How the New South Wales Department of Customer Services Is Driving Digital Transformation

The New South Wales Department of Customer Service is pioneering digital licensing services within Australia for residents, businesses, and internal staff. Funded by its Digital Restart Fund (DRF), New South Wales established the Licensing Program to move licensing online to simplify applying for, renewing, and evidencing licences across the state. However, to modernise, New South Wales understood that it could not rely on its existing, outdated systems and selected Granicus’ AMANDA software to provide the core digitisation platform to underpin its broader e.Regulation strategy.

New South Wales wanted ways to make it quicker and easier for its customers, primarily citizens, and businesses within the state, to adopt digital channels and self-service models, rather than relying on office opening times. Another priority was to create a seamless service that incorporated identity verification, automated approval processes, and an integrated payment system, that would provide error-free licence application and renewal turnaround, from the comfort of citizens’ homes or via their mobile devices. To achieve this, they recognised process simplification was key. They also wanted to build a strong digital foundation that included compliance and data analytics features to protect New South Wales communities as regulatory landscapes continue to change and evolve.

Seeking a global leader in technology services, the New South Wales Department of Customer Service engaged Granicus’ AMANDA , and its partner CGI, a global leader in independent IT and business consulting services for a digital-first approach to licensing. Granicus’ AMANDA specialises in digitising the end-to-end forms and workflows required to manage permits, licences, and registrations for residents, businesses, and government, supporting schemes ranging from tradespersons, property and planning, to animals, gaming and environment protection. AMANDA also helps reduce the risk of human error or misplaced paper forms and streamlines the regulatory processes, making it easier to track and manage new licences and renewals over time, modify workflows when needed, collect licensing fees and reduce processing times. The system supports the digital issuance of licences through the Service NSW app and is tightly integrated with the Service NSW platform to optimise the customer experience and provide seamless and connected NSW Government services and digital transactions.

After initially selecting AMANDA, New South Wales chose a simple paintball marker license to quickly develop and test an end-to-end digital licence workflow to launch the Licence.NSW platform. Residents, businesses, and staff were thrilled to see the time taken to submit and receive a paintball marker licence reduce from four weeks down to just four minutes on a mobile device. Now more than 20,000 customers have applied for licensing across industries including Real Estate and Property (Certificates of Registration), Security, Conveyancing, Asbestos & Demolition, and Design & Building practitioners, with more planned. Each digital licence includes checks to verify applicant identification, payment, and more – protecting the NSW community and helping to achieve $700 million in economic benefits over 10 years.

For New South Wales, removing customer roadblocks and wait times by digitising licencing has helped the state meet contemporary expectations around customer self-service while making it easier for businesses to operate. With its Licence.NSW platform, New South Wales, powered by Granicus’ AMANDA and implementation services from CGI, better serves its customers while driving operational efficiencies behind the scenes with staff.