The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has been awarded first prize and been highly commended in the e-Awards for Excellence in eGovernment for 2009 at the CeBIT international business technology conference in Sydney overnight.
After being short-listed for two places in the top 10 group of finalists, the department swept the field with the Visa and Citizenship Wizards taking out the top prize of 2009 e-Award and the eVisitor Service being highly commended, DIAC Secretary Andrew Metcalfe said.
“The success of these initiatives is an excellent result for our department and for the Systems for People program, and a testimony to everyone who worked on these innovative, client-focused projects for this great achievement,” Mr Metcalfe said.
These awards were first introduced by the Australian Government in 2006 to promote excellence in the use of information communication technology in Australia at all levels of government.
This year the competition for an award was especially tough with other high profile government projects from a number of Commonwealth and State Government agencies also being named as finalists.
The Visa Wizard and the Citizenship Wizard are the first in a suite of online services that the department is developing. This means faster and better services tailored to the needs of clients.
Since September 2008, the Visa Wizard has received more than 1.6 million page views, at an average of 9500 each weekday. The Citizenship Wizard was launched in December 2008 and has been viewed by nearly 88 000 people at an average of 800 each weekday.
The eVisitor service is a new online, electronic travel authority service for European Union nationals wishing to travel to Australia for tourism or business purposes. eVisitor allows clients to quickly and easily lodge their application electronically and in 90 per cent of cases receive notification of an auto-grant within minutes of applying.
“Since the new service was initially released in October 2008, take-up has exceeded expectations with 50 per cent more clients using the system than anticipated. Client feedback has also been extremely positive,” the secretary said.
All three products have been delivered as part of DIAC’s Systems for People business transformation program.
More information on the e-Awards 2009 can be found on the Department of Finance and Deregulation website at: www.finance.gov.au/e-government/better-practice-and-collaboration/e-government-awards.html
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