyzack, Manager Community First & Digital Mobilisation | City Life

Yarra Ranges Shire Council – Hyma Valpala, Digital and Data Lead

Hobsons Bay City Council – Roger Verwey, Manager Information Services

Mornington Peninsula Shire Council – Marnie Williams, Executive Manager Human Resources

City of Moreland / City of Whittlesea – Hans Wolf, Chief Information Officer

Latrobe City Council – Christine Wright, Manager Information Services

MAV Technology – Lisa Bennetto, Executive Officer.

This expanded group will also require some governance adjustments to ensure effective decision making is retained with the larger group. The current favoured option is to form sub-committees of 6-8 people to progress key priority areas, with the full committee meeting once a quarter. Options were discussed at the first meeting of the expanded Committee, in early July and will be concluded at the next meeting, in August.

August Forum – The Award Winners

The next MAV Technology Member Forum will be held on Friday 24 August, at SeaWorks in Williamstown, as part of the Victorian Government’s Digital Innovation Festival. The program will features presentations from council teams who were recognised in March at the MAV Tech Awards for Excellence. We’ll hear from the highly commended and winning teams in the categories of:

• Strategy & Planning
• Customer Experience
• Collaboration or Partnership
• Smart City

Download the agenda

In a first for MAV Technology, we’re partnering with the DIF to open the forum to the public so we can showcase these great acheivements to a broader audience! We’ll open registrations to MAV Tech members first, so make sure you book your place early! As always, our forums are free for staff and councillors of MAV Tech member councils.

Sector-wide Digital Transformation Discovery & Engagement Program – Business Plan

In February, KPMG were appointed by the MAV Board to deliver the “Business Plan for a sector-wide Discovery & Engagement Program” comprising:

• Validation of the proposed $1million, 12-month program
• Alternative funding models and recommendations
• Risk assessment

At the May MAV Board meeting, Greg Elliot from KPMG presented an overview of the Business Plan. The proposed program will be delivered over an 11-month period and is expected to cost approximately $920k split over two funding stage gates. Stage gate 1 will cost approximately $200k and will be completed within 3 months of commencement. The deliverable would comprise an initial scan of the sector providing a clearer picture of the digital maturity of all councils (technical and cultural measures). It would also achieve a foundational level of engagement upon which the second part of the program and subsequent initiatives could be built. This will not only enable identification of immediate collaboration opportunities, but will also provide insights into how we can best support business transformation across the sector. A one page overview of the proposed plan is available here.

The MAV Board considered and approved the following recommendation at their 1 June meeting: That the Board approve implementation of the proposed Discovery & Engagement Program to Stage gate 1, upon securing the required funding.

MAV Technology is now engaging with the MAV, LGV, LGPro and other local government stakeholders to secure funding and commitment to work together to deliver the Discovery & Engagement program – a foundational piece of work that will be of value to all LG stakeholders. This is partly in response to the observations of the KPMG business plan, the CEO workshop report delivered by Susan Sly (as part of our conference program) and the VAGO report into the effectiveness of support for local government.

MAVHACK1 – POC Updates

MAVHACK1 was held in September last year. It was highly successful in introducing a broader council audience to the benefits of design thinking, customer focus and multi-stakeholder collaboration. See the event videos and presentation decks here.

Since the event, MAVHACK teams have been working towards a proof of concept for each of the MAVHACK solutions. See the overview report here

• Disabled Parking Permits – Proof of concept

VicRoads has built upon the work done at MAVHACK and engaged Ansible  (one of the MAVHACK facilitators), to develop a strategic roadmap for a new state-wide system for managing disabled parking permit applications and compliance, by the end of this year.

On Thursday May 24, VicRoads convened a post-MAVHACK Disability Parking Permit update at Abbotsford Convent. We thank everyone who participated on the day for the continued lively, frank and insightful discussion on the topic. VicRoads captured a lot of feedback and queries to consider and use in the next phase of the project’s development.

A summary of the discussion and a high-level view of the of deliverables for Phase 1 of the Disability Parking Permit project is available here 

VicRoads is keen to continue the conversation with council stakeholders throughout this process, and would like to hear from anyone interested in future workshops or surveys that couldn’t register on the day.  Please email Loraine.Kiely@roads.vic.gov.au if you would like to register to be contacted for any future participation opportunities.

