'Council in a box' offers information management system to councils

A Christchurch-based software company, Information Leadership, has built an information management software package for local councils in partnership with the South Taranaki District Council (STDC).

The company said the software was a tailored solution that saved councils the expense of a custom-built package.  STDC receives a 50% cut for the software, which costs $100,000 all up, for its help with developing the project. 

'Council in a box' used the Microsoft SharePoint platform and the extra software built by Information Leadership to enhance this platform included record keeping and rates components. 

"Through STDC we've actually put together all of the designs for each of the different activities that a council does," said director of Information Leadership Sarah Heal.  She said councils would normally have to figure out the design-work itself.

She said Information Leadership could tailor the solution to individual councils if required.  Deployment of the software included installation, configuration and training.  'Council in a Box' is in use at more than 30 organisations including government agencies, science organisations, health boards, education, utilities and commercial organisation. 

STDC IT manager Pete Sayers said in a press release that information could be accessed more easily, which meant staff spent less time searching for documents, resulting in better service for ratepayers.

"We’re very pleased to now be giving other councils the opportunity to realise these productivity gains”.

Ms Heal told NBR Council in a Box was a business improvement product for councils wanting to get a better handle on their documents and records.  She said it would help councils meet record keeping compliance obligations also.

Ms Heal said Information Leadership was in talks with other councils about the information management system and had created a pared down version for McKenzie District Council.

She said Council in a Box fit in with the government's centralised buying strategy due to its collaborative nature.  She said a parallel example was a project in 2010 for 14 polytechs where each picked a different piece of work to share with each other.

"Essentially South Taranaki are giving all the other local authorities in the country the opportunity to leverage off what South Taranaki has down without starting from scratch and without necessarily spending the same kind of money each individually."

She said in the public sector it was important for organisations to find every opportunity to share and learn from each other, and that the centralized buying strategy "absolutely" left room for intiatives such as Council in a Box.

"In fact I think initiatives like Council in a Box sort of show case what's best about collaboration."

An Auckland Council media spokesperson said they had not heard of the solution and thus the council would probably not be investing in it.

Committee clerk of McKenzie Council, Rosemary Moran, said the council had instituted the pared down version of Council in a Box towards the end of 2010 and it was going "very slowly" but that this was the council's own fault. 

"They're always available when we want them...it's a time thing mostly, we had plans to have a lot more staff involved by this stage of the game but it just hasn't happened". 

She said it "absolutely" had the potential to be useful and the decision had been made to purchase the software because the council did not have any adequate record facilities for electronic records.

"We had the presentation from South Taranaki and it seemed like it would suit."

Ms Moran said the council had compliance issues in terms of keeping records with the Public Records Act and the software should help with that.

She said two staff out of a planned eight or ten had had a few days training and the software was not difficult to pick up but nor was it easy.

"It's quite different from our very nuts and bolts basic system we had."