Business software developer Oconics has developed an easy-to-use website that dramatically simplifies finding services and information offered by departments and agencies of the South Australian Government.

Working with a dedicated team from Service SA and specialist agency staff, Oconics delivered www.sa.gov.au as an Australian-first, plain language entry point to a myriad of public sector services.

As well as handling hundreds of thousands of visitors a month since it was launched in the middle of this year, the new site will facilitate the processing of more than $800 million worth of government-related financial transactions during the current financial year.

The www.sa.gov.au website builds on the decade-long success of the previous SA Central website by simplifying language, bowling over bureaucratic boundaries and seamlessly linking to third-party services provided by the Australian Government and non-government organisations.

Oconics has a well-established track record for ground-breaking work in putting the public sector online. Several years ago, it completed a project to publish South Australian Hansard on the Web. It recently won a $3.8 million contract to redevelop and support the Hansard system that publishes proceedings of the Australian Federal Parliament.

South Australia’s director of e-Government Ms Jan McConchie said the aim of the new website was to provide improved accessibility to public sector services. “On the site, government services are divided by topic areas rather than by departments,” she said.

“At Service SA, we provide the information architecture of the site, the publishing environment and writing standards. Content is written by agency staff in words that the public can understand. Accessibility is the goal.”

The first release of the site contains comprehensive content relating to transport, services to the ageing, carers and people with a disability, with links to the rest of SA Government services and information. The site will continue to expand as agencies prepare their material in the new format during the next 18 months.

Oconics developed the website as a Microsoft .NET application, providing a deliberately plain interface to speed up performance and minimise clutter. The only graphics on the site relate to specific events or public campaigns such as the Readiness for Fire Season initiative.

Oconics founder and managing director Jonathan Ruckert said the sa.gov.au website was a challenging exercise in simplicity. “It epitomises the principle that less is more,” he said.

“Working with Service SA, we were clear that the objective was to provide a fast, effective and uncluttered site that allows the citizens of South Australia to find the government services they want.”

About Oconics

Established in 2004, Oconics is a multi-million-dollar company that develops business software for its customers, which include major corporations and government agencies. Oconics specialises in developing web-based applications. To learn more, visit www.oconics.com

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