NZ Customs Service(MIS100 2009)

By CIO staff | Friday, July 24 2009

2008 ranking: 28

Senior IS executive: Peter Rosewarne, GM, Information Services
Reports to: Deputy comptroller, people policy and resources
Size of IS shop: 20

PCs: 1000
Mobile PCs: 150
Terminals: 100
Hand-held devices: 41
Total screens: 1291

Industry: Government and defence
PC environment: HP, Windows
Server environment: HP, IBM, Sun, Microsoft
DBMS: Sybase, SQL
Address: The Customhouse, 17-21 Whitmore Street, Wellington
Website: www.customs.govt.nz
Key IS projects this year: Border control system replacement (the Joint Border Management System); web software replacement; VoIP.

The current Information Services Strategic Plan sets out the path to meet the challenges Customs will face over the next five to 10 years. Towards this, NZ Customs is working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to develop stage two of a business case for a new Joint Border Management System. The new system will not only be the core system for the two agencies, but provide valuable services to industry and other government agencies.

Peter Rosewarne, group manager IS, says Customs is building on previous ICT investments in software and server virtualisation, disaster recovery and business continuity systems, but has additionally launched new initiatives including investment in VoIP platforms and technologies, mobile infrastructure and applications using cellular technologies; and e-business and Web 2.0 projects.

The most significant projects in terms of IT budget are replacement of the government’s border control system (the Joint Border Management System), web software replacement and the implementation of VoIP. “The web software replacement and VoIP solution, as well as providing efficiencies and new functionality, will also provide opportunity for tight integration with the border control system in future developments to enable further process automation and advances in knowledge management,” says Rosewarne.