NSW Valuer General

About This Project

In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the land valuation process, the NSW Valuer General needed to develop a strategy to integrate digital technologies and make more use of data into the process. This would ensure continued compliance with legislation and provide greater transparency, consistency, quality and productivity in carrying out valuations for customers.

The aim was also to improve customer service and experience to provide a framework that enabled digital innovation and business agility. The solution would need to support improved data sharing between customers (landowners and businesses) and Land & Property Information — the main source of information for the Valuer General’s office.

The Situation

The New South Wales Valuer General oversees all land valuations in the state. From this central location, all valuations are carried out by a network of regional offices that use land and property information to provide an independent assessment of market value for nearly all transactions involving land in NSW.

Property NSW is the government agency responsible for maintaining and sharing land interest data in NSW, including that of the Valuer General. Also responsible for managing the state’s cadastral (land title) system and associated systems, Property NSW provides information used in carrying out valuations and other administrative functions.

The Valuer General and Property NSW provide support services to landowners, developers, banks, local councils and many other organisations with regard to land valuation and property information.

Their existing ICT system in use for valuation, analysis and inspection was not built to provide a scalable platform capable of meeting the needs of an agile organisation with new business models leveraging from existing and third party data sources. Neither could it be easily integrated with other data sources or support emerging technologies.

The Valuer General identified the need for digital transformation within the organisation — to support their data and technology needs as well as to provide greater consistency, quality and productivity in delivering services.

A comprehensive roadmap and business case were required to provide a clear direction for the Valuer General to replace its ageing ICT systems and to meet stakeholder needs. Information Professionals Group was appointed to deliver this.

The Approach

We immediately identified an opportunity for the Valuer General to undergo a digital and data transformation in order to realise its full potential. This would not only enable them to undertake essential day-to-day business processes in a more efficient and secure manner but also future-proof the organisation — providing a framework for future innovation.

The next step was to develop an appropriate roadmap with key objectives that align with the Valuer General’s ICT strategy, their organisational objectives and also reflect the priorities of its customers.

We conducted stakeholder interviews and workshops to better understand needs and expectations and to identify potential opportunities. As well as a review of the current organisational structure, processes, systems landscape and, in particular, any overlap with other government agencies or departments. This enabled us to draw an accurate picture of key stakeholders’ roles and activities across NSW, specifically those that have an impact on land information management.

We focused particularly on the customer journey and experience — noting the need to introduce self-serve capabilities including digital transactions and online portals, reduce duplication of effort and increase productivity in carrying out valuations for customers.

A digital transformation strategy was also required to conform to constraints on resources and budget. We developed an overall strategy that included a Data Governance maturity roadmap staged over multiple years, a fully costed supporting business case and recommendations for a new enterprise system.

We provided a phased implementation plan, with three phases including actions prioritised according to business value based on time, risk and financial impacts, spread over a five-year timeline.

The Impact

We were successful in delivering a comprehensive digital transformation strategy and supporting business case to enable the Valuer General to provide a more efficient service and capture an opportunity for improved productivity, quality and consistency across the NSW government.

Information Professionals Group delivered this project within a strict six-week deadline which involved working closely with a range of stakeholders — from the Valuer General to other government agencies and departments as well as business users.

Our solution calculated a positive NPV and two-year payback period. It was submitted as part of the state government budget request and iPart submission. The data transformation project is currently pending funding approval.