You might say that Norfolk Island Regional Council (NIRC) is a little more unique than most Councils, in that while they provide the typical broad range of services to the community of Norfolk Island, they are also contracted to provide state-level services funded by the Commonwealth.

 

These services come with stringent Service Delivery Agreement obligations to provide regular performance reporting to the Federal Government to demonstrate progress on KPIs and cost expenditure. CEO of NIRC, Andrew Roach, explains that while he wasn’t looking for a strategic planning solution, it was clear the council needed a better way of extracting data and generating reports.

 

“My team and I spent countless hours generating our Service Delivery Agreement Reports from uncontrolled documents and scrubbing data from multiple systems to produce the quantitative elements needed to support the report. It was painful,” he explained. “Over the past 30 years, I’ve tried many strategic planning solutions that offered many promises, so when I stumbled across Envisio, I was immediately impressed with its capability and flexibility.”

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“Over the past 30 years, I’ve tried many strategic

planning solutions that offered many promises,

so when I stumbled across Envisio, I was

immediately impressed with its capability

and flexibility.”

 

How good decision-making and accountability result in confidence

The driver for implementing a strategic planning tool was to give the Australian Federal Government confidence that resources and funds were being allocated efficiently and appropriately. Council worked with Redman Solutions to create a planning framework consisting of multiple data sets, measurable performance indicators and automatically generated reports that would provide key insights into cost allocation and performance data.

 

The result has provided NIRC’s key agencies with unprecedented transparency and the Norfolk Island community confidence that the council's decisions are actioned with strategic goals in mind. 

 

“Envisio has been a “game-changer” for us in how we communicate Council’s performance to our Community and our Australian Commonwealth Partners,” said Andrew. “It is absolutely critical for the Norfolk Island community to ensure our team is making the very best decisions and that those decisions are transparent, that there is a foundation for them, and that they are part of the strategic goals we’ve set for the Island, and we know exactly what it is that we’re accomplishing.”

 

Norfolk Island’s ability to provide transparent reporting has also contributed to increased resources which will further benefit the community. With funding for the island more than doubling, it is evident that confidence has resulted in a win for the council, the team, and the wider Norfolk community.

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“Envisio has been a 'game-changer' for us in

how we communicate Council’s performance to

our Community and our Australian Commonwealth

Partners.”

 

The power of flexibility and internal champions

Andrew is confident that the strong partnership between NIRC and Redman Solutions has contributed to the success of Envisio. He explained how the combination of flexibility, experience, and a consultative approach helped achieve a harmonious implementation.  

 

“It was important for us to have a level of flexibility and customisation. No matter what requirements I threw at them, the team at Redman Solutions were exceptional. They always took the time to ask what you were trying to do, what the outcome was that you were after, and then pursued a delivery in accordance with that outcome. They held our hands through the whole process and ensured we had the skills necessary to make our use of the platform a success.”

 

It was also essential to gain buy-in and create internal champions that could be part of the implementation and, therefore, the success. As a result, Redman’s Implementation Consultant flew to the island to conduct one-on-ones with team members and facilitate on-site training. This ensured the team was across how to use the platform and established a relationship required for ongoing success with future use Envisio.

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“No matter what requirements I threw at them,

the team at Redman Solutions were exceptional.”

 

The future is transparent

The community is at the forefront of the NIRC’s mission - to provide local civic leadership and governance through good decision-making, accountability, and transparency. And while the benefits of the Service Delivery Agreement reporting have been impressive, the plan is to evolve Envisio and utilise the platform for the council’s other delivery and operational plans.

 

“The SDA Reporting functionality was a driver for us, but being able to expand to our delivery and operational plans is going to be a bonus,” said Andrew. “Our activities can feed into multiple plans, and we can organically grow our reporting capabilities at our own speed. In addition, Envisio allows us to be completely open and transparent and grow with our people. It offers a broad spectrum of uses, and I feel we have only scratched the surface.” 

 

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