2014 International ALGIM Conference

 

2014 ANNUAL ALGIM AWARD CASE STUDIES

FINANCE PROJECT (DYNAMICS AX IMPLEMENTATION)
Hamilton City Council 

Hamilton City Council implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2. The first local government organisation in New Zealand to do so.

The project scope included General Ledger, Fixed Assets, Procurement, Accounts Payable, Project Accounting, Contract Management, Budgeting, Reporting (Operational and BI).

The drivers of the project were to leverage the Microsoft the All of Government Pricing.
-Compliance with Audit Recommendations
-Provide a building block in the BI strategy.
-Provide real time information access.
-Process automation.

The timeframe to go live with AX was 8 months from project mobilisation, which was achieved. The new system and processes have been live since July 1st. 

 

HEADS IN THE CLOUDS - MWLASS COUNCILS AIM HIGH WITH PRIVATE CLOUD COLLABORATION
Wanganui District Council 

The MWLASS is a collaboration of seven local and regional councils.  With the high cost of access to traditional cloud providers, these brave councils have paved their own path to reap the benefits of cloud services.

As each council progresses through their own equipment, software, and service refresh cycle, the MWLASS councils accommodate both capital and operational based pricing option.  This innovation keeps the accountants happy, and removes any financial barriers to shared services success.

Finally, the limited and expensive networking options available within provincial New Zealand has caused the MWLASS member councils to implement innovative networking solutions to reach their collective dream.

 

OPEN DATA PLATFORM
Otago Regional Council

In August 2011, the NZ Government released the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government, which commits the Government to actively release high value public data.

Otago Regional Council has taken the decision to make all of its public information and datasets readily available using an Open Data Platform (ODP). This includes providing useful tools for the public to access and analyse the data - the ODP allows people to view information on maps, in tables, and they can create charts based on the data. Data can be filtered or queried using the platform or exported to other reporting tools. The ODP allows developers to connect directly to the data using ODATA meaning applications can be written to benefit the Otago community.

 

BUILDING RECORDS BACK-SCANNING PROJECT – PILOT
Tararua District Council 

Hardcopy Historic Building Records … words that make even the most experienced Records Team cringe, made worse by a challenge from Central Government - “e-Records are the future ... Make it happen!”  

To succeed they would need the full support of Council, and until now “Records” was a backroom process generally unseen by all – including Councillors.

Tararua District Council’s approach was to develop and implement a pilot project.  This pilot would test processes and productivity, and enable them to estimate costs, timeframes and staffing needs before presenting their case to Council for support and funding.  

The pilot commenced 7 January 2014.

 

TRANSFORMATION OF AN INTRANET
Dunedin City Council
 

How do you take a "built for purpose" Customer Service tool that is 17 years old kicking and screaming into the 21st century? How do you transfer vital business knowledge built up over this time without losing the value and functionality? How do you ensure the rest of the Council are receptive to this change? How do you bend a system that is built for one role…into another? How do you do it in such a way that this is the stepping stone to a "digital Workspace"?

Good Questions...and in hind sight, not easy.  Here's how the team at the Dunedin City Council done it! 

 

MARINE MATE – SAFETY IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND
Waikato Regional Council

 New Zealanders love the water and spend considerable leisure time on, in and under it.  Imagine the challenge of developing a mobile application with different rules in each area of New Zealand’s marine space? 

Waikato Regional Council, through collaboration with Land Information NZ, Maritime NZ, ACC, the Ministry for Primary Industries, Water Safety NZ and 19 local councils, have done just that, releasing a free smart phone application called Marine Mate. 

Marine Mate is a one stop shop for all water users.  It provides up-to-date information that can be accessed anywhere, at any time.  It does not require an internet connection once downloaded and is intertwined with essential information that enhances safety in and on the water.

 

MOBILE PHONE STAFF EVACUATION CHECKLIST
Wellington City Council
 

The Wellington City Council has launched its first internally developed mobile app for the Apple iPhone.  The app is a Health and Safety Mobile Staff Evacuation app which enables managers in an event of a building evacuation to: 

-  Have a mobile checklist to check off staff present at the evacuation meeting point.

-  Send a text or call staff that are unaccounted for. 

-  Send a report via text to the Police or alternative emergency organisation. 

Note: Available for Apple iPhones only running iOS 7 or higher. 

 

OPTIMIZING RUBBISH & RECYCLING IN PALMERSTON NORTH
Palmerston North City Council 

80,000 residents, 9 Trucks, 5 Days, 3 Materials & 1 Maze.

Palmerston North’s GIS project aimed to equalize daily refuse collections, reduce wasted travel and document routes for drivers.  Using ESRI technology GIS was used to calculate potential new routes / zones, produce a mailmerge database and display information for residents, contact staff & operations.

Optimizing high density collection routes presents a number of challenges to current technology as the algorithm used must process each delivery point and select the sequence based on a numeric score.  This project used a time cost network to determine the optimal route based on factors such as school times, traffic density and turning preferences. 

 

MOBILE BUILDING INSPECTIONS
Marlborough District Council

The mobile building inspections app allows building inspectors to complete digital building consent inspections and integrates with Marlborough District Council back end systems.  This creates business efficiencies by streamlining and automating formerly manual processes.  Uses Datacom Customer Connect shared, cloud-based software.


THE FINAL CONNECTION – CCTV – KEEPING OUR COMMUNITY AND BUSINESSES SAFE, WHILE STRESSING FIBRE!
Tararua District Council

Tararua District Council and its partners have been rolling out high definition (or better) closed circuit TV cameras in multiple towns and locations using Council’s own backhaul fibre and duct networks.  Over 70 cameras at five towns are at various stages of planning or implementation with cameras being rolled out daily in Dannevirke. 

This idea was the outcome to be achieved from their 2006; 160km inter-town fibre project that got all major schools and health centres the Tararua fibre, and just maybe helped the Government to decide to do the same thing for New Zealand!