Case Study – Broken Hill City Council
Introduction
Broken Hill is a vibrant community on the edge of the NSW Outback. With a
population of over 20,000 people it is the economic and cultural hub of Far
Western NSW. The City boasts a thriving mining and service industry and welcomes
over 300,000 tourists per year.
The desolate landscape surrounding Broken Hill has made it a
Mecca for artists as well as filmmakers with both Mad Max
2 and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert filmed at Broken Hill.
Prior to the introduction of Infocouncil, Council used Word templates for
reports, agendas and minutes, and they distributed and recorded these manually.
Broken Hill City Council decided to make the transition to Infocouncil in
November 2004. We conducted a before and after satisfaction survey with this
council in December 2008, with Anne Johansson, Executive Assistant to the
General Manager who was kind enough to share her experiences with us. All
quotations are from Anne’s survey form.
Before Infocouncil
Anne stated that the manual process was able to deliver required results
at council; however there were some difficulties and limitations. Anne shared
with us some drawbacks encountered with this process.
Reports
Anne cited the difficulty of approving reports as a drawback with
council’s previous process. Anne noted that “reports from managers [had
to be] delivered to the General Manager” and that this process was
“affected by availability of managers.”
- When using Infocouncil the approval process does not present these problems as approval requests can be completed electronically via email.
Agendas and Minutes
When asked about converting agendas and minutes to PDF and HTML and
publishing them on Council’s website, Anne stated that this was not done in
their previous system.
- Infocouncil allows authorised users to convert agendas and minutes to HTML and PDF, and then publish these to the web.
After Infocouncil
We asked Anne what changes had occurred since the introduction of
Infocouncil and while Anne observed that the old process worked, she said that
ultimately “Infocouncil has provided time and labour efficiencies.”
Below, Anne points to some particular areas of improvement in the compilation of
the Broken Hill City Council’s agendas and minutes.
Reports, Agendas and Minutes
- The appearance and quality of agendas and minutes is
“more standardised” according to Anne.
- Regarding ease of access to information, Anne says it is
“much easier to access reports [because] council publishes to website and
intranet [providing] greater access.”
Action Sheets
Regarding using Infocouncil’s Action Sheets to advise officers of
council resolutions and what is expected of them, Anne says “email of action
sheets has significantly increased delivery of post Council work requests.”
Overall
Anne states that the “changes [were] well accepted” among
councillors and that staff members are “well satisfied” with the process.
Anne further states that on the whole when using Infocouncil, users have found
that the “process runs smoothly.”
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