Like most Councils, Liverpool Plains Shire Council wanted to improve customer service and, at the same time, reduce the cost of document management. Its inhouse designed electronic document management system, aptly named‘Tr@ceR’, is a new way to think about document handling, developed by Local Government for Local Government. This innovation has resulted in Liverpool Plains being the category winner in Information Technology for Councils with less than 15,000 ratepayers in the 2007 National Awards for Local Government, and more recently was named one of the six national winners with a National Award for Innovation.
Based on a strong customer service focus, Tr@ceR integrates the interface between the customer – either a ratepayer or Council department – and the solution provider. The system revolutionises the way an organisation deals with its correspondence and customers.
Two years ago Liverpool Plains Shire Council, located in Western New South Wales, decided to move to electronic document management (EDM). A working party comprising the Director Corporate Services, IT Manager, IT and Records Officers visited a number of Councils that had implemented EDM to gain an understanding of the solutions available as well as their advantages and pitfalls.
It became apparent that all Councils that had implemented electronic document management systems (EDMS) had to completely change the way in which general users operated on a daily basis and in some cases Council departments were opting out of using their newly implemented EDMS due to the inherent complexities of the ‘off the shelf’ software packages. In addition, the most prohibitive factor for Liverpool Plains Shire was the cost of purchasing off the shelf software, its installation and subsequent staff training.
Evaluation of available software also suggested that there was no solution that met all of Council’s needs. So Liverpool Plains decided to write its own software, which would capture the work flow of document handling and customer action requests. It set about documenting its requirements for a best practice solution. All departments were involved in this initial information gathering stage, giving staff a strong sense of ownership of the project.
The initial installation and testing took place with selected personnel from all departments, who provided valuable feedback leading to various improvements. The development, testing, installation and ‘go live’ took 12 months from concept to desktop.
There are several aspects of Tr@ceR that make this product unique. At an organisational level, 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 Council to communicate where previously there was ‘lag time’ in getting the information out and it being actioned. For example, a ratepayer/customer phones Council informing there is a broken water meter. The call is logged as a Customer Action Request, the details of the problem are then sent via Tr@ceR SMS to the Water Supervisor’s mobile phone outlining the action required and the location. The meter is fixed and the supervisor then SMSs back that the Customer Action Request can be closed off in Tr@cer. During this process a complete timeline of action is established, and
a management report can be generated to determine whether ‘Levels of Service’ guidelines are being met.
The delay in responding to correspondence had previously been a major criticism of Council in community surveys. This criticism was missing in the April 2007 community survey. Tr@ceR has produced enormous cost savings for Council, with an estimated $50,000 saved annually through reduced licensing, support, paper, photocopier consumables and training.
The reduction in paper and copier consumables also means an environmental saving, with a reduction in carbon emissions.
Tr@ceR is a simple, user friendly program that automates the former manual recording, storage and retrieval process for all documents.
Liverpool Plains Shire Council is now marketing the Tr@ceR suite of products to other Councils.
For more information or a demonstration of the product contact Mike Urquhart or Mark Daly on (02) 6746 1755.
