Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
License needed for work use Register

Local Govt | National News Video | Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Search

 

New ‘world-class’ IT system for Council

NEWS RELEASE
15 August 2013

New ‘world-class’ IT system for Council

Wellington City Council is starting a major IT project that will better serve the Council and its customers.

The Council’s Chief Executive, Kevin Lavery, says it’s important that Council constantly reviews the way it works so it can be the best it can as a Council, for the city and the region.

“The Council has too many IT systems - more than 120 - supporting its business. A lot of our systems are duplicated across business units and do not easily work with each other. The result is an IT environment that is complex and costly to maintain, and restricts our ability to deliver great customer service.”

The project is about bringing together the Council’s core IT systems – dealing with customer service, finance, HR and property functions - onto a single platform.

“This is an exciting opportunity for us to lead the development of something special that will serve the Council, the city and the region long into the future,” says Mr Lavery.

“It’s about drawing on our skill and expertise and challenging ourselves to create an IT system and services that are truly world-class.

The Council’s IT/IM Manager, Channa Jayasinha, says an initial RFI (requests for information) process will start today and there will be an emphasis on encouraging local IT companies to take an interest in the process. It is expected that a full RFP/tendering process will start later this year and that it will take up to six months for bids and proposals to be fully considered.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Are you getting our free newsletter?

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.

Mr Jayasinha says Wellington City Council spends almost $30 million a year on its IT systems and services. “Compared to other councils the relative cost of running our systems is very high – partly because of complexity and the challenges involved in keeping them running.

“Among our principal aims is to simplify the systems. We believe we can cut annual running costs by up to $10 million a year – and provide far better services to customers and staff.”

The Council also currently employs 115 IT staff. Mr Jayasinha says the proposed changes will eventually have an impact on staffing numbers but it is likely to be 2-3 years before they are implemented. Eventually we won’t need as many staff to service our ICT systems as we have today but I believe we will be able to manage the reduction through natural attrition and redeployment, although some redundancies are possible.”

The key objectives for the project are:

• Reduce the complexity of the IT environment
• Improve the integration across systems
• Improve the business ‘line of sight’ across key information such as customer, property and assets
• Reduce the total cost of operation of IT at the Council.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines

Gordon Campbell: On The Government’s Smokefree Laws Debacle

The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out - for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable view is that the government was being deliberately misleading. Are we to think Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is a fool, or a liar? It seems rather early on in his term of office to be facing that unpleasant choice. Yet when Luxon (and senior MP Chris Bishop) tried to defend the indefensible with the same wildly inaccurate claim, there are not a lot of positive explanations left on the table.... More


 
 
Public Housing Futures: Christmas Comes Early For Landlords

New CTU analysis of the National & ACT coalition agreement has shown the cost of returning interest deductibility to landlords is an extra $900M on top of National’s original proposal. This is because it is going to be implemented earlier and faster, including retrospective rebates from April 2023. More


Green Party: Petition To Save Oil & Gas Ban

“The new Government’s plan to expand oil and gas exploration is as dangerous as it is unscientific. Whatever you think about the new government, there is simply no mandate to trash the climate. We need to come together to stop them,” says James Shaw. More

PSA: MFAT Must Reverse Decision To Remove Te Reo

MFAT's decision to remove te reo from correspondence before new Ministers are sworn in risks undermining the important progress the public sector has made in honouring te Tiriti. "We are very disappointed in what is a backward decision - it simply seems to be a Ministry bowing to the racist rhetoric we heard on the election campaign trail," says Marcia Puru. More

 
 
 
 
 
 

LATEST HEADLINES

  • PARLIAMENT
  • POLITICS
  • REGIONAL
 
 

InfoPages News Channels


 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.