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Purpose-built search engine helps ferret out the facts to ensure good corporate governance at NSW Council

Announcement posted by Infotech Marketing & Communications Pty Ltd 12 Sep 2013

Local government deploys search engine to underpin corporate governance

The ability of a purpose-built search engine to find and deliver an electronic “package” of documents to meet a range of information needs is proving to be the icing on the corporate governance cake for one of NSW’s oldest councils.

 

Randwick Council in suburban Sydney got its first taste of the productivity benefits of streamlined search technology when, in 2008, it became one of the first councils to adopt iPlatinum’s WebWombat, a purpose-built search engine for local government.

 

But this raised a major question: once the information was located in any of a number of data repositories how could it be collated in a readily accessible electronic format to be made available to those who needed it for such things as formalised GIPA and subpoena or court-related requests.

 

It followed therefore when iPlatinum recently introduced iFerret, the successor to WebWombat, that Randwick was keen to see if it could secure further productivity gains in the area of corporate governance. 

 

The Council’s Manager Administrative Services, David Kelly explains.

 

“They are not uncommon problems reported to any council call centres: the damaged footpath which results in someone falling and sustaining an injury or a tree in a public space that drops a large limb and damages private property.

 

“If such incidents are consequential enough they will set in train a search for information stored across numerous data repositories. That information may be required to satisfy insurance claims, assemble the facts for subpoenas in judicial proceedings or in some instances, respond to Government Information (Public Access) information requests.

 

“It’s information to help ensure good corporate governance,” Mr. Kelly says.

 

iFerret has not only solved a number of problems previously identified by Randwick in locating all relevant information but a new function is delivering far greater productivity. The Managed Results Set enables the user to prepare a “package” of documents in an electronic form to address such things as formalised GIPA and subpoena or court-related requests. The solution allows the creation of a narrative for the document package, as well as the ability to store the result electronically for future reference.

 

Randwick’s Access to Information officer, Gina Garios, says a typical example of the use of iFerret is one related to an insurance claim for an injury sustained when a shopper tripped on damaged pavement in a retail precinct. This incident resulted in more than 120 files comprising PDF, TIF and JPGs of images and documents produced for use within the Council as well as with external parties. 

 

Council insurance officer Stacey Jeffries said of the claim related to the damaged footpath “it took between two and three hours to search through everything related to the footpath on the particular road so I could be sure I captured all relevant documents.

 

“For insurance purposes however, the real benefit of doing this kind of search comes with use of the Managed Result Set. It means that all documents can be placed into a folder and then quickly sent to the relevant parties, either legal advisors or insurers,” she said.

 

Previously staff would have had to undertake separate searches across four separate Council applications but they would still be unable to see documents located on public network drives or in the Council’s email system.

Today iFerret is deployed to search across Randwick’s TRIM document management system, PATHWAY land information system, customer request management system as well as email applications and its network environment.

iPlatinum managing director Trevor Wilson says iFerret represents a quantum improvement in search technology because of functions such as OCR support, synonyms, duplicate documents recognition and user configurations of ’administrator’ and ‘super user’.

About Randwick Council

One of the first local government areas to be proclaimed in NSW, Randwick today is a busy Council. Its population of almost 140,000 people lives in a number of suburbs to the south east of the Sydney CBD. Substantially residential as well as home to major education, medical and sporting facilities, its beachside suburbs also attract large numbers of visitors. 

 

About iPlatinum

iPlatinum is an IT services and solutions provider focusing on specialist consulting, executive information, eBusiness and enterprise integration. The design, development and deployment of iFerret draw on iPlatinum’s lengthy history of delivering innovative information solutions to Australian local government authorities. The company was formed in 2001. To find out more please visit www.iplatinum.com.au,