How technology can be your best business partner in asset management

Australia is considered one of the most mobile societies in the world, with more and more people choosing to make the move from rural to urban areas.

The 2021 Australian Census reported that 40.7 per cent of people have changed their address in the last five years, with 66.9 per cent of people in Greater Capital Cities, and Greater Sydney remaining the largest city in Australia with its population booming at 5.2 million people.

Two thirds of individuals are predicted to live in metro areas by 2050 and with growing urbanisation comes an increased pressure on local governments to keep up with the population’s infrastructure needs – buildings, parks and gardens, roads, public transport, footpaths and bridges, all of which are a fundamental part of our everyday lives.

Local governments across Australia spend billions of dollars every year building and maintaining these assets to meet the needs of growing communities. In the absence of an appropriate asset management system the process can be time-consuming and resource-heavy for council.

Manually trawling through pages of data and updating it in disparate systems can be challenging for councils with already limited resources and stretched budgets. Without a single source of truth, decisions are often made in siloes and based on old data sets, with no visibility over the whole picture. This can lead to incomplete, incorrect and misaligned asset investment decisions that could jeopardise service delivery requirements and acceptable risk profiles.

Poor asset management results in deteriorating or failing assets, reduced levels of service and an increase in fundamental costs. Ultimately impacting the communities that local governments are put in place to provide for and decreasing the quality of life in the area, instead of increasing it.

Partner with asset management software and achieve results

With large asset portfolios and maintenance departments, technology has a growing and significant role in councils’ asset management. Asset management software can streamline business processes, keep track of assets, ensure they’re well maintained and operational, produce reports, make it easier to audit asset costs and usage, reduce administration costs and increase knowledge sharing with a single source of truth for asset information.

Local councils can make smarter decisions and build sustainable long-term plans with strategic asset management. Asset management software increases transparency and accountability which is important for maintaining the trust of the community and demonstrating responsible stewardship of public resources.

It also provides local government departments instant visibility of the total cost of operating, maintaining, upgrading or replacing assets based on age, condition, capacity and whether they are fit for purpose now or in the future. Maintenance staff benefit here too, with less time spent on travelling to perform repairs and more time spent on preventative maintenance and upkeep.

Reduce risk and increase productivity by leveraging technology

Enterprise asset management systems enable councils to get the most out of the community’s assets by planning their use more effectively, saving money on maintenance and freeing up resources for other projects. Improving asset management also benefits field staff, whose time was previously spent manually shuffling and filing paperwork on a day-to-day basis, all of which can now be done with the click of a button.

Clarence Valley Council saw incredible efficiency gains with the most notable improvement coming from field staff moving from manual paper timesheets to electronic timesheets in TechnologyOne Enterprise Asset Management’s Field App.

“Recording of time in the field has probably been one of the biggest efficiency processes for us...3,000 timesheet lines each week were being double handled just to get to payroll to be paid,” said Finance and Systems Manager, Kate Maginnity. Local governments can now make data-based decisions and understand where to direct resources, what projects to put on hold, and any risks that may arise with asset management software.

It’s the business partner all councils need to benefit from faster turnarounds, lower costs and streamlined and automated asset management processes.

It’s time to work smarter, not harder, with TechnologyOne’s OneCouncil solution and Enterprise Asset Management product. Plan, deliver and manage your council’s assets easily. To gain more visibility and transparency into asset data and increase productivity, visit here.