There’s no question that the digital landscape shifted drastically from 2019-2023.
Driven by Covid-19 and a rising digital push, many local councils looked to realign their digital strategy and question their legacy systems.
Modern local councils must be agile to remain resilient against unexpected events and match the growing expectations from employees, residents, and stakeholders to be integrated and digital.
Councils working with outdated and legacy technology will face increasing frustration from employees bogged down in outdated systems ill equipped to support their roles. Digitisation and cloud migration create a foundation for more significant innovation, productivity, and collaboration.
This blog looks at the growing trend around council digital transformation and how partnering with the right software group is helping local councils shift to their own council cloud.
Benefits of Cloud Migration for Local Councils
Manual processes and outdated tech fly in the face of the growing needs of residents and ratepayers.
Many councils are on the way, with more pledging to make a digital transformation. According to KPMG, 28% of local governments indicated that delivering on a digital promise was their top priority in 2022, making it the second highest priority overall. This recognition highlights a readiness and acknowledgment that something needs to change.
Some of the underlying benefits of council digital transformation behind this shift include the following:
- Efficient Asset Management: Connected systems allow for cross-collaboration and fast reporting. For example, if there is a pothole in the road, with the proper digital framework, the defect can be reported and then assessed, uploaded, and assigned to a worker almost instantaneously. The worker will also be able to provide real-time status updates (think uber) on the issue to the council and additional stakeholders such as gas, water, and traffic management.
- Public Services: A solid customer service focus will allow your council to resonate with those you represent. Whether it’s payments, reporting, or news, the community has come to expect a modernised experience due in part to the role of social media and the popularity of apps. This is a case of giving the people what they want as the need for a diverse, personalised, and intuitive user experience grows. An ABS study showed that in 2019 58% of Australian households reported using local government online services, an increase from 45% in 2015.
- Employee retention and satisfaction: Employees’ needs have recently changed, and the focus on agility and remote, flexible-working conditions has grown. These days, talented employees expect to work with streamlined processes and less clunky systems. Employees should be empowered to work with the most efficient and equitable tools.
- Move away from restrictive software: To retain business, some platforms are strong-arming users into signing up for their cloud. Not only will this leave many unsupported or soon to be unsupported, but it fails to recognise the diverse needs and requirements of each local council, removing the opportunity to create customised solutions that match the needs of the public within the differing councils.
Barriers to Cloud Migration
While many are moving from legacy hardware to a more flexible cloud solution, we are noticing that there are some councils holding back and, in turn, underlying challenges must be addressed.
Luckily these challenges can be mitigated through a partnership with a professional digital transformation group to create local government software solutions that make sense for your organisation.
But what are causing these main barriers to cloud migration? We think these are the top 5 reasons, based on the conversations we are having within local government:
- Internal resistance and legacy systems: In undertaking a digital transformation, some councils may encounter a mentality of we’ve always done it this way and resistance to change. In addition, some systems may be more challenging and costly to integrate than others. When undertaking this shift, addressing concerns around employment security, data safety, and trust is integral. Process improvement, automation, connectivity, and a long-term vision should be the key selling points of a digital transformation.
- Security and privacy: With the increased usage of digital assets comes an increased vulnerability to breaches and attacks. Data leaks can have long-standing operational and reputational repercussions. Even council rates can be vulnerable to hackers thanks to phishing and malware attacks. But, inbuilt security measures, a robust security framework, and clear employee guidelines can help to mitigate these threats.
- Funding and resources: Budgets and funding issues may hinder a digital transformation. However, the cost of being in the cloud should be less by comparison, than on premise systems in a number of areas. Hardware and IT costs are vastly reduced, as well as less staff and less energy costs. The sharing of and standardisation of data, creates better efficiency all round. Councils should consider cloud adoption as a longer term investment and digital transformation as an ongoing journey with the right digital partners and a robust council digital strategy.
- Online literacy and skills gap: After significant time working with legacy systems, some staff members and customers may feel that they lack the fundamental skills to work with updated systems. Training, guidelines, and intuitive systems help ease this transition and empower staff to take full advantage of digitisation possibilities.
- Compliance: As more legislation surrounding security and privacy is introduced, organisations will have to dedicate more time and resources to ensure their council digital strategy regarding data security and privacy are compliant with relevant government statutes and guidelines.
It’s probably worth remembering that cloud migration is not an all or nothing and can be broken down into manageable steps, and the proper support can help facilitate this shift.
Council Digital Transformation Success
But it’s not all doom and gloom, we have seen councils of varying sizes adopting digital systems in numerous ways, and with many benefits, including to boost operational efficiency, improve employee satisfaction, and gain a more equitable end user experience within the public, to build connected cities.
Some of the councils that have enjoyed the benefits of a digital transformation include:
City of Melbourne
Melbourne prides itself as a ‘smart city,’ having adopted a range of digital initiatives to improve engagement, such as a mobile app that allows users to report issues and request services.
Their current focus is on providing equitable solutions and bolstering accessibility to help people with disabilities better enjoy the city. Some additional services include digital signage and wayfinding systems.
City of Gold Coast
The city of Gold Coast introduced several digital projects, including online resources for app development, a customer service platform, and smart city tech such as sensor. They’ve also introduced an online portal where residents can share their opinions on council initiatives and projects to build a more transparent feedback system.
City of Adelaide
The city of Adelaide has delivered a range of digital transformations to improve public experience and sustainability. Some of the leading changes include a smart lighting system and an online platform where users can engage with data, statistics, and the city’s economic impact.
City of Sydney
Through the power of tech, Sydney aims to continue being “one of the most innovative and liveable cities in the world.” With a focus on creating connections and empowering residents, the city of Sydney has used its digital framework to provide several initiatives targeted at its diverse communities and the growing needs within these spaces. For example, digitisation allowed the city of Sydney to respond quickly to the increasing needs of local business owners during the Covid-19 pandemic by building an online business support portal.
Digital makeovers are not only for larger councils and cities. There have been several smaller local councils that have enjoyed the benefits of digitisation.
Moving to the Cloud Is Easy With iTANZ
As an Oracle partner, our customised solutions are helping councils across Australia build a more connected, optimised, and happy team and community. Our expertise in data and integration allows us to create a seamless shift to a functional, secure, and cost-affordable cloud in 10 easy steps while addressing the underlying concerns of cost, time, security, and integration.
To learn more about our experience in digital transformation and the power of Oracle cloud, why not download our free eBook 10 Steps to Future Proof your Smart Council.
