Innovative Initiatives Driving Council Modernisation

Finance and City Governance Committee System and Process Modernisation (SPM) Information Services Organisational Services 21 March 2023

Background Initiative commenced in March 2022 Key objective was to focus on small incremental improvements for both employee and customer experience while also improving efficiency in core corporate services More than 500 opportunities (nominated by employees or internal customers) considered so far. Approximately 50% are approved to progress 91 initiatives completed Cost $1.6m benefit to the organisation $2.3m (for example saved time allowing staff to be re-prioritised to higher value tasks or reduced licensing costs) plus numerous improved service outcomes 84 initiatives underway Forecast cost $1.7m Forecast benefit $2.1m plus improved service outcomes 53 initiatives in the pipeline Forecast intake from the business is 20 new initiatives per month Criteria for intake Desirability, Viability, Feasibility

Cemeteries Video Streaming Council operates three Chapels with a video streaming service. Live streaming of funerals is provided free of charge for family and friends who are unable to attend. Cemetery Chapels had been experiencing issues with video streaming services for a prolonged period. An upgrade of the Optus service is now proceeding. Benefits/Outcomes: Improved customer satisfaction for ceremonies streamed from our Chapels fibre network has backup for streaming time-saving for Council officers (reduction in troubleshooting access issues) reduction in reputational damage from connectivity issues during service streaming. Completed Hemmant In progress Mt Gravatt, Pinnaroo

Trail Audit Application Volunteers monitor and arrange maintenance of the mountain bike trails at Mt Coot-tha. Previously this was done using pen and paper. Council now has a mobile app that is used by the volunteers. It is a user-friendly and efficient way to manage audits on the trail network. It reduces administrative burdens on volunteers by reducing physical paper forms and duplication of information. It has also improved the planning and workflow for trail management, and gives the Trail Care Officers (part of Natural Environment, Water and Sustainability branch) a better decision-making tool to help maintain these assets more efficiently. This is helping Council to retain its volunteer workforce for the mountain bike trails.

Ward Office Budget Reporting Ward Office staff can view and track expenditure against their allocated Ward Office annual budget, rather than relying on Councillor Support staff to generate and email the expenditure report at the end of each month (saving 20 hours per month). Ward Office staff can now self-serve at any time of the month to see near real-time data. They can filter, sort and review expenditure to determine which account types are over-spent, under-spent or on track.

Hybrid Working forms Council staff submit more than 4,000 Flexible/Hybrid working requests each year. The process was very manual and paper based. The request forms have now been digitised, and automatically workflow through the approval and filing stages. This has reduced the overall effort by approximately one hour per form. Elapsed time has also been reduced from two days to 30 minutes per form. Further improvement opportunities are under consideration.

GoPro access The GoPro Max device is currently used by the Environmental Health unit to undertake EatSafe audits and other compliance activities. Managing the captured video was difficult some officers were downloading the material to their own computers to process and stitch together the images and clips. Software has now been made available in the Council ICT environment for officers to download and undertake this task on their work devices. This improves the employee experience and also reduces risk of unauthorised access to sensitive data.

Highlights first 90 days Renegotiating licencing for Records Manager application cost savings Automating process for Flexible/Hybrid working forms Automate the process for ensuring Council is reimbursed for Jury service Improving invoice scanning quality to avoid rework 35 online smart forms were migrated off the ABLIS payment Gateway

Highlights second 90 days Automation of Performance Leadership Report. Efficiency Sundry Debtor invoices are now emailed. Customer benefit Improve self-help printing problem trouble shooting for home printers Introduce enquiry licence for Record Manager users. Cost savings Recruitment template pre-population. Efficiency Creation of self help knowledge articles for ICT users

Highlights third 90 days Cemeteries Chapel Streaming Hemmant Improve operational reporting for Transport for Brisbane. Efficiency, customer benefit Rightsize Spatial systems database platforms. Cost savings Upgraded Council s online training platform (Linked-In learning). Simplify the process for using Go Pro devices. Efficiency, safety Better utilisation of Council s printer footprint. Cost saving Delivered a platform for sharing Grant opportunities internally and externally. Customer benefit Improve Ward Office Budget reporting. Efficiency Revise procurement thresholds and delegations. Efficiency

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