An interview with Scott Smith, Information Technology Manager at Tasmania’s Brighton Counci.l
Brighton Council in Tasmania is a semi-urban/rural council about 20 kilometres north of Hobart. It is not a large council, with a population of around 17,000 residents over 7000 rateable properties, but this can be a big advantage when it comes to the ever-changing world of information and communications technology (ICT).
Council prides itself on its innovation and determination in providing ICT-based services, not just in Tasmania but across Australia and the Pacific.
Council has established its own proprietary company – MicroWise Australia Pty Ltd – to manage, maintain and distribute software and services it has developed in-house.
This software ranges from a small vaccination recording product, Vacciwise, to its golden product, PropertyWise, which manages a Council’s core systems (property, regulator and cashiering etc).
Working in an integrated environment with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, PropertyWise is presently managing the business-critical activities of about 20 sites. Developed by Council in 1995, PropertyWise has continued to evolve and grow into a function-rich and user-friendly product.
PropertyWise is not only a major product used by Tasmanian Councils but is also deployed in sites across New South Wales, Western Australia and Fiji. Many Local Government Association of Tasmania (LGAT) awards have recognised its proven performance and ever-increasing diversity.
But the future ICT at Brighton Council is not just limited to software development. Providing consultancy and employee services to other sites sees Council attracting and enjoying the expertise of its dedicated, knowledgeable and professional workforce.
In its most exciting venture to date, Council is presently engaging the National Broadband Network (NBN) with a resolve to provide private cloud-based services to other local government bodies and authorities across Tasmania and the mainland of Australia.
This would see Council offering hosted services for sites that want to avoid the hurdles and obstacles of managing ICT infrastructure and solutions. It also offers the opportunity of providing software as a service, alleviating high-cost licence fees and enabling a variety of pricing models for smaller councils.
This should be attractive to many councils throughout Australia as the cost of major software products becomes prohibitive in these times of financial uncertainty.
