Improved services through systems - the Change Program

What happened to begin with?

The starting point was working with taxpayers themselves.

At the outset the ATO set up its 'Listening to the Community' project for a better understanding of the issues clients were having. We were interested in both community feedback and collaboration in the design of improvement the ATO needed to make. Individual taxpayers, small business operators, tax agents and ATO staff provided user input.

Individual taxpayers nominated improvements that included:

• better personal services
• more help with record keeping
• improved telephone services with quicker response times
• simpler, easier-to-understand and more personalised communications
• easier-to-use tax forms, and
• more certainty and consistency in dealing with us.

Businesses wanted:

• improved telephony services, including after hours access
• help with record keeping that supports business needs
• a more user-friendly website
• simpler, more timely communications, and
• informed advice taking their circumstances into account.

Tax agents - vital to our tax system, lodging around 73% of tax returns for individuals and over 95% of business tax returns⁸ - wanted:

• easier, faster and informed transactions
• access to information on clients and client accounts
• improved, better informed telephony service, with reduced waiting times
• a more user-friendly website
• timely, easier to understand communication, and
• more tailored products and services.

ATO employees also had their say. Their first-hand understanding of client's issues provided insight into the difficulties accessing information from mainframe systems, AIS and NTS.

But it would take time for the ATO to respond to this vital feedback consistently and systematically, a reflection of how hard it was for the organisation to respond to the scale of the change needed.