Good information management is the driving force that powers government agencies to efficiently make informed decisions and deliver better services to their constituents. Despite the advanced digital information management systems available now, many Australian councils still need help with the volume and diversity of records they handle. They must contend with managing data in outdated digital formats that are sometimes even saved in their employees’ shared personal drives.
In some cases where a council uses a separate records management and collaboration system, users often find switching between different apps for filing compliance and for collaborating on documents a time-consuming and inconvenient experience. Hence, it is hard to enforce user adoption and stay compliant.
If this scenario is all too familiar, it may be time to reevaluate how your council manages its information and consider how it can be improved.
How can your council better manage information?
The answer lies partly in the technology investments you’ve already made. Suppose you are one of the many councils across Australia that invested in Microsoft 365. In that case, you can leverage SharePoint and Teams to manage documents, create workflows and automation, keep an audit trail of changes made, and secure your data. These Microsoft 365 applications already do a splendid job with their out-of-the-box functionalities for productivity and collaboration. But your council can further harness its capabilities to enable better records management and stay compliant while still using the familiar tools your employees already use and love by adding the iWorkplace product; achieve the best of both worlds in one.
iWorkplace is an information management and compliance solution from Information Leadership and is used by many organisations including over half of New Zealand's local councils. Professional Advantage is now providing a local presence in Australia in partnership with Information Leadership for the delivery and ongoing support of this Microsoft 365 game-changing product.
This may be the first time you’ve heard of this solution, so let us introduce you to it.
iWorkplace is a set of apps and frameworks that run on Microsoft 365 that helps compliance-focused organisations meet their information regulatory obligations at scale, ensuring they are up to Australian data privacy and information standards. It enables councils to deliver a consistent, easy-to-manage, and easy-to-use workspace for their users by providing a unified spot within Microsoft 365 to file content, automatically ensure compliance, removing the age-old battle between compliance needs and user experience.
Access this resource to watch an on-demand demo of the iWorkplace apps.
Check out how iWorkplace can help you meet your council’s information management and compliance requirements:
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Autoclassification of metadata.
Your employees no longer have to manually apply the necessary metadata or guess what classification to use for a record. The Smart Metadata in iWorkplace automatically applies the required metadata based on a folder or subfolder where the file is located. If your user inadvertently changes the metadata, the Autofixer in iWorkplace refreshes the metadata back to its proper classification.
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Consistent digital workspace.
The scenario where your users must file and find records in one location and then collaborate on them in another is typically the “root of all records management evil”. Bad user experience leads to non-compliance with the use of unapproved apps to save and store files, and the duplication of records.
With iWorkplace, you can deliver a consistent digital workspace by having a single place to file things and collaborate using tools in Microsoft 365 that your users are already familiar with such as Teams and SharePoint. Combined with our proven approach to change management, you can ensure your users have the support they need to adopt the new system.
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Ensure compliance.
Councils are mandated by law to retain different types of records for a certain time period before they can be lawfully disposed of. The retention period varies depending on the nature of the record and its legal, financial, or historical significance. Keeping track of when records need to be disposed of can be tricky, but not with Smart Records in iWorkplace.
Smart Records can help your council’s information managers quickly set up retention and sensitivity labels and disposal rules spanning document libraries. This ensures compliance from an operational and legal standpoint, as well as timely, systematic disposal of records.
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Practical case file management.
Case files are any set of records that are repeatable such as personnel files, jobs, assets, or meetings. Typically, records managers need to become SharePoint Administrators to create and update these case files, but your power users don’t really need administrator permissions to do their jobs.
With iWorkplace’s Smart Case Files, you can allow power users to create and update case files without providing administrator rights within SharePoint, offering additional security for your council’s data.
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Detailed information about a property.
Has your helpdesk ever received an enquiry asking for detailed information about a property? When you did, did it take hours or days to respond and provide the information your constituent needed?
How about shortening your response time to mere seconds? Yes, it’s possible with a unified view of information right within SharePoint via iWorkplace’s Property Search app. It brings all the information from the ERP. It shows all resource consent for a specific property—from when the application was created, when and by whom the decision was made, reporting, monitoring, and even where the property is located via Bing Maps.
If that’s not enough, you can also use iWorkplace’s Knowledgebase for quick answers to various topics your council typically encounters.
iWorkplace makes it easy and cost-effective for your council to conform to information protection and compliance standards, all in a single, consistent digital workspace within Microsoft 365.
Discover why over half of New Zealand’s councils choose iWorkplace for their information management and compliance needs. Schedule your free demo today to learn more!
