Australian City Council becomes first to move to the cloud with Infor Pathway UX
About this extraordinary Australian City
One of the world's most livable cities, this Australian community has more than one million residents. The City Council is a Local Government authority responsible for providing a wide range of public sector services, policies, and programs. Its customers rely on this extraordinary City to deliver essential services and facilities that build a strong, vibrant community and improve quality of life.
This progressive City Council employs about 900 people to serve its customers. The Council staff works to support the Government's vision of making this City a great place to be, whether as a resident, student, or visitor. To help the Council support open and transparent service delivery, they began using Infor's Pathway Local Government software 25 years ago. At that time, Pathway was an on-premises solution and served the Council well in their goal to provide excellent services to its customers, remain compliant with legislative obligations, and collect payments.
We have achieved a few milestones alongside the Infor team, including first Pathway Council in 1998 and the first Council to move wholly to UX in June 2022. More recently, we are the first Council to the cloud with Pathway UX.
The opportunity
Over the years, this progressive Council realised the need to embrace modern, cloud technology, designed to meet the need of a State Governmental agency. They recognised that performance improvements would greatly assist them in their ability to deliver exceptional services to its customers. Additionally, a move to the cloud would enable them to always be on the latest version of the Pathway solution and take advantage of new functionality.
Another driver to upgrade was the Council had staff completing daily tasks on different versions of the Pathway interface, creating a disjointed experience. The Council had an excellent relationship with Infor and knew they wanted to continue working with the Infor team as a technology partner. That's when the IT department decided to move forward with an upgrade to the cloud with Infor OS® and a Council-wide adoption of Pathway UX.
The Council's lead project manager noted, “We have achieved a few milestones alongside the Infor team, including first Pathway Council in 1998 and the first Council to move wholly to UX in June 2022. More recently, we are the first Council to the cloud with Pathway UX.”
Challenges
1
Council operations were backrunning on a system that was always a few releases behind.
2
Outdated technology was hampering performance and making it more difficult to deliver service excellence.
3
Council staff were running disparate versions of the interface which created a disjointed experience.
Solutions
1
Adoption of cloud technology ensures Council system is always up to date and staff can benefit from all the functionality Pathway offers.
2
Upgrade to modern technology and UX built on best practices enhances performance and ensures Council can meet its goals.
3
Council-wide usage of Pathway UX provides unified version control and continuity across the organisation.
The solution
This progressive Council is now completely live using the new Pathway UX interface and has successfully transitioned from the on-premise solution to SaaS. Since this upgrade was more than a "lift and shift", the Council project team broke down the project implementation into three phases:
- UX upgrade on-premises
- Integrations work which was an IT-only project
- Transition to the cloud
The lead project manager recalled, "We have definitely faced some challenges along the way. Notably, in January 2021, our Council undertook a huge organisation realignment which resulted in changes to roles and loss of some knowledge. When we first commenced the project, it was an IT-led project." The project team quickly recognised they needed Pathway champions who were key users across the Council to assist throughout the project.
The Council's original plan was to move to UX and the cloud at the same time. However, within a couple of days, they realised that the scope was too large to undertake all at once. That's when they decided to use the three-phase approach.
"We split the project into three streams which gave us more time to get things right... We inducted three super champions into the project team. These champions are subject matter experts from the business and they filled the gap between IM team and the end users. The super champions were a game changer," said the project team leader.
The super champions emboldened the Council project team to revamp user acceptance training (UAT) and scoped training from the business side, in alignment with what was practical to the end users.
Infor's team was on hand every step of the way to ensure the success of the Council's upgrade project. The Council and Infor worked together to build a true partnership and it was indeed a collaborative project to work through the upgrade from UAT training to go-live, hypercare and post-go-live success. The lead project manager recalled, "As with most projects, the go-live commenced over the weekend. We ensured we had all the resources ready and Infor was aware of our run book and had staff on hand to assist if needed. We had Infor consultants on site [along with our project team] which really helped to triage matters and come up with solutions."
After the go-live, this progressive Council found that the hypercare meetings were critical for their continued success. On the Council side, it was helpful to understand what Infor needed to know when end users needed to report faults or defects. It was equally important to have their super champions on hand since they know the business processes better than IT staff. While the bulk of the work occurred in the migration and integration activities, end users enjoyed an effectively seamless experience.
Progressive City Council has its eye on the future
With the launch of Pathway UX, the Council now has all staff using the same interface to create continuity among employees and all key corporate systems have unified version control. A single interface for Council staff keeps the mobilised workforce connected to real-time data so they can interact in the field and access important workflow when they’re on the go.
This progressive Council continues to leverage Infor Pathway software for State and Local Government to take Council activities and services to the next level. Shortly after the upgrade go-live, the Council project team continued its migration work of reports from the on-premises database to the cloud. Additionally, the Council expanded Pathway’s footprint within its organisation when it adopted the Accounts Receivable module.
The future is bright for this progressive City Council. Building on the stability and scalability that Infor Pathway provides, Council staff can focus on delivering its vision to ensure this Australian City is always a great place to be.
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