The Shire of Dandaragan is located about 250km north of Perth in Western Australia, and represents five small towns and their surrounds.
Originally settled in the 1850s, and remaining extremely isolated well into the 1950s, the Shire of Dandaragan has taken a leap into the 21st century with its new records management system, InfoXpert.
Nine years ago, and due to the rapid growth in the Shire’s coastal towns and the demand for additional planning, building and community services, the main Administrative Centre and Council Chambers were relocated to the town of Jurien Bay. One of the main challenges posed by the relocation was the sheer volume of physical records that had accumulated, and how to organise them.
In early 2011, negotiations began between management and records to initiate changes in the way records were kept. The decision to adopt InfoXpert meant that the traditional practice of photocopying documents and storing the original was no longer required. InfoXpert is a completely electronic system that requires staff to take responsibility for their own records, with all email traffic, faxes and letters now captured and recorded by the member of staff who generates them.
With the introduction of the InfoXpert system the Shire is working towards consistent and transparent information flows between Council, the community and stakeholders. Achieving this has been a long process for Shire employees, who had to adjust to an electronic system after many years of manual copying and storing. But the new system is finally coming to fruition, reducing workloads and encouraging communication in the workplace. Staff are now getting a handle on what is expected of them and realising the potential of InfoXpert to streamline the process of records keeping.
Shire of Dandaragan CEO, Tony Nottle, says, “The benefits of the InfoXpert system certainly outweigh any concerns we originally had. The ability to search for documents quickly has been a vast improvement. We are now able to track documentation, which assists us in providing up to date information to our ratepayers. We are constantly finding ways to improve how we use the system and improve our document management, and InfoXpert has been essential in this process.”
