Case Study – Hornsby Shire Council
Introduction
Viewed from the main roads passing through it, the Shire of Hornsby can appear to
be mainly urban, but only 10 per cent of the Shire is zoned urban, and a further
20 per cent is zoned rural or open space, with the remainder being National Park
and Nature Reserve.
At 510 square kilometres, Hornsby is the second largest local government area in
the Sydney region, and is proud to call itself the Bushland Shire.
Before Infocouncil
In many ways, Hornsby was satisfied with the performance of the proprietary software
they had used for years to prepare and publish their business papers. In response
to the question: 'Overall, taking everything into account, how would you rate [that
system] out of 10?', Pauline Adams, Team Leader Business Systems, gave Council's
original software an overall rating of 7.5.
Reports
Standard formats were part of the original software templates and presented no problems,
but any required format or layout changes could be done only by the software developer.
Additionally, basic formatting within the body of the report, eg tables, bullet
points etc was very difficult to achieve and/or amend. Also, Ms Adams reports: "The
size of attachments was an issue and was restricted to 20 pages electronically."
This was frequently an irritating constraint.
Agendas
There were no difficulties in collating agendas, although problems were experienced
when late reports interfered with sequencing or pagination. Pagination of the compiled
Agenda was not an automated process, and could only be achieved through the printing
of the document via a commercial docutech type system.
Minutes
Minutes were easily kept in real time.
Filing and publication
This was perhaps the least satisfactory aspect of the original system. According
to Ms Adams, "… you needed to export the reports/ minutes/actions from [the
system] and catalogue them in Trim [Council's EDRMS], which was very time consuming."
Also, standard un-itemised sections of the Minutes, eg Apologies, Declarations of
Interest, were not able to be replicated on the web site.
After Infocouncil
Notwithstanding the overall level of satisfaction with the earlier process for managing
business papers, several improvements have been noticed since Council decided to
adopt Infocouncil for the purpose.
Reports, agendas and minutes
The appearance and quality of the agendas and minutes has "greatly improved", both
in presentation of hard copy and on the web. The large amount of time required to
transfer papers into Trim has also disappeared. This is because Infocouncil files
the papers directly and automatically in Trim, in the correct folder, eliminating
all manual work. Ms Adams reports that staff are "extremely pleased" with the system
as compared to the previous process. Automatic page numbering and 'attachment stamping'
has greatly reduced the time to create an agenda.
Efficiency of time usage
Ms Adams says Infocouncil is "… so much quicker, which means the agendas and
minutes are available to staff, councillors and customers in a more timely manner."
Action sheets for following up decisions
Action sheets are now able to carry more information than previously, and can be
designed to suit Council by simply changing a template.
Responses to the change
Ms Adams says senior staff have commented that, "… it is simpler and so much
quicker." She adds: "Very minimal training was required, and even if you don't have
training you can still complete a report."
Rating the past and present processes
Ms Adams gives a rating of 9 out of 10 for Infocouncil, as compared with her rating
of 7.5 for the original system.
Overall
The main benefits Hornsby Shire Council has experienced since changing over from
the original business papers management system to Infocouncil include:
- Much greater ease of formatting within a document and the use of templates has resulted
in greatly improved presentation of documents.
- Instantaneous transmission of Reports and Action Sheets into the EDRMS.
- Very much quicker preparation and presentation of agendas and minutes, a change
appreciated by senior staff.
- Greatly increased efficiency in publishing documents to the web site.
- Much more efficient use of time by all relevant staff.
- Reduced stress and tension in the management of the entire process.
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