With offices and work sites at 42 locations spread as much as 150 kilometres apart, the development of a single technology system linking the operations of Council has been vital.
Manager Information Technology, Tim Howarth, said the IT Team of four had only five months to move from six separate IT systems to just one before the commencement of the 2006/07 financial year.
“At the beginning of January 2005, the IT Team had over 200 major IT projects that needed to be completed,” he said. “With no common systems in place and given that we would need some time for testing, we had until the end of May to have systems operational and the offices linked.”
One major project was to acquire and install a common telephone system across all offices. All major offices are now linked by a common system and Council has begun connecting smaller depots and other locations on a priority basis.
“One technical milestone was the installation of a 100 megabyte link between Maclean and Grafton, a distance of about 45 kilometres,” Tim Howarth said. “The initial plan was to use fibre, however when it became obvious that a fibre link could not meet Council requirements, we were forced to adopt licensed radio as the means of transmitting telephone and data communications between the centres.
“Licensed radio has presented a number of challenges, largely associated with electrical interference and lightening strikes from summer storms. However the use of licensed radio has meant a significant financial saving for Council – $180,000 for three radio links compared to an annual fee of $350,000 for fibre.”
Council has developed a disaster management plan for its IT infrastructure. A next day replacement policy on equipment is in place for speedy recovery if hardware is damaged and redundant links have been established to overcome dropouts during storms.
Director Corporate Services, Ross Bryant, said an online Help Desk had been implemented to assist staff in moving to the new systems.
“Additionally the new system incorporates a common email platform, enabling staff to access email from any Council office and at home,” he said. “A video conferencing facility is also in place and staff are able to have a single phone extension number accessible from wherever they are working throughout the Clarence Valley.”
