Utilisation of ePathway

Wollongong City Council

Innovation of Excellence Winner 2015

About Wollongong

• "Woollungah" is the Aboriginal

name for Wollongong

• Located in NSW’s Illawarra Region

• Approximately 80km south of

Sydney

• Size of LGA is 714 square kilometres

• Bordered the Royal National Park

to the North and Lake Illawarra to

the South

• Current population of 207,084

• Approximately 80,000 rate payers

Overview

ePathway Utilisation and Support

Team

Online Demand

Benefits of ePathwayOpportunity for Process

Improvements

What has been delivered at WCC

Creative Thinking

Reaping the Benefits

ePathway Utilisation and Support Team

• Wollongong City Council implemented ePathway in January 2005.

• Recognised for our utilisation of ePathway – 24 new transaction types

• The primary ePathway focus for Wollongong is to:

Deliver online forms and payment options

Meet increasing customer demand

Improve on internal process efficiencies.

• The Land and Assets Systems Support team (LASS) provides system

support and development to over 800 users in Pathway and IPS solutions

at Wollongong Council.

Online Demand

• Expectations from our customers to transact online isincreasing.

• ePathway is an internet-enabled customer self-serviceinterface for online customers of local authorities.

• Enables customers to lodge requests, make payments via asecure payment gateway.

• Allows staff to accept, process and respond to customerrequests internally using Pathway.

• Transaction types implemented in ePathway at WollongongCity Council has tripled within the past 18 months due tocustomer and staff demand.

Benefits of ePathway

• A live transaction system

Up-to-date data, not an overnight dump

Secure payment gateway direct to Pathway receipting

Instant email confirmation and tax receipt to customer

• Ability to upload attachments

• Minimal behind-the-scenes

• Customisable to match Council’s web look

Opportunity for Process Improvements

• Project Management, Business Analyst and technicaldatabase Skills developed in the LASS team are providing aholistic approach to project implementation.

• Staff engagement from development phase through toimplementation and ongoing support

• Continuous Improvement – using lessons learnt to refinefuture projects.

• Minimal Change Management issues – Buy-in from staff

• Collaboration with other system administrators andprofessionals to produce successful outcomes

• Effective Scope Management

Filming

Applications

Swimming Pool Compliance

Certificates

Expression of

Interest for

Festival Stalls

Sculpture

AwardsFinancial Grants

Interpreter

Services BookingsOnline PaymentsEvent ApplicationsConference

RegistrationsOutdoor Restaurants

What has been delivered?

3

Online Transactions Trend

136%

Increase online

transactions

2.7m“My Payments”

15/16 FY

53K

Web hits

P/Mth

3

Online Lodgement

Development Applications

35%

Interpreter Service bookings,

Filming and Major Event

Applications

100%

90%

• Calculation of fees online

• Request for payment

• Use of the ‘My Payments’

function

Creative Thinking

My Payments

Receipting

HTML email

• Online emails previously restricted to Plain text only.

• In the Pathway 3.09 release, HTML confirmation emails

were able to be sent from ePathway modules.

Alternate Use of ‘Applications General Enquiry’

• Council offers an interpreter broker service to the public and

agencies

• Interpreters and Agencies can view bookings online using

Stakeholder function

• Service incurs fee: How are cancellations, notifications and

refunds are managed?

Interpreter Services Cancellation Process

• Reports used to easily track registrations including;

Payment details

Monitor registration numbers daily

Keep track of numbers attending preferred sessions

and dinner selections

Create attendance lists and dinner seating

arrangements

• Ongoing yearly events need only be set up once and

current set up can be kept for future use.

Reporting and Internal process improvements

Customer

Service

Viva

Staff

Customer

Previous Process

Viva

Staff

Customer

Using ePathway

Reaping the Benefits

• Utilising ePathway and Pathway modules we are already

licensed for, provides high return of investment

• Cost of staff resources within our operational budgets.

• Efficiencies to processes has created greater staff and

customer satisfaction

• More ownership over their processes

• A shift in paradigms has changed staff’s mindset

• Encouraging innovation

Questions?