Reports are surfacing of a further push for a whole-of-government role for a data warehouse developed within the Ministry of Social Development — or rather within the part of it that was the Ministry of Social Policy.
The warehouse, known as the Information Analysis Platform, is already used by several government departments to maintain, analyse and access social and educational data on individuals and groups. IAP’s technical manager Clare Somerville last year raised the possibility of its use being further broadened to form a general tool for government, a plan which would fit neatly with the interdepartmental collaboration focus of the e-government initiative.
On this occasion, sources credit MSD IT chief Neil Miranda for pushing the concept, which one says is “almost a done deal”. Earlier this year Miranda attempted to promote the then MSP’s network infrastructure, covering the social agencies, for a similar wider role.
This time, however, Miranda refuses to comment on “rumour”. Any such incentive would be the decision of MSD chief executive Peter Hughes, he says.
Hughes was not immediately available late last week, and an MSD spokeswoman said any whole-of-government IT initiatives are properly the province of SSC e-government unit boss Brendan Boyle.
Boyle says the IAP is one possible model for a whole-of-government data warehouse, but there is an alternative model in a warehouse used by the Department of Justice. “We are still considering our options,” he says. “We haven’t yet formed a view as to whether a whole-of-government data warehouse is even necessary.”