Gold Coast City Council

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Fujitsu solution streamlines Gold Coast City Council processes

When the Gold Coast and Albert Shire councils merged, the new Gold Coast City Council became the second largest local government authority in Queensland.

With a population of approximately 420,000 people covering more than 1400 square kilometres, and home to some 50,000 registered dogs, the Council faced the daunting task of streamlining ongoing licensing, registration and animal control processes.

Following tender processes, Council selected Fujitsu to assist in the development of tailored software applications that would streamline processes and enhance productivity and service delivery. As Australia's leading tourism destination, the Gold Coast is also home to a massive business community which provides a wide range of services to tourists and locals. Managing the thriving local economy involves complex licensing requirements for everything from the use of advertising signs, footpath dining and touting, to horse-drawn carriages, pedicab permits and processing and issuing busking licences. Each licensing category has its own complexities - there are different requirements and fees based on the size of signs or whether they are neon, or the number of three seat tables in a cafe, for example.

Fujitsu enhanced its existing licensing software to cater for the Gold Coast's needs, developing a flexible system that allows Council to tailor individual licences for individual licensees or sites. The solution manages the process from initial contact through to providing all follow-up and relicensing for the area that generates around $6 million a year to the Council.

The animal registration system, which generates about $1 million in registration revenue every year for Council, was also cumbersome. Anyone who wanted to register three dogs received three registration notices - requiring three times the paperwork by owner and Council.

Fujitsu streamlined the application to allow multiple animals to be registered to each owner. This manages the issuing of tags and facilitates multiple year registrations, delivering better service to the local community and freeing Council staff to work on other tasks.

Fujitsu has been working with the Council in the strong spirit of partnership since 1988 with the provision of a reliable enterprise server environment to host the Council's in-house developed property rating and administration system, CITIPAC. This system continues to act as a central hub for the Council's Property applications. The property and ratings system will eventually be used to manage the world's tallest residential building when the recently-approved development is built on the Gold Coast. Meanwhile, the Fujitsu mainframe has continued to provide an incredibly robust and reliable platform over those many years.