Devonport City Council
Eliminating old disparate systems and adopting TechnologyOne solutions as part of its digital transformation has enabled Devonport City Council to improve operational efficiencies and increase innovation.
Case study highlights
- Approximately $500,000 in cost savings
- Effective and efficient internal processes and operations
- Greater staff mobility and productivity
The Challenge
The City of Devonport is located on the Mersey River in the heart of the Northwest Coast of Tasmania, Australia. This unique location opens the city up to river, ocean, and mountain views and a lifestyle that’s enjoyed by its 26,000 residents.
Covering 116 square kilometres, Devonport is the major sea gateway to Tasmania and is well known for its reserves and recreational facilities. From kilometres of walking and cycling tracks, beautiful beaches and a river for various water sports, to numerous parklands, the city encourages an active and family friendly lifestyle.
Upon joining Devonport City Council as Deputy General Manager, Jeffrey Griffth found that the organisation was operating inefficiently, with departmental silos and many paper-based processes.
“It was really stepping back in time in the way an organisation operates,” said Mr Griffith.
“It was very inefficient, there was paper everywhere and there was complexity in the environment. There were systems that were not working, nothing was hosted in the cloud, there was poor reporting and no mobility for employees.”
As a small regional council, Devonport didn’t have the IT resources to maintain and update its technology systems and processes resulting in a technology deficit.
“We were in a difficult position of not having a good disaster recovery platform, our security was a concern and our ability to get the most benefit out of the latest solution was challenged.”
The Council required modern and flexible tools to enhance security, elevate the employee experience and optimise both processes and systems for greater efficiency.
The Solution
Realising the need to improve operations, in 2018, Devonport City Council decided to embark on a digital transformation journey.
They understood that new, modern systems and processes would be critical in establishing a solid foundation to future-proof the Council’s technological capabilities, provide improved processes, workflow, automation and greater mobility.
In early 2019, as part of its digital transformation, Devonport City Council moved its TechnologyOne products from on-premise to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
The Council implemented TechnologyOne’s Enterprise Asset Management on the new CiA platform in 2021. Along with this, Devonport equipped its outdoor workforce with mobile devices to be used in the field.
![Devonport City Council](https://www.technologyonecorp.com/__data/assets/image/0004/235075/Devonport-City-Council-logo.png)
“Enterprise Asset Management has had a really positive impact on Devonport City Council and we’re going back to ensure that we’re getting as much out of it as we can.”
The Outcome
By implementing TechnologyOne’s latest platforms and products as part of its digital transformation, Devonport City Council has improved efficiency of operations, given greater mobility to staff and reduced complexity of systems and processes.
“We identified that we could save just under half a million dollars per annum across a range of areas by implementing TechnologyOne’s Enterprise Asset Management solution. We have been tracking the benefits since going live and we can confirm that we are beginning to realise the benefits that we expected,” said Mr. Griffith.
Equipping the Council’s outdoor workforce with mobile devices alongside the implementation of Enterprise Asset Management has increased field staff’s mobility, enabling them to carry out their duties including accessing work orders, performing asset inspections and raising defects while in the field. The opportunity to work anywhere, any time, on any device securely has increased productivity for field workers and helped to streamline Devonport City Council’s reporting processes.
“We've substantially improved our reporting over the data that we now have available as a result of implementing Enterprise Asset Management and that's been very beneficial,” Mr. Griffith said.
Using TechnologyOne solutions in conjunction with other tools has allowed Devonport City Council to undertake a number of Smart City initiatives, including using Internet of Things (IoT) devices to work smarter, not harder.
“In the past we’ve had issues with bins overflowing or being picked up when they’re only 10% full which is inefficient,” said Mr. Griffith.
“We’ve implemented these IoT bin sensors and set a threshold that when the bin hits 75% capacity, it opens a work order in our TechnologyOne solution and tells the waste team that it needs to be emptied.”
“We’ve also got sensors in our barbeque shelters and public toilets, so we know when they need to be cleaned, as well as a host of other things. The exciting thing about all of this is that we’re able to connect those devices to our TechnologyOne solution to trigger actions to take place which is great,” he said.
“In the near future, we’ll be implementing TechnologyOne’s Property and Rating product and the first step of that will be Customer Request Management. The key thing we’re looking forward to is having a portal where customers can log in and see everything that relates to them when it comes to the Council. Rates, dog registrations, you name it, it’ll be a one stop shop. That’ll be a big benefit to the community,” said Mr Griffith.
The Council’s small IT team no longer has to worry about hosting infrastructure and maintaining and upgrading software, using programs like TechnologyOne’s Application Managed Services (AMS) to do it for them.
"The support that we get through AMS that we've invested in over the last three or four years has been very beneficial. It's sort of committing to hire an additional employee, but the employee you're hiring is TechnologyOne who has the most knowledge about their solutions. So that support has been really beneficial,” said Mr. Griffith.
By using TechnologyOne’s platforms and products as part of its digital transformation, Devonport City Council has broken down departmental silos, promoting efficiency, collaboration and innovation.
"Digital transformation is like continuous improvement,” said Mr Griffith.
“It doesn't have a conclusion. It is always chasing opportunities for innovation.”
About Devonport City Council
The City of Devonport is located on the Mersey River in the heart of the Northwest Coast of Tasmania, Australia.
Covering 116 square kilometres, Devonport is the major sea gateway to Tasmania and is well known for its reserves and recreational facilities. From kilometres of walking and cycling tracks, beautiful beaches and a river for various water sports, to numerous parklands, the city encourages an active and family friendly lifestyle for its 26,000 residents.
Resources
-
Local Government Media release28 Aug 2024
Three simple ways local councils can enhance community services
As NZ councils embrace digital transformations, an industry study reports that 19 per cent of New Zealanders report that they will never use digital services. -
Local Government Media release30 Jul 2024
TechnologyOne $13.5 billion market opportunity to drive growth to $1 billion ARR in five years
Australia’s largest SaaS ERP player postmarked an ambitious new goal of $1 billion ARR by 2030 at its inaugural Investor Day at its Brisbane headquarters today. -
Local Government Media release12 Jul 2024
City of Subiaco staff start work in new, more efficient system
The City of Subiaco has moved to a new, more efficient Software-as-a-Service enabled platform as part of the first phase of its digital transformation project.
Looking for more resources?
Check out all 110 Local Government resources.
![Contact Us Agent - TechnologyOne](https://www.technologyonecorp.com/__data/assets/image/0018/122526/Contact.png)