Kimba District Council recently purchased and implemented the MAGIQ Cloud Platform.
The MAGIQ Cloud Platform is a native Cloud, Software as a Service (SaaS) public administration platform designed to meet Council’s financial and legislative requirements within a simple, easy to use Cloud environment.
About Kimba District Council
Kimba District Council is a rural service town situated on the Eyre Highway at the top of Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia.
The town is well known for its tourist attractions including the Big Galah, a sculpture of Edward John Eyre and his offsider Wylie, the ‘Kimba Town Tourist Walk’ (providing 35 places of interest) and an impressive mural across its local grain silos. The town is also known for being half way across Australia and provides a great base to explore the Gawler Ranges National Park.
Business Challenges the Council was Seeking to Address
Kimba District Council was using software that was owned and operated by a group of 6 South Australian Councils (known as LG Systems Inc.). Over time, this system had the number of Councils involved reduced, compromising the system’s long-term viability and impacting functionality. The fragile nature of the existence of LG Systems Inc. in the long-term drove Council to tender for a viable ERP solution.
“When we began the tender process we hadn’t considered a Cloud-based solution. However, MAGIQ’s Cloud offering was an exceptional, standout option as the software was readily available and backed up regularly off site – not like our previous solution,” explained Deb Larwood, the Kimba District Council’s Chief Executive Officer.
Immediate Efficiencies
“Traditionally, our purchase order and service request processes were paper-based, entailing multiple transactions and lengthy processing times allowing plenty of room for errors. Now we can complete such tasks online and the whole process is streamlined – saving paper handling and allowing us to keep track of everything and not having to re-enter data.
Another benefit of the MAGIQ Cloud is that in the event of power outages all we need is a laptop and the internet and we can have our entire system back up and running straight away. In addition, we look forward to using online timesheets and the HR Module and we know there will be many other time saving processes to explore using MAGIQ,” said Deb.
Functional Improvements
“The main functional improvement with the MAGIQ Cloud Platform ERP is accessibility. Every few weeks I have to attend regional meetings in Adelaide, which is five hours away. Now when staff call me, I can answer their accounting questions because I have all the information I need at my fingertips! The ability to access MAGIQ Documents remotely is also handy. I no longer have to call staff and ask them to email me a document – I can do it all by myself!
The Transition Process
“Our organisation is on a steep learning curve with the new software, however, it has been a relatively easy process as we have had MAGIQ Software’s Deb Alexander here with us onsite. Deb is working with us in the live environment – it’s a relief to have her here for backup. I was pretty surprised at how seamless the transition was – although whilst there were hiccups I honestly expected more! The whole team has been great – MAGIQ Software’s Andrew Morton, Peter Birkett and Debbie Phillips among others have held zoom meetings with us and they were on the ball when it came to fixing any minor issues as we went along. The shared smartsheet document helped us through the process as well with training procedures, templates and online training videos.
The Data Migration Process
“MAGIQ’s Data First data migration process ran smoothly – we went home on Friday night, returned on the Monday morning and all our data was there – and there was a considerable amount of data to move!” said Deb.
The Training Process
“It’s great to have a MAGIQ Consultant onsite who knows what she knows. Once the training was complete it was recorded via zoom, saved and shared – in fact, another Council who has also purchased the software have already gone in to have a look. I have also re-watched the training and I have a other staff who will benefit from this functionality.
MAGIQ Support
“The support received has been good – the team are quick off the mark to respond to any issues.”
Future Use of the Software
Kimba District Council is looking forward to using MAGIQ Mobile down the track and to transition their old documents server over to the MAGIQ Documents Cloud server. Council is also starting work on using strategic budgeting and reporting.
Formation of a South Australian User Group
Kimba District Council is one of 6 Councils who have purchased the MAGIQ Cloud Platform, so the Councils plan to form a South Australian MAGIQ Software User Group. The user group will allow the Councils to share information and ideas with the potential to create common tools, systems, processes and best practice. Councils will also have the ability to communicate development ideas with MAGIQ Software which will benefit the group.
“When you move to a new software system you look for positives and negatives in the process. The positives here far outweigh the negative. If I had my time again I would do it all the same – I wouldn’t change a thing in respect to our selection of software,” exclaimed Deb.
About MAGIQ Software
With offices in New Zealand, Australia and the USA, MAGIQ Software provides Cloud Public Administration Platform software for the Public Sector 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 upgrade to the MAGIQ Cloud Platform, find out more or 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.