From Word Templates to Web-Based Efficiency: A Resolve Success Story
Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale
38,631
Darrelle Peach
Before implementing Resolve, Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale relied on a patchwork of Word templates to prepare council agendas and minutes. Every report was copied and pasted into a template, attachments were saved and formatted manually, and even the smallest change meant hours of rework.
For Governance Coordinator, Darrelle Peach, the inefficiencies not only drained staff but also created frustration across the organisation.
“It would take an entire week to pull everything together,” recalls Darrelle. “I was often doing it all myself on top of my actual governance role. This meant that instead of focusing on high-level strategic projects, I was spending my days formatting Word documents. I knew there had to be a better way.”
“I was spending my days formatting Word documents. I knew there had to be a better way.”
Driving Digital Transformation Through Leadership and Engagement
When council began exploring solutions, Resolve quickly stood out. “The panel was really impressed with how modern and intuitive it was,” says Darrelle. “After all the grief Word had caused, moving to a web-based system felt like such a positive step.”
“The panel was really impressed with how modern and intuitive it (Resolve) was. After all the grief Word had caused, moving to a web-based system felt like such a positive step.”
As the internal champion, Darrelle led the implementation with enthusiasm. She engaged key staff early, built excitement through their intranet and Teams channels, and focused on gaining buy-in from report authors and PAs who were critical to the process.
“Change can be daunting, but I think being positive and proactive really helped. All reports are prepared and go through the PAs, so they’re integral to the agenda process. For me, it was important to get them on board early. The development team also produces large reports with many images and attachments, so I worked closely with them from the start, showing the system’s capabilities, understanding their concerns, and addressing their needs. My goal was to show people the potential and support them through the transition.”
During the implementation, Darrelle took an ‘all-in approach.’ It was important that the full functionality of Resolve was utilised for the benefits to be realised across the entire team.
“I had the mentality of ‘if we’re still going to do work arounds, why bother?’” said Darrelle. “We immediately switched from printing any hard copy agendas and encouraged everyone to work off Boardview – this meant that all reports and motions were available on our website, the change was done, and everyone immediately benefited.”
“We immediately switched from printing any hard copy agendas and encouraged everyone to work off Boardview – this meant that all reports and motions were available on our website, the change was done, and everyone immediately benefited."
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A key benefit for the Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale is that the community now enjoys easy access to agendas, attachments, and bookmarked livestreams all in one place, with the ability to jump straight to the reports that matter most to them.
Smarter Meetings and Stronger Engagement for all
The introduction of the Councillor Portal has been a significant improvement for Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale. It has completely transformed how councillors access, review, and engage with agendas and reports, whilst removing the need for bulky printed agendas and making the process far more streamlined.
Darrelle explained that after just one training session, councillors were comfortable with the system.
“It was great to have Team Redman help us train our councillors. Before Resolve, they relied on printed and bound agendas, and juggling hard copies alongside their laptops made the process tedious. Before our first live meeting, we uploaded all the resolutions from the previous two meetings into the portal so councillors could see them. Once we showed them the reports, attachments, and how they could make, track, and keep comments, they were excited.”
“Once we showed our councillors the reports, attachments, and how they could make, track, and keep comments, they were excited."
Along with the success of the Councillor Portal, Darrelle highlighted how the team has embraced the ease and simplicity of compiling reports in Resolve.
“The ease of preparing reports is crucial for staff,” she explained. “In Word, we constantly struggled to pull everything together, and clunky formatting and last-minute changes caused so much hassle. To be able to publish an agenda with the click of a button, rather than spending hours to get it finalised, printed and uploaded has been a complete game-changer for our team.”
“To be able to publish an agenda with the click of a button, rather than spending hours to get it finalised, printed and uploaded has been a complete game-changer for our team.”
Darrelle explained that the benefits of Resolve go far beyond making daily tasks easier for staff. The solution has also transformed the council meeting for councillors and the community, providing them with greater accessibility and true transparency.
“I think everyone benefits from Resolve. Our staff can now focus on their actual roles rather than on document management and create reports that look far more professional. Councillors have everything in one place and can easily keep track of it all, and the community now has simple access to agendas, attachments, and bookmarked livestreams all in one place. They can even navigate directly to the reports that matter most to them. Honestly, I think I’ve benefited the most. It’s made my job so much easier."
“I think everyone benefits from Resolve.”
Darrelle's Advice for those looking to move to Resolve
“Just do it. Change can be scary, but once you have a champion to lead the way and drive it, you can’t go wrong. Team Redman is also so supportive, and their knowledge of local government is fantastic.”