An increasing demand for technology, combined with an increase in staff using it has led Darwin City Council to review its entire IT network and prepare a strategic plan for the next three years.
Over a number of years, Darwin has evolved from a frontier town to a sophisticated city with a population of around 76,000 people.
In the last five years, there have been major changes across Council to meet the needs of the changing City, including a dramatic increase in user and application based technology.
Council’s General Manager Corporate Services Frank Crawley said that an increase in the number of people requiring different levels of IT support, combined with the need for a range of new IT products and services meant the review was a crucial process. There was also a need for better integration and an expanded scope for applications.
"As with any organisation, there are competing priorities between departments and increasing demand for support," Frank Crawley said. "From our Youth Group that needs support producing a newspaper, to our Parking Officers that require a range of IT solutions and products – we have a range of users with different expectations – each one seeing their priorities as paramount.
"The development of a strategic plan has allowed us to document the priorities of the organisation as a whole, and create strategies and policies to ensure they are addressed accordingly."
Frank Crawley said the review process began in 2009 and the resulting strategic plan looks at the period from 2010 to 2015.
"The review involved Council looking at exactly where we were at the time, what our strengths and weaknesses are and where we are headed," he said. "It gave us the opportunity to carry out an internal customer satisfaction survey across all departments, from our libraries and operations centre, to the depot and civic centre.
"From this we identified that the type of IT architecture required in the future was going to have a big emphasis on a mobile workforce as more and more Council tasks are requiring mobile phones, wireless laptops and handheld devices."
Frank Crawley said the strategic plan has an emphasis on listening to what customers want and need, responding to those wants and needs, and keeping staff informed as to where their requests are at.
An IT Steering Committee has also been established to monitor the success and implementation of the strategic plan.
"A number of initiatives have already been introduced under the plan, including an updated council website which was launched early in 2010," Frank Crawley said.
"Council has also upgraded its asset management systems to enable improved understanding of asset information. In addition, a number of external security reviews have taken place to improve IT security, and several new and upgraded policies have been introduced.
"With more staff needing to interact with the IT Department and gain support, we also wanted to increase the profile of IT staff. As such, regular meetings are now held with IT staff, and they regularly visit departments to update staff and monitor needs and requests."
For further information contact Frank Crawley on (08) 8930 0300.