We will communicate the timeline of the project to councils to engage and inform them of the progress of this MAVHACK initiative.

• “Jocelyn” Planning Permits – Proof of concept

The “Jocelyn” MAVHACK solution was to develop a chat bot with Artificial Intelligence to streamline the planning permit application process. MAV Technology, the City of Wyndham, the City of Ballarat, the City of Casey and Cardinia Shire Council decided that the minimum viable product for Jocelyn was to develop a POC for shed permit applications in the participating council areas.

The Jocelyn POC scope and business requirements has been developed by participating councils and MAV Tech in collaboration with Land Use Victoria (DELWP), Ansible, Digital Reign and Telstra.

Funding options for delivering the POC are now being explored, including direct investment by the participating councils, investment by the MAV, and investment of resources and/or funds by various Victorian Government departments.

We expect to make funding and/or partnership announcements to progress this POC in the next few weeks.

• “Pop Drop” Waste Management – Proof of concept

Thirty-two councils responded to a survey distributed by the MAV in December. Information collected included the cost of collecting illegally dumped rubbish, the three most commonly dumped items, current recycling initiatives and current and past collection mechanisms.

The MAV received advice from more than 40 councils that they are interested in either participating in or being kept informed of any collaborative activities aimed at addressing this issue.

This is the least developed POC, but also probably the easiest to implement. We have collected data on the most problematic hard rubbish items in several regions. We have also collected council contacts who are interested in pursuing this concept in their council area. Next steps are to identify councils with similar hard rubbish problems to solve and then explore whether a recycler for said items can be identified and engaged in the POC.

Work on this concept will commence when the two POCs above are better established.

MAVHACK2 – 3-5 September 2018

MAVHACK2 will be held in Geelong and Gippsland on 3-5 September, as part of the statewide Digital Innovation Festival (24 August – 7 September).

We held an Ignition Workshop for MAVHACK2 in February, and a Booster Ignition Workshop on Tuesday 8 May focusing on council pain points in “transport”, “waste” and “youth” areas.

At the May workshop, we had hoped to confirm the challenge statements for the “youth” and “transport” teams. We didn’t quite get there because lots of questions were raised about existing programs and available data. And although the opinions we gathered were valuable, we suspect they may be a bit too broad, and not quite enough to guarantee the outcome we want. We also had to defer the “waste” challenge due to high activity in the recycling space.

In order to confirm the challenge statements, form the MAVHACK teams, and attract big audiences to the presentation days, our next steps are now:

• Prepare an outcome report from both Ignition Workshops
• Arrange supplementary meetings with key stakeholders in Melbourne and both regions over the next few weeks, to fill the gaps identified in the report and sharpen the focus of the challenge statements
• Identify current programs and initiatives addressing challenge themes in both regions
• Identify available key data relevant to challenges in both regions
• Engage Subject Matter Experts from multiple councils and other stakeholder groups in each region.

MAV Technology has negotiated a partnership with the Victorian Government (Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources – DEDJTR) to present the MAVHACK1 project outcomes, and run MAVHACK2 in both.

DEDJTR are keen to establish an ongoing partnership and have offered $60k of funding support for regional MAVHACK events over the next three years.

Infobase

New Infobase FAQ sheets, including login and admin instructions are now available on the MAVTech website. 

Infobase is a comprehensive and easy-to-use international database of IT products and services that councils use. It also stores, compares and reports on statistical information, projects and suppliers (including contact details and performance ratings).

Developed in collaboration with local government ICT associations in New Zealand, Canada and South Australia, the database currently includes information from 450+ vendors and 850+ products and services.

Infobase will enable MAV Technology member councils to share rankings of products and services, find councils that are using the same products and services, identify collaboration opportunities and compare council statistics.

The information is gathered via survey questions that can be answered by representatives from various business areas within council (meaning it does not all need to be entered solely by IT staff!). This process should also assist in capturing shadow IT information as users can record products and services purchased outside council IT department processes.

