The Company

When Te Whatu Ora was established in July 2022, its mission was clear—unify New Zealand’s healthcare system and deliver better, faster, and more connected services to citizens. By bringing together 20 former District Health Boards and related service entities, Te Whatu Ora drove a bold digital transformation program to create a seamless national healthcare ecosystem.

A key pillar of this transformation? Consolidating multiple legacy IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms into a single, integrated solution. With AC3 as a trusted partner, Te Whatu Ora implemented a National ITSM Platform on ServiceNow—breaking down silos, improving operational efficiency, and setting the stage for smarter, more responsive digital healthcare services.

The Challenge

Before Te Whatu Ora was established, each District Health Board operated in isolation, using its own technology stack, processes, and ITSM platform. This fragmented approach led to inefficiencies, inconsistent data, and operational silos—making it difficult to deliver seamless, high-quality healthcare services nationwide.

Te Whatu Ora’s ambitious transformation required overcoming several key challenges:

  • Disjointed IT systems: Multiple ITSM platforms—including ServiceNow, Cherwell, JIRA, Track-IT, Cas-D, and Fresh Service—operated independently, creating a complex and inconsistent IT environment.
  • Data inconsistencies: Differences in data structures and standards across legacy systems made integration a significant hurdle.
  • Evolving organisational landscape: The shift to a National Operating Model was still in progress, requiring alignment across local, regional, and national teams.
  • A race against time: With 90,000 employees to migrate in just six months, the project demanded a rapid yet seamless transition.
  • Competing priorities: Multiple transformation programs were running in parallel, each with different timelines and dependencies.

The solution? A strategic approach that would unify ITSM operations, eliminate inefficiencies, and lay the foundation for a smarter, more connected healthcare system.

The Solution

AC3 played a key role in making this vision a reality, supporting the consolidation of multiple legacy systems into a seamless, nationwide approach to IT service management.

This ambitious initiative was delivered in two stages: first, establishing a unified platform, and now, driving ongoing optimisation to maximise value.

The initial priorities centred on conducting in-depth assessments of legacy ITSM platforms to uncover and map out existing complexities. These findings informed the design of a standardised ITSM framework aimed at unifying processes across the organisation. With this foundation in place, a strategic migration plan was executed to consolidate multiple disparate systems into a single, streamlined solution. Following this, essential ServiceNow capabilities were deployed, including a National Employee Centre Service Portal to enhance the user experience, comprehensive ITSM process configurations covering incident, problem, change, request, and asset management, as well as advanced integrations for identity, asset, and CMDB. Additionally, performance analytics and ITOM Certificate Inventory Management were implemented to further boost operational efficiency.

Ongoing Enhancements are Unlocking even Greater Value:

  • Elevating Service Desk operations with advanced Customer Service Management (CSM) capabilities.
  • Introducing AI-driven automation via Virtual Agents and MS Teams integration.
  • Refining the Service Catalogue and Interaction Management to meet evolving needs.
  • Retiring outdated ITSM platforms to fully realise the benefits of a centralised system.
  • Leveraging advanced analytics for data-driven decision-making and continuous improvements.

By consolidating and optimising its ITSM platform, Te Whatu Ora has set a new benchmark for large-scale IT transformation in the public sector—proving that with the right strategy, expertise, and technology, bold change is not just possible, but transformative.

The Results
  • 90,000 employees migrated to a unified ITSM platform in six months.
  • A centralised National Service Portal enabling streamlined service requests and support.
  • Improved service delivery, operational efficiency, and data integrity.
  • On-time, under-budget project execution.