Delivering Pillar 1: Evolve our digital maturity
Objectives
1. Evolve our operating model and processes to enable innovation and cost-effectiveness.
2. Develop our workforce to have the digital knowledge and skills to drive ‘digital first’ thinking to enhance our staff and client experiences.
Initiatives that deliver on these objectives
Establish our digital roadmap and governance framework
Develop a refreshed ATO roadmap of digital initiatives and governance of our digital programs to ensure alignment to the digital strategy.
This includes:
- Creating a whole of ATO view of digital priorities.
- Driving efficiencies through smarter investment in data and digital.
- Developing newer methods to measure effectiveness and efficiency.
Establish digital think tank
The ATO Chief Digital Officer will lead a representative group to collaborate, explore and ideate new and improved digital solutions and processes across the ATO.
This enables us to plan ahead for future transformation while managing current programs and challenge ways of working.
Invest in our workforce to advance our digital maturity
Identify gaps and partner with key internal stakeholders to drive ongoing development of our people, including getting the most out of the whole of government Digital Professional Stream.
We will look for new ways to uplift digital literacy across the ATO and build support tools to help staff navigate digital learning offerings.
Delivering Pillar 2: Continue to deliver and leverage the right digital platforms
Objectives
3. Deliberate investment in our missing digital capabilities to enable experiences that reflect the contemporary digital world
4. Maximise the benefits and use of our current digital capabilities to meet the needs of our users
Initiatives that deliver on these objectives
Modernise our website – ato.gov.au
Implement a new and improved platform for ato.gov.au that will transform usability and the client experience.
Includes delivery of a new knowledge management capability that will connect and consolidate ATO related content.
Modernising Business Registers (MBR)
The MBR program will consolidate the Australian Business Register and more than 30 other company related registers into one place, making it easier for businesses to register, view and maintain their business information with government.
Operationalise the Digital Services Gateway (DSG)
Provide seamless and contemporary digital services through a new digital Application Programming Interfaces (API) gateway, in partnership with DSPs.
We will transform the client experience through implementation of event driven and lightweight APIs.
Continue digitalisation of correspondence and communications
Provide digital communications for individuals and businesses and continue to modernise the look and feel.
This includes delivery of a new whole of government digital business inbox and a secure 2-way digital exchange, enabling messages to clients via secure methods.
Continue digitalisation of end-to-end processes and services
Continue digitalisation of manual or sub-optimal digital services impacting tax revenue and client experiences.
Key focus areas:
- Delivery of online services for foreign investors, and their representatives.
- Digitalising forms to improve experience and prevent unauthenticated interactions.
- Improving the ATO mobile app (including native payments, notifications)
- Maximising digital channels to improve client register integrity.
- Making incremental digital changes to support sophisticated markets (for example, large multinational organisations).
Delivering Pillar 3: Deliver personalised optimal experiences for our clients and our people
Objectives
5. Tax and super ‘just happen’ through simple digital interactions, authenticated identity and verifiable and trusted data
6. Know and understand our clients and offer digital services and support to meet their needs anywhere, anytime on any device
7. Digitalisation of our staff experiences, services and processes and empowering our staff with intelligent workflows and client data
Initiatives that deliver on these objectives
Expand collection and use of third-party data
Increased use, collection and sharing of verified third-party data across our ecosystems to enhance the quality of services provided to our clients.
We will deliver the Data Acquisition, Pre-fill and Sharing (DAPS) Program, replacing existing Data and Analytics platforms, including for third-party data used in identity matching and pre-filling of tax returns. DAPS will lay the foundation for a future that enables real-time event-based processing, increasing seamless taxation and reducing the chance for errors.
Enrich digital experiences through use of real-time and event-based data and analytics
Using data and analytics across our services and implementing new strategies to create more efficient experiences for clients.
Our initial focus will be on optimising use of our existing large data sets for the super and employment systems (for example, Single Touch Payroll), enabling a digital substantiation solution to support real-time or event-based validation of claims and implementing a new uplift strategy for tax professionals (addressing irritants that prevent self-service).
