City of Casey

---

City of Casey partners IT to set benchmark in customer service

Victoria's second largest and fastest growing municipality, the City of Casey, is leading the way in managing the vast array of local government property, rates, finance, building and planning activities following the implementation of the Fujitsu 2000Plus integrated software application suite.

When the City of Casey wanted to replace its financial and property management software with a reliable Y2K-compliant solution, it looked for more than a piece of software that worked - it sought a credible long-term partner with local government expertise to provide it.

The Council had been using a disparate approach that was plagued with difficulties - some parts of the organisation had systems that worked, while others - including the key building and town planning area - had none.

With a 2001/02 budget worth more than $93 million and more than $24 million in capital works set down for 2001, responsible and accurate financial management is essential for the Council - a task facilitated by the integration between 2000Plus' property, rating and financial modules.

The Fujitsu 2000Plus whole-of-business application suite improves the Council's customer service ability by assisting many internal staff teams to support planning and service delivery areas, including property, rates, valuations, finance and administration. The annual rates calculation that previously took days to run is now done overnight. Management can quickly and easily calculate budgets based on various rates scenarios, and match estimated revenue to the spending required to meet the needs of Australia's third fastest-growing city.

The Council's Financial and Property systems includes a database of 60,000 property assessments. Modules for Building and Planning, Rates and Valuations, Community Services and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have been added.

"It was uppermost in our mind that we wanted a product without any hassles, that was going to work and give us the potential to grow with further development over time from a big partner that was going to be around for the long haul," City of Casey Corporate Services Director Geoff Cockram said. "That's why we selected Fujitsu. There was a huge degree of confidence in the people at Fujitsu who clearly knew the local government area well."

As a major user of the Fujitsu 2000Plus technology, which is now installed in 35 local government and utilities around Australia, the City of Casey is working closely with Fujitsu on further product development. One enhancement enabled the Council to become the first in Australia to allow residents to pay rates at Coles supermarkets.

"We needed Fujitsu to make that happen. They ensured payment information is integrated back to the central Fujitsu system, and downloaded into the general ledger so the revenue is recognised. It's a good example of the cooperative approach Fujitsu has given us - they have provided a total, flexible solution that works," Mr Cockram said.

The Fujitsu system is fully integrated with third-party products, protecting the City of Casey's investment in existing technology. It plans to replace many of these products with new 2000Plus modules as they are developed by Fujitsu in collaboration with the Council.

Future enhancements will address issues like rostering for home care, and centralised pre-school enrolments - an important area for Casey, given it provides pre-school places for more pre-school aged children than any other Australian local government area.

"From the outset we took a straightforward, no-nonsense approach," Mr Cockram said. "We needed a system for rates, property, finance, building and planning, that could just go in and work. That was the big driver for us and Fujitsu delivered."