Holroyd City, a large metropolitan Sydney Council selected Civica
Holroyd City Council, a large metropolitan Sydney Council, awarded local government software supplier Civica a contract to implement its Authority local government management solution and to act as prime contractor integrating with software from three other vendors.
Council went live with the integrated solution as planned in July 2007 and management have since implemented an annual post-implementation review process to ensure they continue to gain maximum use and value from their systems.
“Our previous system had reached the end of its useful life and Council was seeking to establish a new technology base to take us through the next five years,” said Tim Butler, Director of Corporate Services. “To date, Civica has demonstrated a strong product development culture that gives us a high degree of confidence that the solution will see us through the initial five-year contract and beyond.”
Authority is administering financials, land information, human resources management, asset and infrastructure management, and electronic services. These functions are all available at the desktop, fully integrated with the TRIM electronic document management system (EDMS) from Micro Help, Xpedite community care functions, CadCorp geographic information system (GIS) and PowerBudget financial reporting and budgeting system.
“Having a single integrated system has improved efficiency in key areas such as development applications (DAs), notifications and records management,” said Tim. “It is also delivering records management and GIS capability to every desktop.”
This efficient mode of working contrasts with operations before the cutover, when Council ran multiple systems and individual small databases which lacked the levels of integration Council required.
As prime contractor, Civica worked with Council staff to implement the new integrated solution which went live on July 1, 2007. The cutover went smoothly: Holroyd switched off its old applications on a Thursday and moved to the new solution the following Monday. On that day, staff were able to produce a payroll, pay creditors and handle receipting.
“We hardly missed a beat,” said Tim Butler. “The entire integration and implementation program worked very well due in no small way to the commitment from Civica and Council staff.”
The integrated enterprise solution has introduced new software for community services, delivered better reporting and control over budgets and assets, increased functionality and computing reliability to outlying centres, and allows the public to use Authority e-Services for making enquiries and carrying out certain business with Council. It has also given Holroyd greater capacity to embrace new technologies as they become available, and to draw on Civica’s technical expertise.
From the public’s point of view, benefits are greater access to web-based services, while staff benefit from the tight integration of systems. For instance, no longer do people in Rates need to transfer data manually from one system to another. The Rates Clerk says integration has improved functionality in the way rates are processed, by making many of the simple operations easier.
According to Tim Butler, as time goes by, the integrated solution’s ease of use becomes more and more apparent.
He said: “Our philosophy is to squeeze as much as we can out of the system, to ensure that staff receive the full benefits available, which results in smarter ways of working and ultimately delivering better service to the public. I was aware that many organisations pay good money for a system and make use of only about 70 per cent of its capability. That extra usability could make life much easier for staff.”
As a result, as the new system nears its one year anniversary, Holroyd is undertaking a post implementation audit to assess which staff need further training on specific areas of the software. When areas requiring more attention are pinpointed, Civica’s trainers will show management and staff how to make more effective use of the system. This initial audit will be followed by annual reviews involving Civica trainers aimed at creating a culture that regularly reviews its systems and processes in order to maximise system usage.
Tim Butler describes Council’s working relationship with Civica as very good. He says: “Integrating four completely new systems represented a major organisational change and when we reflect on it, the implementation went extremely smoothly. The professionalism of both Civica and our staff impressed me as they worked through issues in a seamless way, arriving quickly at solutions.”
Holroyd is running the integrated solution on an Informix platform. Council’s infrastructure includes an IP-based network, PDC NT4 operating system and 32 member servers running Linux Mandriva, Ubuntu and Windows Servers 2003. These service whole-of-council plus 25 remote locations including libraries, children’s, youth and aged facilities and swimming centres. There are 250-plus desktops running Windows XP and Office 2003, as well as 50 laptops.
For the future, Council will be looking to make further investigations into secure wireless technology, and expansion of WAN technologies. There are also plans to extend Authority’s e-Services further, both internally and to the community, and Holroyd will also seek improved long term planning capabilities in the areas of social, environmental, financial and assets management.
According to Tim Butler, Civica was selected as the prime contractor after a detailed tender process that ensured Council would maximise its value for money. The five-year contract provides a surety of costs for the next five years, which assists with Council’s long term planning.
He said: “Civica’s willingness to accept a prime contractor’s role was key, while the company’s hardware and infrastructure capabilities were a good fit with Council’s systems. Their web-enabled solution for outlying centres could be delivered within our current infrastructure”.
“Moreover, Civica’s corporate direction encompasses greater utilisation of new technologies and a willingness to work with third-party vendors. Civica has a proven track record in local government, and presented a very detailed implementation plan that demonstrated good project management methodology.”
Covering 39.89 sq km in Western Sydney, Holroyd City Council has a population of 90,000, including 35,000 ratepayers. Council has an annual budget in excess of $60 million and currently employs the equivalent of more than 400 full time staff.