Newsletter: December 2017

As most will be aware, our IT system redesign is a significant project, encompassing an entirely new framework for the public register, the back office registry, an online practitioner portal and our financial management system.

We have made excellent progress recently on the system build and have been doing rigorous testing of the functionality developed so far. There has been significant work in recent weeks on the online applications that both registered practitioners and new registration applicants will use in the future. We are excited to see these taking shape and we are working to ensure the best possible user experience through streamlining as many of our requirements and processes as possible.

While we had anticipated the online portal would be available for practitioners to use in early 2018, at its December meeting, the Council made the decision to defer the go-live date until after the next APC round for oral health practitioners in April.

This is primarily because our building displacement is yet to be resolved. We anticipate moving from the current premises in Willis Street in April—which will mean the secretariat team will be managing a relocation, an APC round and the financial end of year. The Council considered launching a new IT system at the same time was not feasible, particularly given the small size of the secretariat team.

Postponing the delivery of the online portal until later in 2018 will help us ensure a great user experience and that we get the best from our new system.

The key implications of this are:

• The March 2018 APC cycle for dental therapists, dental hygienists, oral health therapists, orthodontic auxiliaries, clinical and dental technicians will be a paper-based process and these practitioners will receive renewal forms in the post in mid-February.
  • Large employers who have previously made bulk payments to cover the APC fees of their employees will be able to do so during the March APC round. This is expected to be the last time this option will be available as our new system does not have the capacity to receive bulk payments.
• We now anticipate the first online renewal process will be the August 2018 APC cycle for dentists and dental specialists.