Mobile capture enables ‘on the go’ services for Waimakariri District Council

Waimakariri District Council (WDC) employees work across a large geographic area and there is a significant demand for a range of mobile solutions. This includes the digital processing of service requests, inspections, audits, enforcement tasks, asset management and maintenance, as well as health and safety assessments.

Operating across both desk and mobile environments presents a number of challenges to council teams, and when something unexpected happens in the field, their people need to have the right information at hand. Processes at WDC were mainly paper-based, which led to significant operational inefficiencies in capturing, updating and sharing information.

WDC required a mobile system that could work ‘offline’as parts of the Waimakariri district have little to no mobile coverage. WDC wanted to implement a digital mobility framework, which would enable mobile employees to access, process and update information for a range of services in the field via a common platform.

WDC chose Datacom’s Mobile Capture solution to help implement this strategy, positioning it as a core hub for the development of WDC’s mobility based services.

Datacom’s Mobile Capture is a shared Softwareas-a-Service (SaaS) solution, which is able to work collaboratively with other councils across New Zealand. WDC can share services, processes and forms with other councils, thus reducing costs and development time.

A pilot project in 2016 delivered a range of real business benefits via improved productivity, customer service, employee satisfaction and data collection. It also delivered significant savings in both time and money to various departments across WDC.

Phase two of the mobility roll-out started in 2017 with WDC, Gallus Consulting and Datacom teams working collaboratively to deliver a range of new mobile services. These included Greenspace Contract Audits, Hazard and Incident reporting, the deployment of five inspection forms for the ESU team (Hairdresser, Camp Ground, Mortuary, Food Premises, Offensive Trade), and an airport occurrence form.

Phase three of the roll-out will include water unit job management, alcohol licensing inspections, consent monitoring, subdivision auditing, and various small form developments like aquatic testing forms.

Time savings have been a big success story for phase two. Time saved on Greenspace Contract Audits was estimated at 65 days per year, while Lite Forms for Site Audit and Site Inspection have saved around 97 days per year.