"This strategy is active already as all [agency] procurement and ICT strategies will be measured and aligned with the NSW strategy," Edgecumbe said, adding that it's not a series of "motherhood" statements.

There are now some 90 people working on the implementation of this plan, and there is also a working group providing the business requirements to the technology planners.

"To implement e-government in a coordinated way across agencies is about consolidating common IT systems to make e-government simpler to attract savings that are reinvested into government services," he said. "We are looking at consolidation of hardware and delivery technologies like e-mail and content management for two reasons - it allows agencies to support customer service priorities and allows to the government to achieve savings that are redirected to frontline services."

Edgecumbe said it is possible to do this now, because the Internet, and because broadband has become cheaper, which allows the public to interact more with the government online. It also allows "equal access" regardless of a person's location.

"We have to do it because we cannot do multi-agency serving without the amalgamation of backend technologies; technology today is more scalable than it has been so we don't need multiple services between agencies," he said.