TechnologyOne upgrade moves council services online

Gordon Peters
Wednesday, 01 September 2010 15:53

IT Industry - Deals

The City of Port Adelaide Enfield has given its ratepayers 24/7 access to 35 additional online services and reduced the number of enquiries to its call centre with an upgrade of its TechnologyOne property and rating solution.

The council says one of the “most measurable benefits” of the upgrade is a newly development application (DA) tracking tool on the Council’s website, with reports showing that more than a quarter of all DA enquiries have been diverted to the website every month since the solution went live at the end of 2009.

According to the council’s, Director Environmental Services, Fred Newman, Enfield, the council used its annual customer satisfaction survey to benchmark and improve services, with the results highlighting a demand from constituents for improved, faster access to
council services. “The answer; increase the online services offering,” Newman said.

“There is a clear ‘push and a pull’ aspect when it comes to promoting and offering online services and, by diverting routine enquiries though our website, the council is able to provide better customer service on more complex issues, and put its resources to best use.”

Newman says that the online DA tracking tool means that residents only need to key data once, which is then centrally stored. Any exceptions are automatically flagged and the information is then pushed out to council staff to process. “The person who lodged the DA can also log on at any time to view the progress of applications.

“In addition to cutting waiting time for other calls, ratepayers have benefited because data is more accurate as human error from the re-keying of data has been eliminated.

“While the call centre continues to handle more than 3,000 development application related calls every month, response times are faster and customer service is improved.”

According to Newman, following the success of the project, the council is scoping future upgrade projects to roll out more web-based tools to meet community expectations and build more demand.

And, he says, in addition to private and investment property DAs, the council also receives online applications from builders.

“When the system first went live, this group was required to pay fees upfront, but after consulting builders using the system, the council received feedback that the person lodging the DA is not necessarily authorised to make payment.   This prompted the Council to change its processes and invoices can now be issued separately.”

Data security, says Newman, was also flagged as a potential issue so the council and TechnologyOne worked together to ensure no payment information would be available online.

“The TechnologyOne Property & Rating software upgrade also resulted in better overall performance and the Council was able to integrate its own service request functionality with TechnologyOne ECM to improve workflows and business process management.

Newman said the system’s flexibility allowed changes to happen quickly and easily, and there were no technical issues around the upgrade.

“Once the DA functionality was demonstrated to staff, engagement was immediate and refinements to the system were made quickly by the TechnologyOne team.”