By Anne Widjaja
Centrelink is currently rolling out a new case management system nationwide using SAP’s investigative Case Management solution technology.
The Department of Human Services, which is responsible for overseeing Centrelink, distributes $120 billion in social security payments on behalf of the government. In 2009/10, Centrelink managed more than 22,000 cases of fraud and serious non-compliance, which saved the Federal Government $100 million.
The Human Services department will use SAP’s investigative Case Management solution to support increasing investigation workloads, allow for greater accountability, and to increase policy compliance and streamline processes. SAP’s technology also provides efficient management oversight that meets Centrelink’s business requirements and offers additional functionality by supporting operational issues with targeted, tailored solutions.
Steve Thompson, vice president, Federal Government and ANZ Defence, SAP Australia, explained that the aim of the project “had a specific focus on public security, a dedicated team with product and industry expertise and a diverse range of offerings for fraud management from fraud detection and investigation through to analytics”.
“SAP worked very closely with Centrelink to ensure company-wide buy-in and to keep the risks to an absolute minimum. By ensuring SAP understood Centrelink’s political landscape and business drivers, SAP was able to ensure it provided the right solution.”
The project began in March this year, and went live in July. It has already received positive feedback from Centrelink for its richness and flexibility. Mike Brett, Centrelink national manager, business integrity applications, said: “The easily configurable framework and user interface have already been described as ‘next generation’ by the people using them. The fact we went from development to testing in six weeks was also a great achievement.”
Brett also praised SAP for its ability to “demonstrate solution capabilities specific to Centrelink’s business processes and issues” as a “partner, rather than just a software vendor”.
