Extra computers a first step to web file access

The paperless office in the digital age is becoming more of a reality with new services and facilities being provided at North Shore City Council's Environmental Services' office in Takapuna.

A major programme to convert the city's property files into digital format has been progressing steadily over the past few months, and the converted files can now be quickly accessed and readily viewed on a computer screen.

"We've greatly reduced the waiting time for those wishing to look at property records as a result, and now nearly three-quarters of the public's requests for property files and information can be handled electronically," says the city's chief information officer, Tony Rogers.

The council is meeting the public's need to access electronic property files and information by installing six computer kiosks at Environmental Services, 521 Lake Rd, Takapuna.

"Some of the many advantages for going electronic are the ease of finding, locating, storing and retrieving material from a property file - and the file itself, once digitised, should never be lost.

"Our conversion of the property files from various formats - a legacy of the time before various local authorities were amalgamated - is proceeding well, and we're meeting the customers' needs for accessing digital files. Our customers have enthusiastically seized the opportunity to obtain files electronically, with 70 per cent of total requests being for electronic files," he says.

Tony Rogers says his information management team is pleased to see the offer of electronic files receive such a positive response from the public.

"It means we can review the timetable for the linking of property files to the web, and this could now be introduced toward the end of this year.

"The availability of the computer kiosks has been especially helpful over the past month or so, with the requests for property information almost doubling from the same period last year. We're now handling an average of 60 inquiries a day."

Electronic files can be accessed at short notice (provided they have already been converted to digital format) or converted to electronic format and provided free of charge, although there may be a wait of up to 24 hours. If 'to scale' plans are needed in hard copy, charges will apply.

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