Laurence Millar appointed as NZ Government CIO

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SSC all-of-government service delivery shifts to Internal Affairs

By Computerworld staff | Auckland | Thursday, 13 March, 2008

The State Services Commission’s Information and Communication Technologies Branch is to be split in two with the all-of-government operations moved to the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).

As part of the shift, the strategic functions remaining within the SSC will be led by Laurence Millar, who will carry the title of New Zealand Government CIO.

"The success of the ICT branch, which started as the E-government Unit, has seen it grow steadily over the last eight and half years. From a dedicated policy focus, the branch has developed and now manages all-of-government 24x7 services like the Government Shared Network, Government Logon Service, Secure Electronic Environment (SEE) Mail, and newzealand.govt.nz," State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble said in a statement today.

"The split is to ensure that we adapt to our success. SSC can focus more on its core performance management responsibilities and the two ICT workstreams, policy leadership and service delivery, can both continue to deliver innovative approaches and products for New Zealand’s State Services," he says.

The statement says DIA was chosen as the location for service delivery as it has a strong match with the "strategic fit and stakeholder needs criteria" as well as an existing relationship with the SSC on the Government Authentication Programme.

"The timing of the move will be agreed with the chief executive of the Department of Internal Affairs to ensure that the service delivery function is ready to move and that DIA are ready to host it," Prebble says.

"Cabinet has also decided that the leadership function, which remains within SSC, should include the new designation of the 'New Zealand Government CIO'. This reflects the importance of the role providing strategic leadership, input into agency ICT investment decisions, fostering innovation and promoting collaboration across New Zealand’s State Services," Prebble says.

Laurence Millar, currently deputy commissioner, will assume this additional role as part of the change, Prebble said.

The implementation date for the first stage of the split, the reorganisation of the ICT Branch, is 1 July, 2008. A statement about the timing of the move to DIA will be made later in the year.