The first article in this 3 part series outlines how information and communication technologies are being utilised by Australian councils to improve organisational efficiency and service delivery. View Part 1.

Coffs Harbour City Council followed the example of 10 other councils to participate in the NSW Electronic Housing Code (EHC) project. Although in the preliminary stages of the implementation over two years, this project saves people a lot of time and money through faster access to user-friendly information on NSW housing, commercial and industrial codes. 

Residents of the 10 councils already using the EHC can obtain online housing approvals in less than a week compared to the state average of 63 days processing time. Not only did this benefit the community and industry, it reduced the amount of staff time involved in assessments.

Queanbeyan City Council, in what is believed to be a first, developed a program that integrated the Business Excellence Improvement Program with a cultural and staff engagement program with the key objective ‘to have emotionally engaged staff executing continuously improving processes’. The Australian Business Excellence Framework is already used by a number of councils to critically review their business processes and service delivery through a methodology based around a variety of business improvement tools. Queanbeyan’s new program sought to facilitate the emotional engagement of staff by engaging Matrix Leadership Networks to conduct a staff cultural survey, using the Human Synergistics tools that included a behavioural circumflex. The survey identified a number of issues or causal factors that were impacting on the organisational culture and the emotional engagement of staff. 

The City of Cockburn’s Geographical Information Systems (GIS) team showed innovation by developing a program (housed on the public Intramaps System and accessed via Council's website) that allows people to view photos and information dating from the 1950s until 2010. This is a development that goes beyond historical interest by allowing those wanting to know about a particular property. This included allowing developers to see if there are any constraints or heritage listings on the land before purchasing it or lodging a planning application.

Western Downs Regional Council (QLD) reported that the first year of its Customer Contact Centre, designed to streamline customer service and provide a faster response to customer enquiries, had achieved important goals. The Centre is co-ordinated from Dalby, and supported by a regional contact centre team with officers based in Dalby, Chinchilla, Tara and Miles. It features a broad knowledge of Council services (including rates, water, animals, wheelie bins and roads), which resulted in 61 per cent of calls being successfully responded to on the first call via the introduced single 1300 number as the first point of contact for all enquiries.

Lake Macquarie City Council (NSW central coast) also utilised a new search engine technology for local government, developed in Australia, to enhance its customer service. The iFerret Enterprise Search technology, developed by iPlatinum, gave local governments the ability to locate and retrieve information that might otherwise remain hidden in databases, networks and document management systems. It does so using simple search methods and filtering techniques. This technology assisted staff to better understand a given situation about a customer, a property or a Council asset, and to make correct, timely decisions and achieve superior outcomes. 

For example, prior to the introduction of iFerret, a customer service officer would not have been able to locate a property subdivision because the Pathway stem required an application number, the property or applicant’s name, or the full address for a search to be carried out. Using iFerret, with Pathway as the data source, the customer service officer searched using three phrases: ‘suburb name’; ‘developer name’; and ‘subdivision’. With the correct application number for the subdivision immediately located, this enabled the customer to view the application on Council’s website. 

A previous pilot scheme, involving 17 staff, indicated that iFerret saved staff an average of more than two hours a week in searching for information across the Council’s digital assets, including records management and email systems.

The Circular Head and Waratah-Wynyard Councils (Tasmania) are taking a combined approach to becoming paperless organisations, rolling out iPads to councillors as part of a joint initiative called Connect IT. With councillors provided with electronic versions of meeting agendas, which they can browse and edit via an app, this assisted communication and helped the move towards becoming paper-free. Both councils were also either using or developing the use of other technologies throughout their organisations, such as social media, video conferencing, smartphones and Quick Response (QR) codes.

Alpine Shire Council (Victoria) created an innovative iPad application that improved efficiency, safety and accuracy in terms of assessing bushfire risk. Assisted by external consultants in the final stages of development and aided by funding from the Victorian Government’s financial commitment to bushfire-affected councils, the app (first launched in time for the 2011 bushfire season) makes assessing properties for fire risk more efficient and more accurate while halving the time required for the task as all information ‘is literally in the hands of our fire prevention officer’.

Alpine Shire council staff also created an app for use in asset inspection. In winning a 2012 Telstra Local Government Award for Excellence, this allowed outdoor staff to conduct maintenance inspections on bridges, footpaths and roads with reduced costs and increased efficiency. Wide ranging benefits included an estimated 50 per cent saving in the time it takes to inspect assets while reducing the chance for human error and lost information and reducing administrative costs.

Chris Lewis is Visiting Fellow at ANZSOG Institute for Governance.

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