Australia’s IT “wizardry” supporting the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s (DIAC) new online visa and citizenship sites has recorded its second award with a first prize in the business process category at the international FutureGov Government Technology Awards in Bali.

The honour was presented to DIAC for the visa and citizenship wizards, the department’s online client self-service initiatives. The wizards also won first prize at the prestigious e-Awards for Excellence in e¬-Government at the CeBIT international business technology conference in Sydney in May.

"This new accolade highlights the success of these online initiatives and is a testimony to the Systems for People program and to everyone who has worked on these innovative, client-focused projects,” departmental secretary Andrew Metcalfe said.

“The visa wizard and the citizenship wizard are the first in a suite of online services the department is developing. This means faster and better services tailored to the needs of clients.”

Since September 2008, the visa wizard has received more than 3.3 million page views, at an average of 8300 each day. The citizenship wizard was launched in December 2008 and has been viewed nearly 220 000 times at an average of 776 views daily.

The FutureGov Government Technology Awards are an international prize that recognises best-practice in public sector technology programs throughout the Asia-Pacific and the Gulf states and were formally announced at the award dinner in Bali on October 9. This year more than 600 government, education and healthcare organisations nominated for the awards.

DIAC’s security referral service (SRS) was also short-listed as a finalist in the information management and information security categories.

The SRS, which enables electronic security check processing between the department and the Attorney-General’s department, places Australian border security technology among the very best in the world.

“DIAC continues to set benchmarks for government agencies in e-business and we will continue our program of innovation and improvement in transforming business processes, IT and online client services,” Mr Metcalfe added.

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