Gloucester Shire Council recently purchased Tr@ceR – a customer focused electronic document management system – to upgrade and streamline its current paper based system.
Located in the northern extremities of the Hunter region of New South Wales, Gloucester Shire Council covers almost 3,000 square kilometres and has around 96 employees.
General Manager, Allan Young, said Council chose Tr@ceR for its simplicity.
“It is a product designed by Local Government, for Local Government,” he said. “Other products available on the market are basically record management systems that have been adjusted for use by Local Government.”
Tr@ceR was developed in house at Liverpool Plains Shire Council, which was looking for a solution that would improve customer service, and at the same time, reduce the cost of document management.
Tr@ceR achieves this by integrating the interface between the customer – either a ratepayer or council department – and the solution provider. It is a simple, user friendly program that automates the former manual recording, storage and retrieval process for all documents.
It provides the electronic delivery of documents as ‘For information’ documents (FYI), ‘Reply required’ (Tasks), or ‘Customer Action Requests’ requiring action.
These electronic documents are delivered by two methods – either to the user’s desktop, or electronically via web SMS messaging to staff mobile phones.
This functionality has enabled councils to communicate, where previously there was ‘lag time’ in getting the information out and it being actioned.
Allan Young said a key benefit of going electronic is that staff gain immediate access to records and are able to research topics of interest or correspondence from their own desktop.
“There is also increased traceability, with all correspondence and actions able to be tracked, unlike paper based systems where the paper trail can easily be lost,” he said.
When compared with other electronic document management systems, Allan Young said Tr@ceR requires less staff input and is less hardware intensive.
“The Liverpool Plains team also provide staff training in the purchase cost,” he said. “We are aiming for the system to be up and running by the end of June, in time for the new financial year.”
Meanwhile, Ravensthorpe Shire Council, located 530 kilometres southeast of Perth, has been using Tr@ceR for the past 12 months.
Council’s Finance and Administration Manager, Evelyn Arnold, said while Ravensthorpe is a small shire, it has a large amount of incoming and outgoing paperwork that needs to be managed and tracked.
“Since implementing the Tr@ceR system, we have been able to keep better track of our correspondence, and we also have a more certain filing system.”
Evelyn said Tr@ceR assists with the turnover of staff that many smaller shires experience, as someone not involved in the initial correspondence can still find the history of a document and ascertain what action has been taken to date.
“In addition, each new staff member tends to bring with them a different filing technique,” Evelyn said.“But with
Tr@ceR, we have a standardised system that is intuitive, easy to use and quick to get people trained up and running in.”
Liverpool Plains Shire Council’s Director Corporate Services, Mike Urquhart, said that Council has just started to market the program, and another seven small to medium sized rural councils in New South Wales have shown a great deal of interest in the Tr@ceR program.
Gilgandra Shire has recently selected Tr@ceR and expects to have it live by I July.
Like Gloucester Shire, Gilgandra also selected Tr@ceR because it has been developed by Local Government for Local Government,
“Its smaller scale more suited our size of operation, and along with its simplicity and cost effectiveness, it matches our needs on all fronts,” said Gilgandra’s Director Corporate Services Neil Alchin.
For further information contact Mike Urquhart at Liverpool Plains Shire Council on (02) 6746 1755.
