City of Yarra

Centralised and integrated systems for City of Yarra.

To an external onlooker, it may not have been apparent that many processes within the City of Yarra Statutory Planning Department were manual, inefficient and disjointed. But to the internal departments involved in processing business applications – not to mention external businesses navigating multiple complicated forms on the website and waiting an average of 86 days for Council to reach a decision on a planning application – the clunky manual systems were all too obvious.

Cleverly redesigned workflows and tailored TechnologyOne modules presented an opportunity to improve both the customer experience, and internal processes and systems. But City of Yarra needed expert guidance on how to scope, build and create these streamlined processes to benefit both customers and Council. 

They went out to tender and chose Lánluas, who had the knowledge and expertise needed to complete the project to an exceptional standard – making clunky, disjointed processes a thing of the past for staff and citizens of Yarra City Council.

The challenge we faced

Departments within City of Yarra Council have historically used different processes and ways of using Council software, which weren’t integrated. For example, an external business seeking a Council permit would need to deal with up to three different departments separately and navigate multiple application processes that were not integrated.

Imagine the anxiety and frustration of a newly established business already paying a lease on a property, and waiting on permits and approvals to conduct business. Council decisions for statutory planning would take an average of 86 days – and even then, may or may not result in the desired outcome of the business owner eager to start trading. In that time, the business would need to navigate several different applications – often around signage, liquor licences, parking, or change of use – each with its own requirements, expectations, forms, processes and timeframes. 

This experience would clearly leave a poor impression of the Council as a whole, negatively impacting its reputation in the eyes of the community.

A centralised online portal for business applications was needed. This would allow for greater self-service capacity, and reduce the time and cost involved.

The solution we offered

Having worked with many councils across Australia, New Zealand and the UK, Lánluas was more than comfortable deploying our team of Property and Rating specialists, experts in TechnologyOne, to spearhead this project.

A bulk of the work lay with aligning business units’ processes. Clear and focused workflows and backend systems brought the Statutory Planning Department, Building Department, Economic Development Department and other business units that process business enquiries and applications, onto the same page, ready to use and maintain an online service that presented to the customer as a portal. 

The new centralised online portals have mapping and tracking tools, clearly outlining the application process for external businesses so they can understand requirements and expectations easily.

Rather than relying on phone calls, emails, and manual data entry processes, users can now easily perform tasks such as: 

• Make payments
• Submit, update and track applications
• Receive permit reminder notifications

This simple, straightforward process makes life easier for business owners, and establishes trust with Council.

For City of Yarra, the portal creates a centralised location for application information, reducing the need for businesses to contact Council directly

Lánluas was able to advise City of Yarra on the broader TechnologyOne eServices suite functionality available and provide services to deliver the integrated online solution, with the opportunity for future capability additions to avoid rework when rolling out more TechnologyOne eServices features.

The final outcome

Lánluas’ work involved developing a centralised and integrated back-end system for the City of Yarra’s business enquiries between the Statutory Planning, Building, Economic Development and related departments. City of Yarra was the first council in Victoria to facilitate online lodgement for building applications and end-to-end online experience for economic development applications. 

This has:

• Directly resulted in an estimated 10% efficiency increase.
• Reduced the volume of email communications between businesses and Council regarding applications by 70%.
• Automated over 40,000 individual TechnologyOne Property & Rating events.

It’s also expected to save the Council over half a million dollars per annum – not taking into account the reduced time spent on administration and the increased efficiency.

The project has provided significant benefits to the organisation internally, as well as externally to people in the community, notably business owners.

For Council:

• Time is saved processing and responding to enquiries.
• The system is now a streamlined, end-to-end process that goes from pre-application advice to lodgement of a planning application.
• It’s established common processes and workflows between business units.
• It’s increased collaboration between teams, streamlined processes, and created a central portal for all business applications and enquiries.

For customers:

• It’s reduced the need for customers to navigate several application processes and fill out multiple forms.
• It’s reduced the need for business owners to contact Council, as they can easily understand the process and access information on their own.
• It’s enabled business owners to update their applications instantly and directly, without the need to call or email Council.

Beyond delivering these benefits through the solution delivery, Lánluas focused on future capability being added from the TechnologyOne eServices suite. Our approach helps to avoid the need for re-work in configuration of the online solution as City of Yarra moves to roll out TechnologyOne eServices functionality in other departments.

Ready to unlock the potential of your TechnologyOne enterprise system? Contact Lánluas to discuss how we can help.