8 week migration of rates notice service
Pyrenees Shire Council is a regional local government area located in Beaufort, Victoria, with over 7,300 residents living across 3,500 square kilometres of the rolling hills of the Pyrenees Ranges. The council’s rates team engaged Zipform Digital to transfer and operate their rates notice services from their current supplier. Despite the challenging trading conditions due to Covid-19 restrictions, Zipform Digital were classified as an essential service, enabling the forward-thinking council to proceed with this low risk migration that successfully went live on 1st July.
“I must say it has been an absolute dream to transition to Zipform. Your team have been amazing and made the process a smooth and painless journey. I really appreciate the work that they have put in.”
Solutions
Data Management
Essential Communications
Software Development
Digital
archiving
Business Goals
The council’s rates team sought to improve on service delivery and timelines for processing. These improvements included;
01 Providing enhanced online services for a portal account, email delivery of rates notices, accurate BPay View and management of property ownership change.
02 Utilisation of the Pyrenees Shire online domains to build trust with ratepayers.
03 Improve reporting and auditing of user activity.
04 Standardise communication when sending copy notices.
05 Improved data management, to enable data driven variables to enable future alignment with automated services.
06 Introduce dedicated supplementary notices.
How did we achieve the business goals
Assigning our experienced project management team, we developed a project plan that documented each step of the transition to ensure all stakeholders understood the requirements. With only 8 weeks for implementation, a dedicated project manager and account coordinator to manage the transfer and ongoing relationship, our team got into full swing to:
Create digital signatures so online services are delivered via the Pyrenees Shire domains.
Established Zipform Digital’s portal and eRates registration service to provide full audit trail of user and customer activity, including electronic copy notice from archive or editing a notice.
Implemented property exception reporting to flag property ownership change.
Transferred BPay View and email registered ratepayers from previous supplier to be managed by Zipform Digital.
Ensured robust testing of business rules and ratepayer groups.
Implemented our eRates notification with smart links to retrieve notices from the portal and pre-populated ’Pay Now’ links embedded
Solution Outcomes
The project was successfully transitioned and launched in only 8 weeks.
Go live for email and BPay View registrations for the milestone was achieved with minimal effort from client. Due to the experience of our team and commitment by the council, Supplementary and Instalment notice testing, and approval was completed in tandem with the transfer, which was beyond expectation.
Our client has confidence that auditing, and reporting will be fully compliant and standardised for their team members and that the experience of rate payers has been dramatically improved.
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