WA Community Development chase content management

Western Australia's Department for Community Development has signed a three-year outsourcing contract with Unisys West for the further development of store-bought CRM and content management software.

The initial contract has an option to extend a further two years and is solely to replace existing information systems with a single integrated system on the government's new client solution, branded Assist, which uses a mixture of Oracles's PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM and Objective's Enterprise Content Management suite on the back-end.

Assist will eventually provide the department's 1700 staff with case file information across the state. Assist executive sponsor Judy Hogben said currently much of the information is stored in several systems that require hard copies to be made across the organization.

"The department's 24-Hour Crisis Care Unit staff will be able to immediately perform a person search and get a single view of the client showing the client's full electronic file history and integrated case notes," Hogben said.

"The new system will strengthen the ability of the department and interrelated agencies to collaborate and share information more efficiently and effectively across the state and help deliver a range of long-term quantifiable benefits to the families and children of Western Australia."

Unisys West CEO Peter Price said the partnership arrangement marks a new phase in the growth and development of the Unisys West business. Unisys West is a joint venture between Unisys and BankWest.

The client information system, Assist, will be implemented across the department's 84 locations in three phases.