Case Study – Penrith City Council
Introduction
There are tasks around town which, although mundane, are absolutely essential to
the smooth and happy running of a community: one of these is garbage collection.
When this activity is performed properly, nobody notices, but if it is neglected
or poorly done, all hell breaks loose. Think Naples.
Similarly, managing business papers well is essential for Local Government. A small
Council can get by using nothing more than Word templates, but as soon as the demands
increase with the size and complexity of Council's activities, inefficient, unreliable
and error-prone agendas and minutes can lead to endless and unnecessary difficulties
and electronic crashes.
At the start of the new millennium Penrith Council found the management of its business
papers in a total mess. A satellite city in the Sydney basin, Penrith is close to
the foothills of the Blue Mountains, and is the seventh largest Local Government
Area in NSW. Council is responsible for the administration of 35 suburbs.
Before Infocouncil
Business papers. Council's original business papers process, designed by
a software company to utilise macros in MSWord, was a disaster from day one. Cristy
Stevens, formerly the Administration Officer - Policy and Council Support, in charge
of business papers, says the initial program was supported but unreliable, and "every
compilation crashed, with much yelling and screaming". Before long, she
says, "the supplier refused further support, and we had to cobble it all together,
with the human element always causing errors."
Recognising the need for change. Penrith Council takes the whole business
papers process seriously, recognising that errors in agendas flow right through
the organisation and take much time and labour to reverse. Ms Stevens says Council
took one look at their problems, "and said, in effect, here's the money, go and fix
it." No-one was hanging out for the retention of the status quo. Ms Stevens
says: "Everyone was behind a change because we all hated the old system so much."
Why Infosphere? Some time previously, Council had installed a well known
electronic document & records management system (EDRMS). There had been some pressure
within Council, from outside the relevant administrative sections, to purchase that
supplier's business papers module, but in the event this was strongly resisted by
the users. The agendas and minutes module was not highly regarded in its own right,
and staff found the EDRMS rather confusing to use for most purposes. As for Infocouncil,
Ms Stevens says it's main attraction for Councillors was that "the new system was
customised so the business papers looked exactly the same as before."
After Infocouncil
A success story. The introduction of Infocouncil completely transformed the
entire process of agenda and minutes compilation and publishing at Penrith. The
users could not be happier with Infocouncil. Reliability problems are a thing of
the past, and, according to Cristy Stevens, the system is so simple to operate,
"our users don't need training or paper work." To get a business paper out
by Wednesday evening they used to start work on it at midday on the prior Monday.
"Now", she says, "we can start at midday Wednesday if needs be."
Stand alone. Furthermore, although some Councils feel business papers must
integrate with the existing records management system, this was found to be completely
unnecessary at Penrith. Since its introduction there, Infocouncil has been used
as a stand alone system within Council's administration. Managers have simply adopted
the system as it is, and even those who have avoided getting involved with the process
use it occasionally.
Administration has a neat way of overcoming what could be a problem with following
up Action Sheets, as generated by Infocouncil from the minutes of meetings. The
EDRMS has its own actions process, and this is in use throughout Council. Ms Stevens
says she simply scans Infocouncil's action sheets into the EDRMS, and the Actions
Officer takes over. As to Infocouncil's lack of overall integration with the EDRMS,
she says: "We don't notice or miss integration with [the EDRMS]. People just don't
use it. For reports / resolutions they come to the Infocouncil system first because
it is much easier to use and find information - it is a real time-saver."
Training and efficiency. Ms Stevens has greatly improved her own work efficiency
by developing, in each department, a system champion, to whom report writers and
others can turn if they find themselves in difficulty. She says "they show the new
people how to do it and there's no problem." She can leave it to them.
Support and service. On the occasions where pressing issues arise, Council
is particularly appreciative of the service offered by Infosphere in support of
Infocouncil. Ms Stevens and Infosphere's technical team have worked out a system
of priorities, whereby pressing issues are dealt with immediately, while others
wait their turn. An example of the latter was where a (false) error signal on compiling
indicated that the agenda had failed to save, when in fact it had. Cancelling the
error statement was a small action, but the event was an irritation. This was, with
agreement between Ms Stevens and Infosphere's technical officer, adjusted by email
within a few days.
Ms Stevens says: "If I've had any problems we've had instant help over the phone,
or a new version. We've never been held up in getting a business paper out."
Last word. When asked to summarise how Infocouncil has changed things overall,
Cristy Stevens said: "We don't yet use all the functions, but of those we are using
it would have to be a 9 or a 10 out of 10."
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