Government, Health and Education

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Martin Rennhackkamp will head up the business intelligence capabilities for PBT's Australian arm

Chloe Herrick (CIO)18 March, 2011 12:30

Martin Rennhackkamp will head up the business intelligence capabilities for PBT's Australian arm

Global healthcare and business services company, PBT Group, has appointed its Chief Operations Officer, Martin Rennhackkamp, to head up its business intelligence (BI) capabilities in its Australian arm of the company.

Based in Melbourne, the role will involve leading PBT’s data warehousing, business intelligence and advanced analytics divisions with responsibilities for decision making and supplying information management solutions to the company’s client base

Commenting on his appointment, Rennhackkamp said the move will give him the opportunity to continue developing his skills in the BI space.

Rennhackkamp brings to the role 20 years experience in the same position at the company’s South African office where he was integral in the building of data warehousing and BI divisions of the organisation, including the last three years in which he established advanced analytics capability within the organisation.

He was also directly involved in the “BI in a Box” initiative for African and Middle East telco MTN Group, where a standardised enterprise data warehouse, dash-boarding and advanced analytics platform was implemented across the telco's operations in 21 countries.

In the BI space, Rennhackkamp has consulted on an on-going basis to a range of insurance organisations in South Africa and London. He also put his BI experience to use in the banking and healthcare verticals.

Published on Fri, 25/03/2011

SA Govt chooses Salmat for information system - Government News: Government News and Issues

The South Australian Government has entered into an eight-year agreement with call centre specialist, Salmat, to deliver a land information management system within three years.

Salmat’s integrated land information system (ILIS) was originally developed by the Northern Territory Government Department of Lands and Planning.

The product was recently contracted to Salmat for commercialise sale and use as a web based, Torrens Title Land Information System.
ILIS provides a single system for land management, information gathering and the execution of the land transactions for governments and the public.

It can also be used to identify and register land interest, deliver survey accurate geospatial data, record property usage and allow government guaranteed tenure.

ILIS can be linked to a data and image repository that provides satellite and aerial photography, cadastral data, lodgement or dealing images and specific information about services such as utilities and building permits.

Salmat has also signed a memorandum of understanding with China and is proceeding to contract negotiations.

Department of Defence in Victoria looks for somebody to integrate information management and technology

Chloe Herrick (CIO)01 April, 2011

Army on the hunt for CIO - department of defence, careers, army, Application services - Computerworld

The Department of Defence is looking for a new CIO to integrate information management and technology within the Army’s operations, but there appears to be some confusion about the exact nature of the role.

Defence consists of multiple business groups, each of which uses a combination of shared and division-specific IT infrastructure and application services.

[ Find out more about the top available IT jobs and hot tips on what employers are looking for in Computerworld's Careers newsletter ]
The role, advertised on Seek, is based at the Puckapunyal base in Victoria, about 100 kilometres north of Melbourne. It will involve combining the Army’s information systems and technology to produce higher capabilities, according to the advertisement.

“The successful candidate will be required to understand trends within the information and communication technology environment, and lead and manage a small team,” the advertisement reads.

Defence has cited a salary of $88,019-$99,285, plus super for the role. This puts the role in the lower remuneration bracket for a CIO; according to the 2010 Australian State of the CIO survey, the median salary for a CIO is $231,000. Only 4.3 per cent of respondents to the survey indicated a total annual compensation of less than $100,000.

Despite the advertisement, a spokesperson from Defence told CIO Australia the position was an 'executive level' role and not that of chief information officer.

According to the advertisement, applicants should have qualifications in information technology and communication related fields. Applications close at 5pm on 14 April 2011.

Thursday, 31 March 2011
By Melissa Marino

The challenge to plug the human leak*(Science Alert)

"Disclosures can also be made through
inadvertent errors."

Behind the sensational WikiLeaks controversy and political fallout lies a simple human action. In short, without a leaker, Julian Assange would have no information to publish.

It is this very human propensity to want to share information, so starkly illustrated by the WikiLeaks saga, that new Swinburne University of Technology research will address. A new Australian Research Council Linkage Project will examine people’s behaviour with a view to strengthening information management systems within government agencies.

