Home-grown Australian software has notched up another win, with the Mildura Rural City Council (MRCC) selecting Australian-owned software vendor Merit to provide its CRM software package.
While the dollar terms of the contract are yet to be released, Merit and MRCC have confirmed the deal includes site licensing, maintenance and support under a self-renewing licence agreement which will remain in place unless the council cancels the contract. The council also purchased a wireless package.
Merit, which tendered at the beginning of 2005, is citing its existing foothold in the Victorian local government space as an attractive feature for both MRCC and other local governments.
Mildura, which has 600 council employees, is geographically the largest municipality in Victoria, covering 22,330 square kilometers.
Merit managing director Campbell Angus said, "The product is very effective at integrating with systems in other councils - that is the strongest skill set. [It is] built around local government solutions which we have rolled out over the last nine years around Victoria - and [meets] the bulk of council needs," Angus said.
Apart from managing relations with customers, MRCC's IT upgrade strategy also includes the implementation of a number wireless solutions so that council can pull down and update information on the fly.
According to Angus, wireless access is now an important IT function for many council field personnel including healthcare workers, road access staff and parking inspectors who will access MRCC's core systems remotely in real time.
The council currently uses Fujitsu's 2000Plus Rates & Property System, Tower Software's electronic document management system TRIM and Exponare by MapInfo for GIS.
Implementation of the MRCC project is expected to be complete by September 2005.
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.