Infobase logins have provided to MAV Technology member councils in November last year. If you haven’t received yours, please contact Lisa Bennetto. If you haven’t entered your council’s information, please do it as soon as you can. The more data collected, the more useful Infobase will become for all MAV Tech member councils.

View the ritzy promotional video created by ALGIM (the New Zealand local government ICT association) here.

Victorian Local Government Enablement Platform – POC

The Proof of Concept for the Enablement Platform will not proceed in its current format.

Telstra recently met with the MAV and we outlined a number of reasons why they thought that the originally proposed technology was no longer a viable and sustainable option moving forward. Two key reasons were that the technology originally proposed is no longer available to be used and could not be supported as an independent solution moving forward. To do so would result in significant costs which were not sustainable from a supplier perspective and would ultimately also prove unsustainable to Councils. Secondly, since the Enablement Platform concept was originally proposed some 3 years ago, there have been significant developments in Network architecture and cloud based services for security and we think there are now more cost effective ways of delivering the functionality of the Enablement Platform for local Government.

In light of these developments, Telstra have recommended to the MAV that we should not proceed under the current arrangements and that Telstra would like to explore other options and then re-engage with the MAV to determine if there is an appetite to partner on a new solution in the future.

Telstra stress that they still sees tremendous value in the benefits of the Enablement Platform for Councils and that ultimately there will be significant productivity benefits for all Councils through the better use  and sharing of resources and data exchange. In this context, I wish to thank you and your staff [name of Council representative on Steering Committee] for your support and participation in the discussions to date. Council’s input has been extremely valuable to both the MAV and Telstra in our joint efforts to develop an customised solution for local government.

Whilst it is disappointing that we could not get the trial up and running a lot earlier, MAV Technology remain committed to looking at alternative ways to deliver this important functionality and believe that the work to date has not been in vain.

Lessons and outcomes from the VLGEP project will be considered in the development of MAV Technology’s future strategic direction, and in the development of the upcoming MAV Telecommunications Hardware and Software panel contract requirements.

Digital Directions Showcase – 17 July 2018

The MAV Technology Executive Committee is convening a “Digital Directions Showcase” to help inform the strategic direction of MAV Technology.

We are inviting selected service providers to tell us how they can assist equitable digital transformation and effective collaboration across local government; and what they think the key technology enablers will be over the next 2-3 years.

The session will be held at MAV from 10am-3.30pm on Tuesday 17 July. We are seeking 20-minute presentations from:

• AWS
• Azure
• CenITex
• CSA
• Equinix
• Google
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• NTT Data
• Telstra
• Thomas Duryea Logicalis

The room capacity is 65, so the additional places will be available to representatives from other MAVT member councils, on a first-in basis. Please register here if you would like to attend.

Digital Directions Showcase

• Date: 10am – 3.30pm, Tuesday 17 July
• Location: MAV – Level 11, 60 Collins Street, Melbourne

August Member Forum

• Theme: The Award winners (feature Awards for Excellence winners)
• Date: Friday 24 August (as part of the Digital Innovation Festival)
• Location: Seaworks, Williamstown

MAVHACK2

• Date: Monday 3 September – Wednesday 5 September (as part of the Digital Innovation Festival)
• Locations:
  Geelong – Federal Mills Park Innovation Precinct; and

Gippsland – Gippsland Tech School, Morwell

December Member Forum

• Theme: LGDT opportunities (DT Discovery & Engagement program) or

Shared Services, Collaboration and Cloud (AWS, Azure, Google, Accenture, Shared services, Telco Contract, VLGEP)

• Date: Friday 7 December
• Location: Regional – North (Bendigo, Echuca, Ballarat)?

Annual Conference & Awards for Excellence 2019

• Theme: Riding the wave
• Date: 25-28 March 2019
• Location: Geelong – GMHBA Stadium, The Pier, Little Creatures.

MAV Technology Events 2018

Related MAV Events

You may have received information about a National Local Government Information Management Conference that will be held on 21 & 22 February 2018 at Angliss Conference Centre in Melbourne. We understand that it can sometimes be difficult to choose between related events, so if you register for both this event and “The Transformers” event in March, you will receive a ten percent discount on both events.