Professor Suresh Cuganesan, who is heading the project – Management Control Systems for Effective Information Sharing and Security in Government Organisations – says the greatest risk from an information security perspective is people: the staff and officials who manage and deal with information as part of their day-to-day duties.

Professor Cuganesan, Swinburne’s Centre for Enterprise Performance director, says it is well established that humans are the weakest link when it comes to information control.

There are numerous examples of the deliberate leaking of information for financial, political or personal gain, but disclosures can also be made through inadvertent errors.

Losing portable data devices such as USB sticks is one example: a high profile case emerged in 2006 when a CD containing a report into the death of an Australian soldier in Iraq was left in an airport lounge computer.

Accidental disclosures can also occur through general conversation or simply when an employee is unaware of procedures.

Behaviour change

“Our project will look at how government agencies can design effective controls that generate appropriate information-management behaviour,” Professor Cuganesan says.

And he emphasises that ‘information management’ not only applies to keeping information secure but also helping government agencies to effectively deliver information. This is the project’s flipside – a study of ways to better share information that needs to be circulated.

“If we get it right, it has a significant upside, if more information gets to the right people, resulting in better government service delivery.”

Professor Cuganesan will be examining the use of management control systems (MCS) that consider an organisation’s culture and values, policies and procedures, and which can measure an employee’s information management performance.

“It’s not about putting firewalls in place to prevent hackers,” Professor Cuganesan says. “It’s actually about trying to get government staff to engage in appropriate information-management practices.”

Recent Auditor-General reports in Victoria and Western Australia suggest this is currently not the case, highlighting serious deficiencies in the control and security of government-held information. Reasons why government information needs adequate security – and any number of examples have come to light over the years – include protecting the privacy and the security of individuals, as well as protecting databanks from fraud or other criminal activities.

The challenge is that there is increasing pressure on government agencies to improve information sharing through channels that are more open and functional. However, Professor Cuganesan says at the moment there are gaping inconsistencies between the policies and operations of different government departments and their private sector partners when it comes to information management.

Real-life research sites

Designing and operating a management control system that improves information security as well as information sharing is going to be complex.

To this end, Professor Cuganesan will be working closely with project partner Professor Yun Yang from the Swinburne Centre for Computing and Engineering Software Systems (SUCCESS) as well as government partners Victoria Police and the Department of Transport (Victoria).

Professor Cuganesan will design management control systems and study their effects on organisations and employees, while Professor Yang will develop and analyse the technology that will be critical to supporting these systems. Part of Professor Yang’s work will examine how IT-based controls can help enforce, track and monitor information sharing and security. It will also investigate how IT-based controls can measure trust, risk and threat in the workforce.

The university’s government partners, Professor Cuganesan says, will be real-life research sites and test-beds for the systems. They will also provide crucial insights into the issues and challenges that departments face in trying to control ‘information behaviours’.

“We want to analyse what is going on now, identify what works well and where the opportunities are for improvement. We will then start to design refinements and test them.”

Both informal and formal controls are among a range of MCS elements that could be tested. Informally, this could be through connecting people’s information-management behaviour to the organisation’s broader values, such as integrity or respect. More formal measures might include physical or electronic controls on document access, or staff performance indicators for information behaviours.

“We are looking at both sides of the coin,” Professor Cuganesan says. “We are not just looking to clamp down on information and build technology to restrict it. Yes, we do need to look at security, but information also needs to move.”

[fgeorge]

The Federal Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) has issued their Open Source Software Policy.

[fgeorge]

Seems like the Fed's are having a burst of activity.

Department of Finance and Deregulation, on 13 Apr 2011 released the draft 2011 ICT Strategic Vision for comment and feedback.

The draft Vision outlines a long term plan for the government’s use of information and communication technology to support increased public sector productivity. It does this by describing how the public sector can use ICT to deliver better government services, engage openly with stakeholders and improve government operations. The Vision explains the actions and activities to support each of these priorities.


Australia’s Defence Signals Directorate has published a comprehensive guide to risks Australian Government agencies must take into account when considering the use of cloud computing services.

The document aims to “assist agencies to perform a risk assessment to determine the viability of using cloud computing services.”

This is a discussion on Government, Health and Education within the Local Industry Channels forums, part of the Local Happenings category; Federal, State and Local...