Department of Internal Affairs(MIS100 2009)

By CIO staff | Friday, July 24 2009

2008 ranking: 82

Senior IS executive: David Spaziani, CIO
Reports to: Norah Familton, director, business services
Size of IS shop: 170

PCs: 2519
Mobile PCs: 565
Terminals: 250
Hand-held devices: 130
Total screens: 3464

Industry: Government and defence
PC environment: Windows XP, HP, Toshiba
Server environment: HP; Sun Windows 2003, 2008, HP; VMS; Linux
DBMS: Oracle, SQL
Address: 46 Waring Taylor St, Wellington
Website: www.dia.govt.nz
Key IS projects this year: Passports redevelopment; server room relocation; identity verification service.

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has a number of identity-related ICT projects underway. These include the Passport System Redevelopment programme and the Identity Verification Service.

The Department is also transitioning Government Technology Services from the State Services Commission to the DIA. The Passport System Redevelopment programme involves redevelopment of systems and applications to support the increase in passport application volumes, and to implement new standards in passport security.

CIO David Spaziani says the Passport System Redevelopment programme covers two large IT system developments — these are personalisation, which includes the production of the passport book and its new security features; and the replacement of the passport processing system, taking advantage of process automation and new biometric technologies.

In keeping with the current global economic situation, as well as new government directives towards cost-reduction, the DIA has a programme underway to identify cost savings in ICT spend.

Planned projects in traditional IT function areas include ongoing investment in software and server virtualisation, business continuity and disaster recovery, and in VoIP platforms and infrastructure. Web channel projects including use of the Government Logon Service, continue from last year. This year will also see the DIA IT team relocate the datacentre.

DIA outsources applications development between HP, Intergen and Datacom; and has assigned systems and network management to Gen-i. Unisys and Gen-i manage some of the Department’s help desk services, and Datacom will manage the datacentre after its relocation.