Why the ATO’s under-the-radar website overhaul is good for taxpayers

For everyday taxpayers used to the simple and efficient transactionality of the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) rugged but secure and consistent online interface, it seems that a massive overhaul just slipped under the bridge without opprobrium or frenzied bell ringing.

After more than a decade, the ATO has finally updated its website and it seems that nobody really noticed, and this bodes well.

Why?

Well, for starters, any major government customer-facing website that can flip its entire content management system without significant initial blowback puts similar corporate overhauls in the shade. Let’s face it: when banks do this, there’s umbrage, call centre meltdowns, and a Twitter frenzy.

Unless you don’t notice.

The ATO told The Mandarin that “ato.gov.au is our largest digital channel with over 118 million website sessions in 2022-23”.

“The current legacy platform has been in place for over a decade and has reached the end of its service life and we have used this opportunity to deliver a modern, reliable and scalable Digital platform aligned with the ATO’s Digital Strategy to deliver an improved website.”

No big change management communications blitz, no difficult questions at senate estimates, just a quiet, seamless cut-over.

“Significant research, user consultation and testing with clients has informed the development of the updated ato.gov.au. The refreshed website is designed to deliver improved navigation, enhanced search and a better mobile experience,” ATO said when pushed.

It’s still not officially ‘live’ but it is. Log on and see.

“Public Beta commenced in early November. As part of this Beta and before we officially release the updated website, users have the opportunity to try the new site whilst still being able to access our old ‘legacy’ website if they choose to, the ATO said.

“We welcome feedback during Beta and we are still refining and improving the website based on what we are hearing from clients.

“Once we release the updated website, we will continue to engage with users, gather feedback and implement improvements where necessary. Our aim is to provide a platform that meets the evolving needs of our diverse user base,” the ATO said.

There are no great victory laps at present, just the acknowledgement that things have changed, apparently for the better.

Public services improving before ministerial announcables and next-term election promises are made. If you think this agency is across its own data, well it is. And that’s not a bad thing.

The money has to come from somewhere.

This article was first published by The Mandarin.