Website shows Shared Service wins

Hawke’s Bay people can now see the growing range of services where all five councils are working together to drive operational efficiencies and reduce costs.

Hawke’s Bay Local Authority Shared Services (HB LASS) Ltd has launched their website showing the internal services, processes and shared purchasing power where councils aim to collectively achieve the greatest time and cost efficiencies.

The driver behind HB LASS has so far been to improve service levels, lower costs, improve efficiency and increase value through innovation for Hawke’s Bay ratepayers. The current services and cost-sharing projects include insurance, information services, Geographic Information Services (GIS, also known as mapping) and fuel.

“This new website will give Hawke’s Bay people more information about what their councils are doing to share services and save on costs,” says HB LASS Chairman Craig Waterhouse.

“For insurance, we partnered with Manawatu, Whanganui, Bay of Plenty and some South Island councils to achieve more than $3 million worth of savings for the 25 councils involved,” adds Mr Waterhouse.

CEO of Wairoa District Council, Fergus Power supports the economy of scale achieved by HB LASS saying, “Through our efforts, Hawke’s Bay saved $930,000 for the 15/16 year insurance programme, while the GIS shared service also saved $170,000 in joint software purchasing.”

Liz Lambert, Interim Chief Executive of Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is also a project advocate.

“We’re confident we can deliver more savings through joint procurement and by aligning contracting programmes for shared services across the region. This is good for our region and our ratepayers,” says Liz Lambert.

“HB LASS has been quietly working away, focussed on delivery. Our new website shares these successes and will continue to inform on the work of HB LASS,” adds Mrs Lambert.

HB LASS Ltd was established in December 2012. Its core function is to investigate, develop and deliver shared services, where and when that can be done more effectively for any combination of some or all of the shareholding councils. Insurance, information services, GIS and fuel are currently shared services. The company is owned by Central Hawke's Bay District, Hastings District, Napier City, Wairoa District and Hawke's Bay Regional Councils. Each Council CEO is a director of the company.

ENDS

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