Tamworth Regional Council Bolsters Online Services With Elcom

<p>Tamworth Regional Council (www.tamworth.nsw.gov.au) is rebuilding its website with the help of Sydney-based enterprise content management company Elcom in an effort to improve its service delivery and offer better information resources to its customers.</p>
<p>Using Elcom’s CommunityManager.NET development environment, the new website will allow for certain services – such as rate payments – to be made available online in the future. It will also simplify the process of publishing and retrieving information, allowing multiple personnel that aren’t familiar with web publishing or HTML to publish content that adheres to the design and formatting guidelines set out by the Council’s internet committee.</p>
<p>“Our website has grown organically over the years, to the point where finding specific information can be difficult,” says Mark Crompton, Finance and IT Manager, Tamworth Regional Council. “Coupled with the fact that the systems running our website have reached the end of their lifecycle, we had a ‘perfect storm’ of reasons to completely rebuild our web presence.</p>
<p>“At the same time, we wanted to create a platform that will serve the Council well into the future, and allow us to innovate with new online services as the need arises,” says Crompton. “As a regional council covering more than 9,600 square kilometres and a population in excess of 53,000, making it easier for customers that live hundreds of kilometres away from regional centres to access information and basic services online can make a major difference to their lives.”</p>
<p>The Council’s Internet Working Group chose Elcom from a group of five shortlisted vendors following an intensive research and qualification process. According to Crompton, Elcom’s modular platform offered features the Council needed today, and made it particularly easy for dozens of staff to publish content without having prior web development training.</p>
<p>“Elcom’s software also makes it easy for us to generate comprehensive reports that track website usage,” he says. “Specifically it will allow us to see the most popular – and least popular – web pages, and to see at a glance which pages have been updated in a predetermined period, to help us better comply with information access regulations.”</p>
<p>Elcom founder and CEO John Anstey says some of the search technology developed for CommunityManager.NET will be particularly useful in a local council environment.</p>
<p>“Users often search for information using their own terminology, which could be different from how it’s referenced on a website,” he says. “For example, a user might enter the term ‘tip’ in a search for information on rubbish collection, but the information could be published using the term ‘landfill’. The intelligent taxonomy technology we’re using allows Tamworth to specify multiple instances of words that refer to the same topic, or range of topics, so that the relevant information is returned to the user at the first search.</p>
<p>“This may seem like a simple idea, but in reality it makes a huge difference to the usability – and hence utility – of a website, and has knock-on implications in the number of enquiries and service calls made to council staff.”</p>
<p>Crompton says the combination of better accessibility, easier and more secure publishing, and improvements to customer service will stand the Council in good stead to make a number of new services available online, as usage increases.</p>
<p>“For one thing it will give our IT staff more time to focus on their core competencies, improving the web platform and worrying less about content and formatting. It will also give us the time to focus on new projects, like a council-wide intranet, that will further improve our internal communications and hence service delivery back to our customers.”</p>
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<p>About Elcom</p>
<p>Founded in 1996 with the vision of developing customisable internet software products and solutions that could be integrated into any organisation, Elcom is today one of Australia's leading and most prolific web application development companies.</p>
<p>Elcom develops enterprise content management systems (ECMS) and Web Applications for secure Internet, extranet and intranet sites. Elcom’s Web Applications are built on the CommunityManager.NET Platform, which enables customers to take advantage of the Internet to build websites, portals, B2B and B2C applications. Current Web Applications include WebManager.NET, IntranetManager.NET, PartnerPortal.NET, TrainingManager.NET, InductionManager.NET, EnterpriseSearch.NET, GovernmentPortal.NET and eCommerceManager.NET.</p>
<p>Elcom’s customers include some of the largest blue-chip names in the automotive, retail, property development, healthcare, government and education sectors in Australia. For more information visit www.elcom.com.au or call 1300 435 266.</p>

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