2003 Press Releases

Objective first to win under NSW GSAS with Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions

Objective Corporation (ASX:OCL) today announced the first contract to be awarded under the NSW Government's new panel for records and information management systems (GSAS Panel Contract ITS 2323).

In a contract valued in excess of $1 million, the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has selected Objective from the GSAS panel, to provide an integrated document management solution that will improve the effectiveness of prosecuting criminal matters.

"The ODPP's selection of Objective so soon after the new panel's announcement is indicative of the level of pent-up demand in the NSW government market for knowledge and process management solutions," said Mr Tony Walls, CEO Asia Pacific of Objective Corporation.

Mr Patrick McMahon, Manager Corporate Services, ODPP said the ODPP selected Objective based on its clear ability to understand the ODPP's business requirements, its experience with similar large implementations and the software's ability to integrate with the ODPP's existing systems.

"The ODPP maintains an enviable reputation for successful IT implementations," said Mr McMahon. "It was crucial that we selected a vendor who we could trust to deliver the right solution within our tight project timelines and budgetary constraints."

"Throughout the evaluation, Objective was able to demonstrate a clear project methodology and implementation path supported by a proven track-record of successful implementations," said Mr McMahon.

"Objective represented the lowest risk choice for the ODPP," said Mr Walls. "The deep domain expertise offered by our consultants together with the breadth of the Objective product suite offers an enormous benefit to the ODPP in terms of the cost and speed of the implementation cycle."

The ODPP will use Objective to improve its core business processes by efficiently and effectively managing the large volume of documents created and used when conducting criminal prosecutions including the documentation that flows between the ODPP and other criminal justice agencies.

An improved prosecution service will contribute to a higher level of community satisfaction and result in charges being settled earlier, cases more thoroughly researched and prepared, and free staff from labour-intensive paper-work to increase focus on the intellectual component of their work.

"The nature of conducting prosecutions is extremely information-intensive," said Mr McMahon. "In 2001 alone, the number of records totalled 19,683, which comprised in excess of 4 million individual documents. This figure excludes the vast number of drafts and other supporting documents generated during the prosecution process that are subsequently culled during archiving."

Adding further complexity to the task of managing such volumes of information is the increasing need to work with electronic documents and multimedia objects together with increased accountability demands placed on the ODPP following recent changes in legislation for pre-trial disclosure and the State Records Act.

The solution will be implemented across the ODPP's 12 locations throughout NSW and used by all 600 staff - from corporate services staff to solicitors, from research officers to Crown Prosecutors.

Objective will manage the creation, access, maintenance and archiving of the entire range of electronic documents, multimedia objects and physical documents used in the ODPP's daily operations. Documents such as: Prosecution Briefs and Subpoenas through to items of evidence which may include emails, sound files, photography or video.

Objective will be integrated with the ODPP's existing custom workflow system, Criminal Advocacy Support and Enquiry System (CASES), which in itself is an awarded IT system. CASES was developed by iTec Software, the company that will undertake the integration of CASES with Objective. The integrated solution, developed with the assistance of ODPP expert users, will support the flow of work between all staff for all matters (legal cases) prosecuted by the ODPP.

About the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution

The role of the ODPP is to independently advise in, review, institute and conduct prosecutions in criminal matters and to maintain and improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in NSW.

Crown Prosecutors conduct and appear as Counsel in criminal proceedings on behalf of the Director. They also find bills of indictment for indictable offences and advise the Attorney General or Director on matters referred to them.

The principal functions and responsibilities of the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions are:

	to institute and conduct, on behalf of the Crown, prosecutions for indictable offences (under NSW laws) in the Supreme Court and the District Court;
	to institute and conduct, on behalf of the Crown, appeals in any court in respect of any such prosecution; and
	to conduct on behalf of the Crown as respondent, any appeal in any court in respect of any such prosecution.

www.odpp.nsw.gov.au