Levelling up councils through digitisation
There is a growing need to get more done with less, and this is especially true for local government organisations. The digitisation of government services is one potential avenue for levelling up councils. It makes sense, as cloud computing and other advances in tech have improved productivity while reducing costs and administrative bottlenecks.
In fact, the McKinsey Center for Government estimates that these increases in efficiency could be the key to saving $3.5 trillion across the public sector globally. But what core local government processes should be streamlined first? And what impact will such changes have on your constituents? Let’s dig deeper into both these questions to unlock the full potential of local government.
Processes that local government must digitise
Local governments are looking to elevate their program and project management. This means bringing projects to life faster, and ensuring they achieve their stated goals efficiently. At the same time, they are looking to improve the ways they report on the outcomes of these initiatives. Therefore, program reporting tools are essential as administrators attempt to align individual project outcomes with broader government programs and policy. A fully featured project lifecycle management system enables this process through the collection of performance data. Project performance data is then measured and evaluated against local government goals, to clearly illustrate the impact of council programs back to stakeholders.
This once error-prone process is seamless for organisations that have transitioned from paper-based and desktop systems, to cloud-based lifecycle management software. By improving the connections between organisations and individuals throughout the lifecycle, project reporting is more collaborative, transparent, and consistent. This is increasingly important as constituents grow more concerned with public spending. Digitisation enhances citizen engagement, collaboration, and transparency throughout the lifecycle – leading to more thorough and impactful project reports. For a refresher on how public sector impact reporting improves stakeholder relationships click here.
What levelling up councils looks like in action
Grant funding is one of the most practical applications of dedicated project lifecycle management software for local councils. This is a core area in which the public relies upon high quality, rapid and reliable public service delivery – as showcased by recent natural disasters. Here are some key features to look for in a high-quality lifecycle management solution:
- A fully featured application portal – improves access and citizen engagement, making it easier for constituents and community groups to find funding and submit their applications, project update requests and reports on how funds are being spent
- A streamlined online assessment process – employing workflows that are accessible to internal and external stakeholders to reduce bottlenecks while ensuring fairness with configurable eligibility and assessment criteria that ensure projects benefit the community .
- An effective client reporting and acquittal system – requests updates directly from constituents to see how spending tracks against grant outcomes, with fully searchable and filterable data to easily share specific outcome data with stakeholders.
Test these features for yourself with free access to the Enquire Online Program, Fund and Grant Management System for Local Government
Levelling up councils also means levelling up their constituents by ensuring that the best projects receive continuous funding. By providing funds to the projects with proven results, councils enable community outcomes to flourish and scale. This means software must allow councils to easily show stakeholders the full impact of their community funding. Taken together, the benefits are mutual and ultimately ensure more transparent, collaborative, and efficient public service delivery.
Additional benefits for local government staff using a project lifecycle management software solution
include:
- greater collaboration and efficiency using template-based document generation, making it easy to create, store, share and access contracts, statements of work and other essential documentation for your local government processes.
- cloud-based access – meaning teams can access documents and data at the same time from anywhere they connect to the internet, including their mobile web browser – gone are the days of isolated desktop applications.
- notification systems to keep contact between internal and external stakeholders consistent, structured and streamlined, with templated emails, alerts, and messages.
- payment and contract milestones with cost linking to streamline the scheduling of your funded projects while maintaining clear oversight on how, where, and why funds are being spent.
- a full suite of reporting features to measure objectives with configurable indicators to sort and filter based on project needs; export and visualise data to gain meaningful insights; and easily share outcomes with stakeholders.
Are you looking to level up your council or community group?
Enquire has been improving Australian and New Zealand government productivity in the grant, project, and program management space for almost two decades. Through Enquire, we are helping break down the barriers between governments and their constituents for a more open and efficient public service. Click here for a free tour of some of the top features that are driving this transparency, collaboration and inclusion, or download this one-pager to share the benefits of the Enquire solution with your team.
We’ve also enabled the non-profit community groups and foundations that work in tandem with these government organisations to enhance their service delivery and get more done with less. Watch the video below to see how we helped Asia’s largest social investor network streamline their grant and investment management.
