Waikato Regional Council upgrades information management systems

Waikato Regional Council has declared a successful move to provide secure collaboration and mobility in its information management systems.

The council, which employs more than 600 people across natural resource management areas such as water, geothermal, soil, air, and coastlines.

The council processes a high volume of project planning documents, environmental reports, contracts and technical specifications, all subject to public records legislation.

It upgraded its information management services to OpenText Content Suite with the aim of managing and governing critical business information, as well as improving the user experience.

According to OpenText, the Waikato Regional Council can search and access the right information at the right time, enabling faster and better decision making.

The council also added OpenText Core Share, to extend collaboration outside of the organisation with its partners and contractors, while offering enterprise-grade security and helping maintain compliance.

"Good information practices are hugely important," comments Waikato Regional Council information management team lead Joanne Bell.

"If we are not offering the functionality within our system, then staff members are going to find ways to work around it," Bell said. "We need to give them the tools they need to do their jobs.

She explains that the new deployment allows users to get the right information at the right time to make the right decision.

Bell continues, "The ability to share information directly from Content Suite using Core Share with our external contractors has been really valuable. With Core Share we can see when external people have viewed documents and what they have done. It gives us much better visibility on who is using our information and how."

Waikato Regional Council has also enabled its field workers to view and interact with content in Content Suite from their mobile device, so they can stay connected and productive when working remotely.

"Powerful content services can be transformative for employee experience and productivity," says OpenText APAC sales VP Albert Nel.

"Equipping their employees with secure digital collaboration tools helps the council maintain productivity and provides a platform for innovation in citizen services.

Waikato Regional states that its vision is 'caring for our place, empowering our people'. "It's about working together to care for the world we live in to make the Waikato region the best it can be, now and for the long term. A region that has a healthy and sustainable environment, a strong economy and communities that are as resilient as they are vibrant.