A small Tasmanian Shire that successfully adapted a commercial accounting package and integrated it with its property rating system may have the answer to slashing information technology budgets across the board.Kentish Shire Council used Quickbooks Pro V8 to make savings on its annual IT budget. Not only has the innovation cut its annual IT budget by $8,000, it has improved staff productivity and allowed staff to make more detailed reports to Council.
Finance Manager, John Brown, said integration of the program with a property rating system provided a cost effective solution for small to medium sized Local Governments that struggle with small IT budgets. He said Quickbooks Pro V8 was chosen because it was cheap, commonly used and professionally supported. An added bonus of integrating the program with other Council functions was the productivity gains delivered through savings on staff time.
“The project has delivered a direct benefit to the community in economics due to its greatly reduced costs,” John Brown said.
Community organisations have also benefited because Council now acts as an accounting bureau for them. Council worked with the supplier of a Tasmanian Local Government rating program to ensure the innovation was compatible with existing software.
For further information contact Council’s IT Consultant, David Fraser, email david.fraser@kentish.tas.gov.au or telephone (03) 6491 2500.
