Toowoomba Regional Council digitises manual processes

The Toowoomba Regional Council is upgrading its technology capabilities, adopting workflow automation to digitise some services.

The Queensland council has installed the Boomi platform to replace manual point-to-point integrations that connect applications such as the council’s electronic document management system; ERP software; people, property, and regulatory software; property development portal, smart parking system, and waste services system.

The council is also set to use Boomi’s Flow workflow automation solution that will introduce such as direct debit requests for residents and digital signing.

At present, people are required to download, sign, and scan paper-based requests with council staff manually managing requests.

Toowoomba Regional Council's senior integration developer Mark Godfrey said that “community services must complement the digital lives of locals.”

“They need to be timely and accessible by residents, while easily maintained by council staff.

“We sought to implement a data framework that would create a common understanding of what’s happening across the council so processes can happen without fuss, and enable us to respond to the community faster and reduce organisational risk,” Godfrey said.

He said in the past Toowoomba residents reported missing documents “which would prompt the IT team to investigate and manually amend systems – this would take hours.

“Now, we’re no longer allowing antiquated processes to impact our engagement with residents, nor allowing it to hinder our governance,” he said.

He said the new platform the council can meet state government requirements “by ensuring development documents are available for public consumption.”

“At the same time, we are gaining a better understanding of how residents interact with us.

"From capturing metrics on public requests to issuing alerts, we’re able to respond to documentation demands and problems in real-time.

“This gives our technology improvements meaning, it's not just advancement in the IT room, it’s also advancement for people and processes.”

The move comes as the council undergoes a water infrastructure refresh program that will see it install 64,000 homes and businesses with smart meters and use gathered data to inform service delivery.

Godfrey said the smart meter work will take place over three years; Boomi will be used to extract data and share it with other systems, both council and third-party.