THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE
More householders than ever are eligible for a rates rebate as a result of the Government increasing the rates rebate threshold from $7,400 to $20,000 on 1 July 2006. Treasury forecasted a 40% increase in applications for the $500 rates rebate from their local council. The realisation hit home that the existing paper based application system using Microsoft Access would not be equal to the task. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) began looking for a partner to implement a council facing electronic management system that could deliver on many fronts - efficiency in data capture and processing, data integrity, detailed reporting and analysis and also prove to be simple and intuitive for over 73 councils with varying degrees of exposure to IT systems.
THE PAIN
The existing paper based rates rebate system would be crushed under projected increased volume of applications. A council facing web based system was needed within an extremely tight timeframe to effectively manage and support the new rates rebate.
"The pressure of the numbers was telling. We needed to swiftly move from a paper-based system that was staff intensive with manual entry, and often contained incomplete information. The process needed to become streamlined in terms of reimbursement to councils and for the Government to forecast for the future. An electronic management system was clearly the way forward." Karun Shenoy, Project Manager - Rates Rebates, DIA
Electronic Rates Management System (ERMS) Opens the Door
Efficient reimbursement is the measure of the system's success. Householders expect to be reimbursed promptly with their $500 rebate from councils, who in turn require streamlined reimbursement from local government authorities. The new electronic pathway needed to ensure this efficiency, and to provide greater reporting mechanisms at the same time. DIA appointed Intergen and embarked on a very iterative approach, prioritising deliverables that were important for councils to see.
According to Karun Shenoy, their engagement of Intergen was made with a good level of confidence, knowing they were well up to play on transactional web based systems and could show a significant history of local government partnering. He says Intergen worked out the project requirements in a very professional and "agile" manner given the extremely tight timeframe.
THE GAIN
Even with the number of applications well above forecast, ERMS supports councils to quickly provide low income households with their much needed rates rebate, while in turn receiving streamlined reimbursement from the Government.
Project Challenges
Building a workflow system that would draw approval from many different councils with varying levels of IT readiness - many with their own rates rebate systems, others still paper based - meant that the new system needed to be a highly usable application. It proved to be the case, being robust, reliable and flexible. Councils and Territorial Authorities are fully informed and have a process that can cope with extreme peak volumes with no increase in staffing requirements.
Feedback from Christchurch City Council (CCC) has been that they are pleased with the system and the ability it gives DIA to process claims quickly and efficiently.
Debbie Roberts, CCC Manager comments "… everything is going well and our Rates team are pleased with their ability to handle the number of applications and even more pleased with the timeframe for payments from the DIA."
An Avalanche of Applications
After six week in operation, 60,000 applications totaling $17 million were processed. ERMS is more than keeping pace, with councils receiving reimbursement within a week compared to several weeks in the past. There is now complete visibility throughout the footprint, validation is easier, and this new information process ensures better forecasting, clearer analysis, and means less potential for fraudulent claims.