Around 280 people joined an online briefing call for the new Department of Customer Service chief digital officer role hosted by Services NSW CEO Greg Wells on Monday. 

According to attendees on the call, Wells emphasised four areas where the department will be focusing, including digital identity, privacy and security, analytics, as well as improving services for the disadvantaged.

With access to 70 other government agencies, the data and digital ID piece is particularly key, Mi3 has been told. To that end the department is expected to announce the winner of a CDP tender this half.

It was clear from the presentation that there are still some basic integrations that need to happen with staff in the service centres still having to operate with multiple systems while doing what one participant described as "magic behind the scenes" to offer a seamless service.

The only discordant note from the presentation is that a number of the candidates missed the warning that they needed to obfuscate their identity when they registered. A spokesperson for the department said there was warning given at the point before people logged in and said Wells also reinforced that point when he started the briefing.

- by Andrew Birmingham