Published on the 04/11/2014 | Written by Newsdesk
From this week New Zealand councils can take advantage of each other’s process knowledge and experience for free thanks to a new online library that could save some councils tens of thousands of dollars…
The Local Government Shared Process Library NZ consists of around 1000 processes developed by councils and uploaded to the cloud for sharing with sister councils. New Zealand councils have a history of sharing with each other, but, according to Promapp Solutions which has facilitated the library, this is the first time that sharing has been centralised nationwide.
Promapp Solutions provides business process management software to many New Zealand councils and announced its intention to make the library available to all New Zealand councils three weeks ago. Since then demand for access to the online library has been high with registrations coming through from nearly half of all councils in New Zealand.
Ivan Seselj, CEO of Promapp said: “It’s a significant result and I think it shows that councils are eager to gain detailed insights into the way other councils operate and improve their own processes, performance and customer service.”
There is significant pressure on councils to operate efficiently and deliver good service at a low cost. The online library can save councils thousands to tens of thousands of dollars on meetings, analysis, development, documentation, review and approvals of new processes by allowing councils to simply duplicate existing processes from a sister councils. The library allows anyone with a council email address to find, adapt and adopt proven processes faster. While all processes in the library were developed by councils using Promapp software, councils do not have to use Promapp to access or download processes from the library – although it will be inherently easier to directly export and import processes for those councils with their own Promapp systems.
Taupo District Council’s library champion Jamie Dale explained why Taupo is participating in the scheme: “We were happy to share our entire building consent authority quality assurance process with other council. We’ve invested heavily in trying to keep it simple and effective, which allows us to focus on delivering building control services to our customers. IANZ have reviewed the complete process and accredited it as meeting the requirements of the Building (Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations 2006. Local government has a remarkable history of co-operation. Sharing proven, valuable resources is a natural extension of that culture.”
The library includes more than 1000 processes for activities where there is high public interest such as building consents, resource consents, wastewater management, environmental health and environmental monitoring and liquor licensing. The library also includes an extensive set of processes for dealing with land information, parking, libraries and museums, recreation and leisure, community development, animal management and compliance as well as customer services and service delivery. It also has a companion library of processes developed by Australian councils.
If you are a member of council and want to access the Local Government Shared Process Library NZ you can request access here or send an email. Councils can also collaborate online via a specially set up LinkedIn forum.
