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DIAC hits key Systems for People goals

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship is about to put major elements of its mammoth Systems for People technology overhaul behind it as it looks to its next release.
Written by Suzanne Tindal, Contributor

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship is about to put major elements of its mammoth Systems for People technology overhaul behind it as it looks to its next release.

Compliance, case management and detention portals were near completion, a spokesperson for the department recently told ZDNet.com.au. The portals only needed a little more work, which was to be carried out in the next project software release, according to the spokesperson. The work brought the portals in line with the government's "New Directions in Detention" policy announced last year, the spokesperson said.

New Directions was a drive to improve administration and processes for the department to cease indefinite detention of potential immigrants. The revamped portals are intended to improve decision making and provide a better all-round view of those seeking to enter the country.

Another part of the project, which the department said it has recently wrapped up, was a data exchange project that it has been carrying out with Centrelink.

The project allows Centrelink to collect residence information online from DIAC for those claiming payments from Centrelink. The information was used to determine if the applicant was eligible for benefits.

According to the department, this project performed well. "DIAC systems processed and replied to all requests on average within 2.9 seconds (below the 10 seconds requested by Centrelink). On average DIAC processes about 80,000 requests per day with more than 10 million requests being received from Centrelink since December 2008," the spokesperson said.

The department was mum on problems it might have struck over the last period, however, with the spokesperson only saying that external reviews had lead to lessons learned.

According to the department, Systems for People would be delivered by June 2010 and within its approved budget.

In the last Federal Budget, the department received $47.2 million over four years to fund systems such as electronic visas and border entry systems. Any new requirements related to these projects add to the scope of Systems for People, the department spokesperson said, and marginal cost changes to pay for new functionality requirements would be included in the policy funding.

The department had needed to ask for more money last year because the skills shortage was pushing wages up. The tables have turned now, according to the department. "The clear downturn in the market has resulted in situations where renegotiations of contracts, in many cases, have resulted in adjustments in rates consistent with broader market needs," a spokesperson said.

Its $200 million relationship with IBM has been good over the life of the project, the spokesperson said, with no payments held back for late or unsatisfactory work.

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