Wairoa District Council was MAGIQ Software’s first customer back in the 1980s when the company was known as NCS (Napier Computer Systems). 40 years later, MAGIQ Software remains embedded as Council’s corporate business system of choice.
Recently, Wairoa District Council strengthened its business partnership with MAGIQ Software by signing an agreement to move to the MAGIQ Cloud Platform.
Wairoa District Council’s Cloud First Strategy
The New Zealand Government has encouraged government agencies to adopt a cloud-first approach and use cloud services in preference to traditional on-premise IT services and to concentrate on building their digital services and capabilities.
The government mandate encouraged Council to investigate the prospect of moving to the MAGIQ Cloud Platform and to devise a strategic plan to develop and formalise its policies and procedures.
According to Russell McCracken, the Information Services Team Leader at Council: “We have a lot of IT infrastructure that we have been supporting well past expected expiration dates. By moving to the MAGIQ Cloud Platform our infrastructure support responsibilities will be released.
This infrastructure includes both hardware and software, such as virtual machines and back-up tape drives. Now that some of our servers are going to be released, we have the breathing space to map out our pathway forward and to devise a new architectural framework plan.”
Benefits of Moving to the Cloud
Moving to the MAGIQ Cloud Platform will enable Council to attract and recruit staff in other geographical locations and will empower staff to work remotely.
“COVID-19 really brought the remote desktop into focus. We realise that you don’t have to be in the building, you don’t have to be working onsite – if you have a reliable internet connection you can be anywhere.
As a consequence, Council is looking to reduce our office space by promoting working from home and hot desking where appropriate – basically allowing staff to work where they can function at their highest, most productive level. Having purchased a system that is sitting in the Cloud helps to promote that idea and will aid Council in the development of our remote workforce policies.
The MAGIQ Cloud Platform will also support our business continuity plans. And the added advantage of having the mobile app attached to the product will be of major benefit to staff,” claimed Russell.
“In regards to the technical benefits, it will be terrific being able to reduce the number and size of the back-up tapes we run onsite every night, and uploads to our remote back-up servers in Auckland. That is going to ease the load. Once again – the MAGIQ Cloud Platform ticks all the boxes and will make life easier on the IT side of the business, allowing us to concentrate on Council’s IT and Cyber Security Strategic Planning tasks.”
Wairoa District Council use MAGIQ Software’s finance, regulatory, reporting, budgeting and customer service modules. Council is also looking forward to using the embedded reporting and data functions that are provided with the MAGIQ Cloud Platform. MAGIQ Software will deliver standard APIs that will enable Council to easily connect to their GIS and other third party applications.
MAGIQ Software will also be working with Wairoa District Council to further develop their current GIS open source stack of software. This will provide a geospatial web mapping framework solution to allow Council to create, manage and share maps from a variety of data sources.
Business Area Champions for the Implementation Process
Council will create business area champions during the implementation process and they will spearhead the product upgrade throughout the organisation. The business area champions will be responsible for training and will become well acquainted with the team at MAGIQ Software.
“By creating business area champions, the implementation will focus on a bottom-up mantra, ensuring that the key users of the software are driving the process.
Moving to the MAGIQ Cloud Platform provides us with the opportunity to genuinely look at our business processes: to streamline them, or to see if there is a better way to complete them. Moving our corporate system into a cloud environment will be one of the largest IT infrastructure changes we have had at Council for 20 years.
This golden opportunity has been widely promoted across Council stating that we don’t have to stay with what we currently have and what we currently know. We have the opportunity to review and look at our business processes. And as part of the implementation process, I note that MAGIQ Software’s Consultants are trained to help and advise us on how we can make such business efficiencies.
Essentially the MAGIQ Cloud Platform will help us to transform our business.
We have quite a bit of history with MAGIQ Software. The relationship is not just a business partnership but a real relationship. We look forward to a careful, considered approach to our Cloud transition. And MAGIQ Software will provide just that.
We would like to recognise Council’s Chief Executive, Steven May for his support and leadership in the transition to the MAGIQ Cloud Platform”.
About MAGIQ Software
With offices in New Zealand, Australia and the USA, MAGIQ Software provides a market-leading Public Sector Cloud Platform to more than 550 customers.
We deliver appropriate software for each customer’s business size, capabilities and available resources, allowing our customers to accelerate their business efficiency, simply.
To find out more about our Public Sector Cloud Platform or to book a demonstration, call our sales team on +61 3 9468 9401 in Australia or +64 6 835 9380 in New Zealand or send an email to sales@magiqsoftware.com.