Case Study – Gwydir Shire Council
Introduction
The Gwydir region is in North Eastern New South Wales and represents two
per cent of the total area of the Murray-Darling Basin.The region has
a population of around 26 500 people and it’s largest town is Moree. The Gwydir
valley is well known for its irrigated and dry land cropping as well as
livestock production. In addition to the traditional crops of wheat, barley,
oats and sorghum, there are olive groves, pecan nut plantations and freshwater
fish farms in the Gravesend district.
Heading Northwest from the timbered surrounds of the town of
Warialda and the close-knit community of Coolatai, the
countryside opens into an undulating vista of basalt farmland. This part of the
Shire which include the villages of Crooble, Croppa Creek and North Star,
is known as the 'Golden Triangle'. Farmers using
advanced farming techniques, such as minimum tillage and satellite guidance
systems, produce a variety of high yielding crops such as wheat, barley sorghum,
maize, chick peas, canola and cotton to name just a few. This area also has
several cattle feed lots which supply grain fed beef to the Australian domestic
market and export markets throughout the world.
Prior to the introduction of Infocouncil, Council used Word templates for
reports, agendas and minutes, and they distributed and recorded these manually.
Gwydir Shire Council decided to make the transition to Infocouncil in May 2005.
We conducted a before and after satisfaction survey with this council in
December 2008.Max Eastcott,Gwydir Shire Council’s General Manager, kindly
provided us with feedback.
We have reproduced the questions that we asked Max. Max’s answers are set
out after each question.
Before Infocouncil
Originally, were you just using Word for your agendas and
minutes, or were you using other proprietary software?
Word
Did reports not being in a standard format, or not using a required style,
lead to much re-formatting, cutting and pasting, etc?
There was some use of templates for reports but the entire process was
time consuming
Did this lead to any difficulties or inefficiencies in collating agendas?
Page numbering was difficult and could not occur until the very end or if
you numbered early you couldn’t put the reports into a final priority order
based upon importance
How about late reports possibly making a mess of sequencing or pagination?
These were just added to the end of the agenda – not really a problem
Were there any filing irritations?
No there was a defined naming regime
How about ease of getting reports approved?
All reports were read by GM and approved by him
Any difficulties with electronic or hard copy attachments?
Page numbering was the only problem
And recompiling agendas: was there any irritation and waste of time there?
Yes you needed all documents before you could commence the process
Were minutes kept in real time?
No
Were there any problems with minutes capture?
Hand written notes and then typed
How did you publishagendas and minutes to the web?
PDF’d and then uploaded
To what extent, and in what ways, did the issues raised here adversely
affect governance issues, and those in charge of them?
No real problems
Overall, taking everything into account, how would you rate the old
system, out of 10?
5
After Infocouncil
So turning now to Infocouncil, what changes have occurred since its
introduction, specifically…
The appearance and quality of agendas and minutes? Any change?
Quality of product has improved
Are there any hold-ups or other inefficiencies with the new system?
No real hold-ups other than writers not meeting deadlines
How easy is it to access information, present and past?
Very easy
Compare the efficiency of use of time by those who compile and handle the
agendas and minutes?
Improved
How happy are senior management with the process overall?
Very happy
Describe the happiness of IT with the process
No problems
You gave the old system a rating of 5 out of ten. Taking everything into
account, how would you rate Infocouncil, out of 10?
8
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Previous system
1 2
3 4 5
6 7 8
9 10
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Infocouncil
1 2
3 4 5
6 7 8
9 10
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