Client Synopsis
Department of Environment and Natural ResourcesOrganisation Overview
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is the primary department within the South Australian Government responsible for managing the States’ considerable and valuable natural and cultural heritage. To deliver services efficiently to government, business and the community, its organisational structure is based on six discrete but complementary functions, being:
- Strategy Directorate – Plans the strategic direction for DENR, aligning it to the expectations of the government, supports the Minister and Chief Executive in their roles, and guides how the public is engaged;
- Policy Directorate – Develops policy and provides advice to advance the government’s environmental and natural resources management priorities at agency, regional, state and national levels. This includes the strategic and procedural policy that guides and influences decision making;
- Client Services Directorate – Provides scientific knowledge and environmental information that aids decision making; makes environmental information and knowledge easy to find, understand and use; and provides a range of scientific and other centralised services to the public and government;
- Regional Services Directorate – With Regional Natural Resources Management Boards, provides integrated environmental and natural resources services including the management of the public land estate (parks, reserves and crown lands);
- Corporate Services Directorate – Supports DENR to be a high performing government department by providing financial, business operations, asset management, human resources and occupational health and safety policies and services;
- Botanic Gardens – A scientific and cultural institution managing botanical collections for the benefit and enjoyment of the whole community.
Fragile to Agile Engagement
Responding to State Government pressure for efficiency savings, DENR initiated Project RED (Radical Efficiency Design) to identify areas of the business that could deliver these savings. As part of this project, Fragile to Agile was engaged to develop a Business Capability Model which was employed for the following two primary purposes:
- To identify areas of the business that were not core to DENR’s primary mission and could be conducted by other departments on its behalf and thus deliver potential synergies. One of the areas identified was Grant Application Management as other areas of the government already manage much larger grant programs, and only one sub function, Grant Eligibility Assessment, was unique to the environment portfolio, and
- To identify areas of information technology where savings could be garnered and then develop plans to achieve those savings. A number of opportunities for system rationalisation and the removal of unnecessary duplication where identified and enacted.