Integrating solutions
Until 1999, the council's property, rates and revenue management and voters' roll systems were provided through several separate applications running on a Genasys system with an Oracle background. In the last quarter of 1999, a tender was released for the replacement of the council's system. 

Looking for solutions
Three companies formed a consortium to bid for the tender. ProClaim (Property, Client, Land Integrated Mapping) now a part of Technology One, provided the core of the modular property solution, with their software designed specifically for Australian local governments while Frontier and Computron provided payroll and finance packages.

 

Meeting the council's needs
Paramount to the council's decision was the ensuing functionality and investment costs required to deploy an integrated solution. While the consortium presented three systems, these were then integrated by virtue of a Windows® front end and a SQL Server™ database back end, ensuring that the independent systems were interoperable. Cost-effective and custom-built to meet the council's needs, the solution was well received.  Replacement of the legacy system commenced in March 2000.

ProClaim Software provided the largest component, a modular solution for property, rates and valuations, infringement management, permits and licences and town planning.

 

Phased system integration
The council required the initial phase of the project - the financial and payroll systems - to be implemented prior to the introduction of the then new Goods and Services Tax (GST) on 1 July, 2000. The remaining modules were scheduled to be deployed gradually. Data from the legacy systems was simply relocated to the new system without having to be recreated or re-entered, saving the council valuable time and money. Furthermore, the level of customisation required varied between modules. The Rates module, for example, worked out of the box, whereas the Town Planning module was customised to meet local planning needs which fitted in well with this phased approach.

 

Solutions in action
The council now has an enterprise-wide solution that is fully integrated at the database level.  Once all the data from a dozen previous databases is standardised and formatted for the new system, management and staff are looking forward to harnessing the power this will bring. They can already see the value in centralised data that historically has been located in separate systems and as a consequence was double handled.  This experience will be further enhanced by the council's ability to easily access and analysis data from the SQL Sever through Proclaim's Profiler interface.  This will empower staff to export data to an Excel spreadsheet where it can be used in a mail merge of information. Much of this type of information extraction and manipulation would have, in the past, been undertaken only by IT staff.

Standardising the user experience and reaping the user rewards
The council now has one integrated database with a single look and feel. Each module within the system has standard user controls, such as the drop-down menus. Not only does this make for a richer user experience but, due to the intuitive nature of the Office interface, the council has seen a reduction in training costs as staff are familiar with the interface. If staff members transfer to other departments, although they may use new parts of the system, they are already largely trained in the product's use. The training focus then changes from the interface to the position's requirements such as reporting and reconciling of accounts.

 

Accurate and up-to-date information
With the connectivity between SQL Server and Office, the council can feel confident that information from the many lines of business is secured from one source. This integrated system allows for data to be entered once rather than multiple times, and allows the council to build a history of interaction with those people living in the shire. For example, a ratepayer would normally already exist in the system when they come to register a dog or buy a recycling bin. The emphasis is shifting to the efficient and cost-effective entry of data. The ensuing accuracy of the data retrieved from the system can be assured and ongoing management keeps it current and up-to-date.

 

Brandon Cheshire, the Council's Manager of Information Technology, says, “We are beginning to understand our data, so that we are able to manipulate it and produce the queries we need, in order to retrieve the information we want. This is a huge improvement on where we were a year ago, when that just wasn't possible”. The council strongly believes that, in making this investment, the benefits will extend past immediate staff to the Shire's community of ratepayers.

In December 2000, Technology One, a Brisbane-based e-business solutions company, acquired ProClaim Software along with their integrated suite of software systems to the local government sector, including rating, property and licensing. This product is now called ProClaim One.

 

ProClaim used only Microsoft platforms and Microsoft standards (including drop-down menus, toolbars, shortcut keys and user help files), with which most users are already familiar. Ron Miller, now Victorian Sales Manager for Technology One, was the ProClaim Project Manager at the time. He says, "ProClaim made the decision to focus entirely on Microsoft products and not to compromise performance by supporting multiple databases or multiple client types.  This decision has proved to be the correct one".

Maximising SQL Server
The council has now been using the SQL Server-based system for almost a year and is extremely happy with its performance in supporting their integrated system. In the near future, they plan to migrate a further range of applications to run on the SQL Server including:

 

- a records management system, when available on SQL Server, to allow new data to be integrated into the existing information;

 

- validation of users for online payments; and

 

- a number of customised Access databases which have been developed in-house.

 

The council is also requesting the developers of an Access-based valuation system, VM2000, to make the product available on SQL Server. They expect this will result in a dramatic performance increase in the current multi-user environment.

 

There are further plans to redevelop the council's current Web site in response to changes from the Municipal Association of Victoria, of which the council is a member. As part of the Federal Government's "Networking the Nation Strategy", it will include a number of online services such as:

 

- secure payments;

- improved community reporting;

- issuing of rates and other certificates;

- infrastructure mapping, for example, drainage placements; and

- online payments.