Heralded as one of the most important public infrastructure transformations to occur in Victoria in decades, the Victorian Digital Asset Strategy (VDAS) framework and the recently released Digital Asset Policy will help shape the future of public asset development in the state.
Appointed by the Victorian State Government’s Chief Engineer to the VDAS Steering Committee in 2018, IIMBE’s Steve Appleby has worked closely with the Office of Projects Victoria within the Department of Treasury and Finance to canvass the needs of government, ensuring departments and agencies would be able to consistently apply and realise the benefitsof information management.
In 2021 IIMBE also supported the development of VDAS into a final policy and helped government agencies prepare for change.
“The Victorian Digital Asset Policy is critical to ensuring accurate and meaningful digital information is recorded to improve the creation and management of infrastructure assets. Everyone involved in public infrastructure will be working with VDAS going forward, but the way in which the changes will be implemented will vary between government departments and sectors,” said Steve Appleby, Managing Director of IIMBE.
IIMBE (and their partner GHD) took responsibility for assessing the readiness of government agencies to enact VDAS, working with them to ensure their digital requirements are being met and that they could implement changes across their development programs. This involved running a series of workshops and developing a matrix to score and evaluate each departments digital maturity.
“Each government department has different infrastructure requirements and will approach VDAS in the way best applicable to their sector. For instance, the Department of Transport (DoT) is responsible for establishing 165 major road and rail projects as part of its $140 billion “Big Build” program. To ensure the “Big Build” is successful, DoT turned to IIMBE to develop a multi-year Digital Engineering Transformation Strategy and Roadmap that supports and encourages the practical implementation of a digitally-enabled lifecycle approach to all these new infrastructure assets,” commented Steve.
VDAS recognises that new infrastructure projects include huge amounts of valuable data and resources that, if properly recorded and maintained, can benefit stakeholders and the asset itself over its entire lifecycle.
“VDAS is an important framework that will help plan, organise, design and develop public assets with data that is meaningful and accurate. The policy will help ensure project costs are better managed, feasibility is more accurately assessed, and construction schedules are adhered too,” said Steve.
For more information on how IIMBE can assist in your organisation’s preparedness for VDAS, please contact: hello@iimbe.io
