Industry Engagement Group Kickoff

Wednesday, 15th March, 2023 

Summary

In the first part of the session NSW EPA and QLD DES shared their overview of the project, key outcomes being sought, why KPMG has been selected as a delivery partner and what are the key next stages coming up.  

In the second part of the session, the KPMG team presented the process of industry engagement focussed on delivering an intuitive and easy to use solution for the whole industry. KPMG team provided an overview of the planned engagement approach, focus of the upcoming workshops (movement creation) and next steps.  

Video below provides a recording of the session, with key details listed underneath.  

Our (NSW EPA) approach 

Our (NSW EPA) aim is a nationally consistent tracking system that meets the needs of industry and regulators in different jurisdictions. We are working with Queensland to prove an interjurisdictional solution can work to strengthen and simplify waste tracking across jurisdictions. 

Over the past 24 months we have considered:

• Multiple options, including different tracking solutions and products from other industries and other countries
• Information included the previous reports on national tracking systems, and information from market research on the current NSW systems
• The challenges associated with providing a service to multiple jurisdictions in Australia – these placed specific requirements on our approach and narrowed the options that we could take. 

• We first released an expression of interest to gather information from the market about what is possible in waste tracking.
• From this process, we developed a set of objectives that the new solution should meet.
• These were derived from what stakeholders have told us is needed along with what the supplier market told us is possible - we want the solution to meet future needs and not just today’s needs.
• These objectives were then used as a framework to define our request for proposal (RFP), which we released to the market in September 2022. 

For more detailed background, we have included relevant parts of the requirements section of the RFP. These described the problems we are trying to solve, the program objectives, and the requirements we sought from a supplier. 

Key outcomes from our approach 

Why we decided to outsource 

• We recognise that as regulators, we are not experts in IT product design and development. Therefore, we wanted to engage a supplier who could develop a competitive tracking product and who could provide the ongoing support services to both regulators and industry.
• We recognise that we are not set-up to provide the services from one jurisdiction to another needed to develop and support a new system.  However, suppliers do this all the time through standard procurement and supply chain relationships.
• We assessed that the best approach to deliver the system for multiple jurisdictions was to outsource the development and then provide the service to each jurisdiction through a software-as-a-service model. 

Designing a nationally consistent solution 

We want to use the deployment in NSW and Queensland to develop and prove a solution that meets the needs of separate jurisdictions. 

Our goal is to significantly improve interstate tracking between NSW and Queensland. Ideally, we will have a solution where information only needs to be entered once – the IT system will automatically update the system in the other jurisdiction. 

We are working with EPA Victoria to interconnect their Waste Tracker system. Again, our ideal goal is to enter information once, with the systems automatically updating each other to meet the legislative and regulatory obligations. 

We are developing a solution that will enable other jurisdictions to be integrated either through adopting the new system or interconnecting with the new system. 

The service needs to meet specific jurisdictions’ requirements 

Each jurisdiction has specific requirements and nuances, such as different legislation, different waste codes, different data and security requirements. And each jurisdiction has different requirements for integration into their own systems. 

This is one of the reasons we chose to outsource the development and management of the solution. We needed a supplier who could provide the different services for each jurisdiction. 

We are using the initial development with NSW and Queensland to test and prove this process across two separate jurisdictions. 

Each jurisdiction will enter into their own agreement with the supplier 

For the reasons described above, each jurisdiction will enter into a separate agreement with KPMG for the service. This will be optional, with each jurisdiction able to validate that the solution offers value for money. 

We are using the NSW and Queensland development to test and prove this approach. 

We believe this is the best approach to keep the service competitive for those other jurisdictions who may want to consider the service. 

We had to demonstrate best value to NSW and Queensland executives 

We had to demonstrate that our approach and our final selection of the preferred supplier provided best value for NSW and Queensland. 

In this case, Queensland evaluated the value from the perspective of an external jurisdiction considering adopting the service. Again, we are using this process to test the viability for other jurisdictions in future.  

KPMG Origins as selected solution provider  

KPMG Origins is an ecosystem-based platform that enables seamless connectivity between participants with standardised and trusted data.​ With an established product suite, that includes supply chain traceability, it will form the base platform of the Integrated Waste Tracking Solution.​ 

Creating a solution with industry 

KPMG Origins will host consistent industry engagement opportunities throughout the project. These will be held on a fortnightly cycle, starting with a mixture of one-on-one interviews and group sessions to better understand industry needs and challenges, findings from these inform requirements in the design. The resulting designs are then played back to industry to ensure we have translated industry needs accurately into the solution.  

KPMG Origins have established 8 sections for industry engagement reflecting the functions to be delivered in the solution.  

Read more about it here.

Purpose of engaging industry in solution design

Exploratory Mondays and Feedback Fridays will act as forums for discussion, sharing industry insights and considered input, to support KPMG to develop an integrated waste tracking solution.  

Industry engagement sessions will include groups of industry experts who will act as representatives of a range of organisations​. They will represent the industry role they play in the sector, rather than the specific views of their company. With a focus on operations and experience using the existing tracking system(s), representatives will provide valuable industry insights and system feedback​.