Readiness Program Prepares for Transformation Success

Many organisations continue to grapple with digital transformation and wonder what it can actually deliver amid a risk of failure. In this four-part blog series, we take a look at a real-world case study of the steps Accelera took with the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission to assist the organisation on its digital transformation journey.

The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) acts to protect public health and safety by dealing with complaints about health service providers across the state. The commission’s drivers for transformation include allowing complainants and providers to engage through digital channels, to reduce the use of paper across the agency, and to streamline and digitize processes. The vision is for the people of NSW to benefit from faster and better outcomes.

“Accelera takes a holistic view of digital and was able to help transform our organisation while we maintained existing levels of service delivery. We are now on a clear journey of digitally-driven innovation.” Eddie Van Den Bempt, Director, Corporate Operations & CFO, NSW Healthcare Complaints Commission

In the first part in this series, we covered the assessment phase of the project. In the second part, we looked at the importance of delivering a stable baseline ICT function, before commencing on transformational change. In the third part, we stressed the importance of a working governance structure in delivering digital transformation risk and execution management.

In this final part, we consider how the transformation readiness program that has been achieved has set the HCCC up for transformation success as it begins the wider program of initiatives to deliver on its strategic goals.

The Story So Far

Looking back on the body of work completed in getting the HCCC set up for transformation success, an organisation now needs to consider its ICT capability, focusing on the following areas:

• Delivering improvement in daily operations, balancing resources – business  as usual (BAU) vs  strategic and transformational – across internal and outsourced teams, and freeing up internal teams to shift their focus to strategic outcomes
• Improving the resilience of the core platforms, with security reviews and platform upgrades, to ensure the appropriate security posture, performance and cost-effective delivery of ICT capabilities can be achieved
• Setting up the right governance structure to ensure involvement and sponsorship from the right levels of the organisation to handle daily operational;  business improvement and transformation; and strategy setting with appropriate risk oversight

Now that this work has been done, a sensible, pragmatic and, above all, achievable transformation program can be put together with confidence      that BAU ICT is not going to impact the ability to deliver strategic outcomes,      or vice-versa. It also ensured      the right teams are helping to prioritise the ‘quick win’ business benefits, and the leadership team is fostering and managing the strategic and compliance aspects of the program.

As the HCCC plans the road ahead to transform to a better aligned set of digital tools and processes, Accelera continues to provide support in strategic and tactical decisions centred on technology, vendors and processes.

Opportunities for an organisation like HCCC to be more innovative include looking at further automating steps in the complaints management process and applying artificial intelligence to support the triaging of complaints.

Next Steps

With Accelera’s help, the Commission is now planning its continuation of the digital transformation program that will include:

• Adding resilience to the operating platform across multiple sites
• Migration of some services to public cloud, such as Microsoft 365
• Enhancements to core systems to further reduce paper-based processes
• Improving processes with external parties through digital engagement and automation

With a strong foundation now in place, the HCCC will continue to build out security and risk frameworks to ensure it maintains an ongoing security posture, including improvements and compliance. Furthermore, journey-mapping customer and staff experiences will inform new ways of working that leverage digital capability, automation and innovation into the future.

To see and download the full case study, please see the case study page.