Major accolades for shire
Yarriambiack Shire Council will continue to develop a transformational digital overhaul of its community and business operations after winning national awards for its efforts.
Chief executive Jessie Holmes said council efforts on streamlining operations would now shift from an ‘inward’ to ‘outward’ focus to ensure shire residents and customers would be major beneficiaries of the work.
The Yarriambiack council was the toast of Municipal Association of Victoria Technology Awards for Excellence after clinching two major awards at presentations in Melbourne.
As well as winning a Digital Leadership Achievement of the Year Award category, officials also clinched a Victorian Council of the Year title.
The council was one of six finalists for the digital leadership category based on its Council Information and Community Technology Business Transformation project.
“We took a giant technological leap forward and had a return on investment in less than 18 months,” Ms Holmes said.
“It showed how small councils can be agile and transform while still being financially sustainable.
“These awards recognise the hard work and dedication of staff members who worked on implementing more than a dozen new systems throughout the organisation.
“It is a great success story. Staff met the project with enthusiasm
“We’re now working with other small councils to share what we have implemented and help them with a modern suite of systems” – Jessie Holmes
and diligence. The implementation of the ICT systems has streamlined operations that have revolutionised governance, communications and record-keeping operations.
“We’re now working with other small councils to share what we have implemented and help them with a modern suite of systems.
“The next phase for us is outward focus, which includes everything from updating our website and interacting with customers and the community.
“It’s about maintaining face-toface opportunities and also moving to a situation where every-day people can interact with the council on their terms.
“Again, our staff have done an amazing job with this – they did it while also going about their day-today jobs.
“In the awards we were competing against councils from across Australia and also some large councils.
“The biggest thing for us is that our project was all-encompassing, where many solutions came together, were implemented and imbedded in the organisation.
“We did it across the entire business.”