Hutt City Council

A finance system refresh for Hutt City Council.

Managing financial functions within a council organisation can be complicated and time-consuming. For Hutt City Council, prior to its upgrade to TechnologyOne’s Ci Anywhere, many finance-related tasks required manual intervention and cross-checking between different reporting systems. It was slow and involved work.

As part of a planned finance system refresh, Council decided to upgrade to the Ci Anywhere platform. The aim of this was to enable easy access to consistent and reliable information, remove the need for manual intervention in finance processes, and to support improved financial capability across the business.

Council needed expert guidance on how to successfully make the transition while minimising disruption to day-to-day business. Lánluas was able to support Hutt City Council in transitioning to the powerful and practical Ci Anywhere software over a series of phases. This staged approach ensured financial capabilities could successfully be modernised and improved, without business coming to a standstill. 

The challenge we faced

Financial functions within a council are often elaborate. As such, it can be difficult to upgrade systems and processes without disrupting business as usual. 

To ensure Hutt City Council could successfully transition to the Ci Anywhere platform from TechnologyOne, our team knew we needed to begin with a thorough review of current systems. 

We kicked off with a chart of accounts review involving a series of workshops that looked into how Hutt City Council workers interacted with financial functions, and how to best approach upgrading them. This allowed us to begin redesigning systems, with input from the right people.

When it came to implementing the rollout of new modules, we broke it down into phases so Council staff could be allocated more freely over the project’s timeline. People could get involved at stages relating to their area of expertise, and undergo training at the right time to ensure smooth implementation. 

This approach delivered minimal interruption to Hutt City Council’s day-to-day operations, while protecting against any unforeseen delays in implementing the new modules. 

The solution we offered

Our Chart of Accounts review and restructure process showed that a lot of Council’s inefficiencies and frustrations would be solved simply by implementing Ci Anywhere. 

Our expert consultants were involved in developing dashboards and reports, which enabled self-service and anytime access to financial information. We also focused our efforts on budgeting and forecasting functions within Ci Anywhere, including fixed assets, bank reconciliation and general ledger upgrades.

To ensure a successful rollout of Ci Anywhere, we developed and delivered detailed staff training, ensuring everyone was supported and empowered during the system transition.

Jenny Livschitz, Group Chief Financial Officer at Hutt City Council had a few words to share about the project:

“In 2021, with capacity constraints being experienced throughout the TechnologyOne consultant sector, Hutt City Council (Council) was excited about exploring the potential of working completely remotely with offshore consultants. Council was embarking on its Go Digital Programme across the whole business, and the Finance System Refresh project was a corporate foundation project. 

“Lánluas and Council came together under a Master Agreement in October 2021, and from there a strong collaborative, but entirely remote, relationship developed.  From initial workshops and design in early 2022, through to the go-live of a new chart of accounts and other CiA functionality, Lánluas consultants guided Council to deliver tech solutions that made life easier for finance customers, while adopting best practice approaches. Like any major implementation, issues were encountered along the way, but we found that Lánluas was able to rise to all the challenges, so nothing was missed on the year-long journey. 

There are numerous end benefits for Council but two key ones stand out: our users are able to get greater relevant financial information faster; and Council is also leveraging its existing investment in TechnologyOne in smarter, more cost-efficient ways. We recommend any potential client looking for professional, knowledgeable and technological improvements to their TechnologyOne platform, to consider partnering with Lánluas.”

The final outcome

The days of struggling to access and manage financial information at Hutt City Council are now over. Employees can now access Ci Anywhere anytime from anywhere to review and track their financial information.

The Hutt City Council finance system refresh and Ci Anywhere upgrade has immensely benefited the business:

• It has improved reporting capability, offering greater visibility of data in one place;
• It has transformed manual processes into more streamlined automations; and
• It has contributed to ease of decision making, offering a new budgeting model to track spend against actual.

For Council workers, this means less frustrating, manual work, and more intuitive, automated processes. For Council constituents, it means faster resolution of financial matters and a more efficient, streamlined local council service.

Need help improving your enterprise’s systems with minimal disruption to day-to-day operations? Contact Lánluas to discuss how we can help.