Marlborough District Council’s award-winning digital services

The Challenge

The Council manually processed building consent and approvals for more than 3,000 inspections annually, which compromised timeliness and data quality. It needed a new inspection and booking solution, as well as a mobile field capture application, to increase efficiency, transparency and flexibility.

The Datacom Difference

Datacom had already proved its promise to Marlborough District Council in 2013 when it implemented Online Services for LIM and employment applications. Mobile Capture can deliver smart forms to mobile devices and enables inspectors to work offline and synchronise data to automate back-office tasks.

With an Internet connection, inspectors can now instantly update records and property owners and builders have immediate access to inspection details via the council’s website. Administrators can assign jobs by seeing availability and routes on the same screen via Google Maps. Email and SMS inspection reminders have become invaluable to customers.

The project was implemented in parallel with a similar roll-out for Palmerston North City Council. The collaborative engagement between both councils to share processes has ensured consistent outcomes.

Results

The implementation of Mobile Capture meant that inspectors were able to work more efficiently and provide faster services to the community. Inspectors’ administration time was significantly reduced and the booking time for inspections went from 3.5 days to 1-2 days, resulting in improved satisfaction for both inspectors and customers.

There was also a significant improvement in the quality of data being captured. The end-to-end inspection process was streamlined, ensuring all required information is captured, documented and fully auditable. During a Building Consents Authority (BCA) accreditation audit, technical experts were extremely impressed with the resulting inspection notes.

As a result of the successful project, the Association of Local Government Information Management (ALGIM) awarded the Council the 2014 Web and Digital Project of the Year.

“We were impressed with Datacom’s project and development team throughout. The way they worked in partnership towards the end goal was particularly impressive.”
Stacey Young, CIO, Marlborough District Council

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