Enhance client interactions and improve digital assistance
Improve our ability to provide seamless services, including support provided in digital channels and when interacting with our people.
Key focus areas:
- Refreshing our client contact centre platforms (for example, move to cloud or hybrid cloud solution).
- Increasing use of artificial intelligence and natural language to support clients through authenticated interactions (for example, digital assistants and calls).
Transform case and work management to enable digital interactions
Digitalisation of staff support tools for case and work management capabilities.
This includes refreshing our platforms to enable document collaboration, our client and case management solutions, and leveraging the ATO mobile app to facilitate authenticated client and staff interactions.
Delivering Pillar 4: Collaborate with partners to build connected and trusted ecosystems
Objectives
8. Take a whole of ecosystem view and actively participate in the digital ecosystem with our partners
9. Strengthen digital services to uphold privacy, security and improve fraud prevention and responses
Initiatives that deliver on these objectives
Actively influence and collaborate with industry, government and international jurisdictions
Engage with domestic and international jurisdictions, including industry and professional bodies to design, develop and adopt leading trends and practices in digital transformation.
Key focus areas:
- Contribute to the OECD Forum on Tax AdministrationExternal Link (FTA) projects and initiatives.
- Maximise insights from our various stewardship groups such as Tax Practitioner, GST and DSPs.
- Work across government to expand Digital Identity, enhance myGov and other whole of government initiatives.
- Expand Peppol eInvoicing adoption in Australia and the region.
Actively expand use of Digital Identity to minimise fraud
Embed Digital Identity in more ATO services and interactions within our ecosystems to enable greater integrity of authorisations and accesses.
Key focus areas:
- Extend our identity authorisation models to include non-Australian entities.
- Expand and embed Digital IdentityExternal Link across all registration processes.
- Enhancing our Identity Management processes to ensure the integrity of our registers and reduce the risk of unauthorised access to confidential information and help protect clients from identity theft.
- Utilise the highest levels of identity proofing offered by Digital Identity to secure high risk transactions.
Evolve fraud monitoring and management for digital services
Further strengthen ATO protections against fraud, aligning with the evolution of the digital experience, including fraud monitoring and management across digital channels.
Key focus areas:
- Operationalise the fraud monitoring and management strategy for ATO digital services.
- Deliver technology capability to enable continual improvements to monitor, detect and respond to suspected fraud incidents.
- Deliver a secure messaging capability (for example, notify and action, nudges in real-time or time of event).
- Evolve Digital Identity fraud analytics capability to better detect, monitor and investigate potential fraud threats.
Enabling capabilities that will help us deliver our pillar objectives
Listed here are key outcomes needed from our technology, law, data and cyber capabilities. Delivery of these is pivotal to the success of this strategy.
Technology
Deliver reliable, intuitive and contemporary technology solutions:
- Deliberately invest in our critical applications and supporting technologies.
- Provide technology that supports ATO staff in being highly effective and efficient at helping clients.
- Building foundations that foster a high functioning ecosystem where market-driven innovation delivers value.
Data and analytics
Use data effectively to improve client and staff experiences:
- Drive personalisation within an authenticated environment.
- Enrich our service offerings with relevant client data to build digital engagement and trust.
- Provide clients and staff with access to the right data at the right time.
- Build a single view of client profile using verifiable data.
Law and policy
Advocate for policy settings which are supportive of digitalisation by:
- Implementing laws which are easy to understand and comply with by engaging early with our stakeholders for a better digital experience.
- Actively shape law and policy using the data we hold and our knowledge of current taxpayer and staff experiences.
- Ensuring the technology that underpins our evolving digital services conforms to ATO and whole of government policies.
Cyber security
Protect our data and systems from cyber threats:
- Maintain an effective cyber security program that protects our data and systems.
- Uplift people, process, and technology across critical controls.
- Continue to monitor, detect and respond to cyber security threats facing the ATO.