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?