The evolution of the roles of Information Technology within Local Authorities has been accompanied by an increase in senior management’s expectation of enhanced and faster return on investment. Yet we still hear a common cry of ‘all the information’s there I just can’t get it out and if I do, it’s too late’.
Managers cannot be expected to be able to use all the different systems with the same degree of expertise required of the practitioners of each operation. Therefore how are they to keep track of customer requests, service delivery bottlenecks and so on if they have neither the time nor the skills to navigate through the myriad systems in place? The answer? They don’t. The knowledge should come to them.
The raw data has been captured and managed. It needs to be presented as meaningful information to provide management with the knowledge upon which they can formulate their strategies and make informed decisions.
So, how do they achieve clarity without adding more layers to the IT infrastructure? The simple answer is by being clever with the existing IT infrastructure; the simpler, the better. Here is the role for the Digital Dashboard.
The majority of Councils are already experienced users of advanced messaging systems and collaborative environments including email, calendars, tasks and the like. For those that have taken advantage of Microsoft’s Outlook client in combination with Exchange Server there is now a facility which brings together critical information from all Council’s systems including:
- Voice mail
- Appointments and tasks
- Key performance indicators, based on data provided by service delivery systems
- Financial information
- Customer requests and works in progress
- Intranet content
- Internet & World Wide Web content
- Payroll and HR measures
- Document Management and workflow status.
The Digital Dashboard for Local Government is the result of an initiative of Praxa Local Government in partnership with Microsoft.
For further information contact Mick O’Malley, Marketing Manager for Praxa Local Government on (03) 9690 3811
*Copy supplied by Praxa Australia.
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