How can Councils increase their performance in the most cost effective way? AXS-One offers some solutions.
Best Value in the Council environment was recently described as being achieved when services are responsive to the changing needs and expectations of local people; consistently meet measurable, regularly improved and affordable performance targets; and are provided at demonstrably competitive prices.
So, what can a Council do to put the necessary steps in place to achieve at least some of these improvements without incurring huge costs? AXS-One is helping Councils to achieve these goals using streamlined technology.
Changing needs
The most obvious change is the advent of the Internet and its impact on people and their daily business. AXS-One enables Councils to quickly integrate vast amounts of diverse information and make it available to customers, employees, suppliers and partners over the Web – quickly, at low risk and with a rapid, tangible return on investment.
- Customer Self Service – enables access to the customer’s information over the Web, enables online updating of customer information, provides an integrated view of the customer.
- Web based Registration Services – automates online registration of applications for services such as building applications, crane permits, dog licenses and so forth. The entire process is automated and tracked, from application to payment, with improved productivity.
- MySmartTown – provides a powerful new model for Councils to do business with residents, businesses and the community. MySmartTown brings together the best of the new with the comfort of the familiar into a single integrated community solution.
- Online Procurement – provides a full cycle procurement system that is extremely easy to use with a simple browser based interface, very quick to implement and does not require rebuilding of current infrastructure. It includes online requisitions, automatic approvals, tracking expense versus capital items, budget tracking and much more.
Measurable, regularly improved, affordable performance targets
Corporate Reporting is the key here as it provides the ability to measure a Council’s performance so that improvements can be put into place. AXS OneView is a solution that brings together all the information from across a Council’s different systems to provide a total EIS system. It is easy to use, quick to implement with a very rapid return on investment.
Achieving competitive pricing
So how can Councils provide their services at demonstrably competitive prices yet still implement all the systems and processes necessary to achieve the first two points? The systems and tools build on the investment Councils have already made in current infrastructure. These systems are easy to use, browser based applications, quick to deploy, do not require highly trained IT staff and best of all provide a very short return on investment.
AXS-One’s inclusion in the Harper & Collins publication, The Best IT&T Companies in Australia 2001, vindicates these claims. This follows a nomination for the two years prior to this as the Vendor of Choice in the CFO surveys conducted firstly by Strategic Research and then GartnerGroup.
Linking disparate data for concise reporting and analysis
Situated on Port Phillip Bay some 10 kilometres west of central Melbourne, the City of Hobsons Bay has over 20 kilometres of bay frontage, quality residential areas, and a range of major industrial complexes that contribute significantly to the economy of Victoria.
These features contribute to a culture that is strongly linked to the City’s maritime heritage, industry and lifestyle. It is also the focus of Victoria’s chemical and petroleum industries and it has some of the State’s largest industrial enterprises.
Industry in Hobsons Bay also includes growing manufacturing, transport and distribution sectors, including car and ship building, plus a large number of smaller light industries, warehouses, transport depot and service industries.
In line with Council’s vision of being at the forefront of best practice, Hobsons Bay recently began investigating ways of utilising Council’s existing information and knowledge to improve their business practices.
Having established the need for a corporate reporting tool to provide benchmarks, key performance indicators and other statistical analysis, Hobsons Bay recognised that the solution would need to be able to bring together data from their many different systems and platforms to provide the one view of the organisation.
The City of Hobsons Bay undertook a thorough investigation of the Business Intelligence market to find the solution that would bring together their wide range of data sitting on various platforms without the need to build a datawarehouse and at the same time be a tool for the end user.
“We wanted a system that could be run by the user for the user from their own work station to produce quality, timely reporting on their desktop,” said Glenn O’Sullivan, Finance Manager, City of Hobsons Bay. “Moreover it had to have the ability to link non financial information with the more traditional financial ‘debit and credit’ reporting!”
Having looked at two other systems Hobsons Bay chose AXS OneView from AXS-One. “Our reason for choosing AXS OneView is its capability of bringing together and linking all this disparate information where applicable in a common portal,” Glenn O’Sullivan said. The system will initially be gathering data from AXS One Financials, Frontier Payroll, Lotus Notes Databases and Access databases. AXS OneView will be used by senior staff managers and directors to provide statistical information such as Variance Analysis, Key Performance Indicators, Customer Requests Tracking, as well as providing links to supporting information such as Purchase Orders, GL Transactions, Payroll Details – all with drill down capabilities.
The anticipated live date is November 2001.
AXS OneView is a Corporate Reporting tool that provides key operational and performance statistics across multiple systems. It provides a simple mechanism for managers to interrogate their financial data, combine it with any other information into decision-ready information for high performance analysis that can then be published internally or externally across the Web. It is easy to use, very quick to implement providing a rapid return on investment.
Some of the information available to managers is as follows.
- Actuals versus Budget
- Forecasting with variances and % of variances
- Commitment Analysis
- Quantitative Analysis
- Customer Care Information
- Cash Flow Analysis
- Service Request Statistics
- Key Performance Indicators
For further information contact Gilly Hen-Boisen at AXS-One, telephone (02) 9955 9944 or email ghenboisen@axsone.com
* Copy provided by AXS-One
