Sep 1, 2025, 2025, | 09:45 IST, The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has outlined a comprehensive program of technology and system investments worth more than USD40 million as it continues to modernize its infrastructure, strengthen security, and expand cloud adoption. The funding will support critical system upgrades, cloud migration, cyber security enhancements, and the replacement of legacy platforms, with a focus on delivering reliability, resilience, and improved services for its workforce, partners, and the communities it serves.

A key portion of the program includes an allocation of approximately USD15 million to address ministerial and legislative requirements by implementing ongoing changes to MSD’s core systems. Alongside this, the ministry has earmarked USD2.1 million to mitigate the “critical risk of failure” across several applications, including SWIFTT, Curam, Oracle, and EOS. These investments reflect MSD’s strategy of ensuring that its core systems remain resilient and capable of meeting rising operational and compliance demands.

Cloud capability continues to be a central theme in MSD’s strategy. About USD2.3 million will be invested in expanding its cloud infrastructure and transitioning agreed-upon key applications from on-premise systems to cloud platforms. This is complemented by a USD0.5 million investment in migrating data warehouse backup storage to the cloud, as well as USD2.7 million for additional storage capacity designed to mitigate the risk of data loss, corruption, and outages.

To strengthen security, MSD is investing USD2 million in implementing a privileged access management platform to reduce risks linked to improper use of elevated system access. In addition, USD2.3 million will fund a new external access management solution for clients and partners. The ministry is also committing USD2.7 million to secure access service edge technology, aimed at reducing system complexity, supporting hybrid cloud environments, and improving user experience, particularly for distributed workforces.

Other modernization initiatives include the decommissioning of the national office enterprise content repository, continued migration to SharePoint for regional offices, and the upgrade of intranet and knowledge platforms, with a budget of USD4.5 million. MSD is also allocating USD1 million toward platform and network remediation and the replacement of aging infrastructure.

Contact center transformation is another major focus area. Around USD5.5 million will support the replacement of the current on-premises Genesys Engage system with a cloud-based solution to address business and technology challenges. In parallel, MSD plans to spend USD17.9 million over three years on a contact center implementation partner, with an equivalent investment in software licenses.

Further, MSD has indicated it is likely to engage an Azure integration partner at a cost of USD6 million during the current year.

The technology program also ties into MSD’s broader Te Pae Tawhiti transformation initiative, now in its delivery phase under the refreshed banner “Services for the Future.” The program emphasizes governance, risk management, and assurance, with external partners providing oversight to ensure effective delivery.

MSD continues to work with a range of partners on these initiatives. Key contracts have been awarded to Accenture (USD13.9 million) and PwC (USD13.4 million) for Services for the Future. Other long-term technology partners include Fujitsu for end-user support, Deloitte for identity and access management, Circle Consulting & Software and Spark for contact center operations, and Datacom as a strategic partner for the cloud capability program.