2007 Press Releases

Date: 14 March 2007

Taupo District Council selects Objective to enhance information management

Taupo District Council has selected Objective Corporation (ASX: OCL) to provide an enterprise content management (ECM) solution to enhance information management and improve business processes.

The Council is responsible for managing the Lake Taupo District located in the central North Island of New Zealand, covering an area of 6970 square kilometres. As one of New Zealand’s largest visitor destinations, t he council provides a broad range of quality services and facilities to customers and ratepayers of the District.

The Council undertook an Information Management Strategy project that outlined a framework to improve the collection, management and use of reliable and accurate information.

As a result of the project, the council selected Objective to replace existing systems and create a single corporate information store that will eliminate existing silos of information. It will be accessed from 11 locations, by 280 users including council officers, management, accountants, engineers, planners, policy analysts and economic development people.

Susan Souren, Information Technology Manager, Taupo District Council said: “Information is vital to the successful and efficient functioning of local government. Communities and ratepayers expect easy and timely access to council’s information.

“Objective will provide a trusted reliable source of corporate information. It will underpin the effective and efficient delivery of accurate information for our business and our customers.”

Local government is highly regulated and accountable to both ratepayers and government. The new Public Records Act 2005 has highlighted accountability for information retention, disposal, storage, transparency, confidentiality and accuracy.

“Objective will underpin well informed decision-making, and deliver transparency and accountability in our business processes. It will secure information, whilst supporting our statutory obligations,” said Ms Souren.

Taupo District Council selected Objective to:

• Improve the provision of information to decision makers.
• Promote a knowledge sharing culture across Council
• Reduce liability through improved security of information
• Reduce costs of information requests and storage
• Eliminate data re-entry and information duplication

E-government has become an important focus for local government. P eople and communities have begun to experience e-government initiatives at the local government level, in particular, in relation to information about property.

Objective will play a key role in managing property and land information and aid in the processing of building and resource consents. Accurate and timely land information is vital for ongoing development planning for the district.

“Strict statutory demands are placed on the processing time of both building and resource consent applications. Objective will manage scanned consent applications by providing a single point of access to multiple departments requiring access to the application.

“Delivering the right information, to the right person, at the right time is critical to the function of local government. We selected Objective because it was visionary, the solution was flexible and it will enable us to manage our information effectively into the future,” said Ms Souren.

Tony Walls, CEO, Objective Corporation said: “Objective is dedicated to providing relevant solutions that deliver real business outcomes to local government. We have a proven track record of successful implementations in local government, and are delighted to be working with Taupo District Council, as well as a number of other local government organisations across Australia and New Zealand.”

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About Taupo District Council

The Lake Taupo District is a vibrant growing region with a diverse range of resources including forestry, agriculture, hydroelectric and geothermal energy, tourism, scenic and recreational attractions. Taupo, Turangi and Mangakino are the three main urban areas in the district. In addition to stunning scenery the district has well developed accommodation, transport, recreation and attraction activities. For further information about Taupo District Council, visit www.taupodc.govt.nz.