CASE STUDY [LOCAL GOVERNMENT] Taupo District Council

Transcription

1 CASE STUDY [LOCAL GOVERNMENT]

2 has three main towns, Taupo, Turangi and Mangakino with a collective population of about 32,500 people. Improving council processes is all about understanding how you work today, and figuring out better ways of doing it tomorrow. This is why district councils with effective process management systems can adapt to legislative changes and respond quicker to ratepayers than those that don t. According to Jamie Dale, total quality manager for, the key to successful process Business Benefits Complex processes, simplified Intuitive platform minimizes training Single repository for all information saves time Engaged teams that take accountability Life in a local government bureaucracy is inherently complex enough without another layer of complexity being introduced in the form of messy processes and procedures. management is keeping it simple. The only problem with this, according to Dale, is that because many council processes involve a large number of rules, decisions, systems and inputs from different teams, they are perceived to be highly complex. He believes that this perception of complexity can form a barrier to staff effectively understanding, documenting and improving council processes. JAMIE DALE Total Quality Manager

3 Keeping it simple. To start with, Dale tackled the building consent process for historically considered to be amongst the most complex of the council s processes. Dale and his team began by using Promapp s process management software to help them break down the mega consent process into smaller, more manageable chunks. Promapp enabled Dale and his team to describe the consent process as one endto-end flow so teams could understand the context and where they fit into the bigger picture. This method of process mapping allowed staff members to see the forest and the trees a key to process management success. When problems with processes are encountered, Dale says, they are invariably caused by individuals diving straight into the detail and working outwards and upwards rather than looking at the big picture.

4 Using process management software. Dale attributes much of the council s success with process management to their use of Promapp. We had a number of process management software companies come and do presentations for us, Dale says, but in the end we chose Promapp because the software did what we needed it to do and most importantly it is intuitive and simple to use. Simple and software are not two words usually used in the same sentence, but Dale says Promapp is so easy to use that employees can literally be trained on it in half an hour. This is why Promapp training sessions focus more on the methodology of process mapping than they do on operating the software itself. The advice Promapp trainers offer to staff is simple: Give your process map the whiteboard test. If the process appears more complex than what you would draw on a whiteboard to explain it to a new staff member, then there may be too much information. Simple and software are not two words usually used in the same sentence, but Dale says Promapp is so easy to use that employees can literally be trained on it in half an hour. JAMIE DALE Total Quality Manager

5 Getting staff on board with process management. I worked as a process management consultant for 10 years before starting Promapp, says Ivan Seselj, CEO and founder of Promapp. I ve been involved in big process improvement projects for companies like British Airways, and almost without exception we would come back a few years later and no one was referring to the processes we had developed. I knew if process management software was ever going to work it had to be simple and easy for staff to use on a regular basis. Seselj says people often go into Promapp training sessions thinking: Processes? Too hard. But focusing on simple methodologies behind process mapping means staff can leave thinking: I can actually do this. Milner says Promapp provides the FNDC records management system project with a single repository for processes that is easy to access and allows staff to print off process paperwork in a user-friendly format for review, confirmation and sign-off. The fact that Promapp is easy for people to use means Sue and her team saved considerable time in training staff and pulling together our processes. What Dale and Milner have proven is that when process management software is easy to use, staff will use it. Dale says staff members want to use Promapp and that they are the ones driving its implementation. This is what Sue Milner from Far North District Council (FNDC) found when her team began using Promapp to organize their records management system. The staff now have ownership of their processes and responsibility for keeping them up to date. Mapping procedures and keeping them up to date is now very much a part of what we do. JAMIE DALE Total Quality Manager

6 About Promapp At Promapp, we believe that expressing and managing process knowledge simply is crucial to sustaining an ongoing culture of process improvement. With Promapp s intuitive cloud-based BPM software, used by hundreds of organizations worldwide, anyone can create, navigate and change business processes. Sign up for a 30-day free trial or join an intro webinar to see Promapp in action. Connect with us. promapp.com AUCKLAND SYDNEY MELBOURNE Eden 3, 16 Normanby Road Mt Eden Auckland 1024 New Zealand T 0800 PROMAPP T Martin Place, Level 14 Sydney NSW 2000 Australia T T Bourke Street, Level 2 Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia T AUSTIN SAN FRANCISCO LONDON Domain Blvd 3rd Floor Austin TX United States T T + 1 (512) Embarcadero Center 8th Floor San Francisco CA, United States T T +1 (415) Waterhouse Square 138 Holborn London EC1N 2SW United Kingdom T T +44 (2)