Objective Corporation (ASX:OCL) today announced an extension of its current agreement with the Australian Defence organisation. The agreement includes additional functionality and support of Defence’s existing Objective implementation.

The agreement represents a minimum value of AUD $10m over the next five years. 

Mr Tony Corcoran, Assistant Secretary, Freedom of Information and Information Management, Department of Defence, said: “Objective has been a trusted partner for over 10 years. This agreement allows us to maximise benefits from our investment by leveraging Objective’s public sector expertise and innovative technology.” 

Defence has licensed additional Objective capabilities.

The Defence organisation originally selected Objective in 2000 as its mandated Electronic Document and Records Management solution. Since then, Objective and Defence have successfully worked together to deliver long-term benefits for the Navy, Army, Air Force, research, administration and logistics groups across Australia.  

Mr Tony Walls, CEO, Objective Corporation said: “This contract evidences our successful history with Defence. It also illustrates the value that our customers receive from Objective’s investment and commitment to research and development.” 

Objective is working closely with Defence to upgrade its current software to Objective 7.5, initially for 25,000 users within Australia. The upgrade project is scheduled for completion this year with a roll out to up to 60,000 users expected to occur over the following two year period, although this is still being investigated by Defence.

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With more than 370,000 documents created annually, government can tap into huge cost savings.

Responding to the BBC Today programme and the Institute for Fiscal Studies challenge announced on the 22nd June, Objective Corporation believes that Local Government, Central government and its executive agencies are missing out on huge untapped annual cost savings of up to £1.24 billion by continuing to run inefficient document production processes. 

Chancellor George Osbourne announced almost £1.2 billion in funding cuts to local government across the country last week. The cuts in services will be particularly hard as town halls will not be able to raise extra funding through council tax, which the Chancellor has frozen for a year. 

Recent research, conducted across over a total of 23,000 documents from a sample of 187 local and central government websites was undertaken to map activities, costs and resources involved from the conception of documents right through to their publication.  The findings have identified a huge area for cost savings and performance improvements in the conception, collaboration, authoring, consultation and publishing processes of policy and other key documents. The cost of providing a shared platform to automate these processes and deliver these benefits is estimated at less than 10% of the savings identified below if tackled at a national level.

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Queens Speech sets out the path to citizen driven policy making

Yesterdays Queen’s Speech which outlined the legislative framework of the new Coalition Government, has been warmly welcomed by Objective Corporation, for its radical new approach to policy making.

Simon Etherington, UK General Manager, Objective, stated: “The launch of the Government’s legislative programme is nothing short of a revolution in the delivery of citizen driven policy making. As was laid out in the Speech today the aim of the new government is to rebalance the relationship between the State and the citizen.”

“From the radical devolution of powers and greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups, to the reform of the planning system and returning of decision making powers back to local councils, the role of the citizen in decision making will grow.”

“The new government has made it clear that intends to clean up Westminster and oversee a radical redistribution of power away from Whitehall to councils, communities and homes across the nation. These new approaches will need new era technologies to connect the citizen with local authorities and other stakeholders in a controlled process,” he added. “It is this area of policy lifecycle management where IT can be used to deliver cost savings and performance improvements.”

The Queen’s Speech has detailed a number of new Bills aimed at driving power back to local communities and citizens, not least:

• Decentralisation and Localism Bill: This Bill  will be handled by the Department for Communities and Local Government which  will take charge of the drive to devolve greater powers to local councils and  local communities.
• Parliamentary Reform Bill: Expected to be  managed by the Department of Justice, will include a commitment to five-year  terms and a national referendum on voting reform.  Crucially it will also  include the power to give voters the right to recall their MP.
• Public Bodies Bill: Managed by the Cabinet  Office, this Bill will be at the forefront of the Government’s efforts to find  billions of pounds in ‘efficiency savings’ across Whitehall.  

"Citizen driven policy making is at the heart of coalition government thinking and it will impact every level of government, from Whitehall to town hall. Solutions are going to be needed if this revolution in democracy is going to become a reality. While the devil is in the detail in terms of when and how this transformation will take place, what is certain is that this will happen and every level of government needs to be prepared,” he added.

The Coalition Government has already outlined some of the detail of its plans and this includes:

• The abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies and the returning of decision making  powers on housing and planning to local councils
• The radical reformation of the UK planning system to enable neighbourhoods to  determine their own future
• The abolition of the Infrastructure Planning Commission
• The implementation of the Sustainable Communities Act so that citizens know how  taxpayers’ money is spent in their area
• Ensuring that all data published by public bodies is  published in an open and standardised format, so that it can be used easily  and with minimal cost by third parties
• Giving residents the power to instigate local  referendums on any local issue

“Democratic transformation will only come about through bold decisions and investment, with leadership from the top of our public sector organisations. The reality is that local and national government is suffering from the perennial pressures of funding cuts alongside increased demand at a time when there is greater pressure than ever to do more with less. There is nothing new here, except for the scale of the forthcoming public spending squeeze that confronts us as a nation,” he concluded.

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Objective Corporation (ASX: OCL), today announced that the Legal Practice Board in Western Australia has selected it’s content, collaboration and process management solution to enhance their services to legal practitioners.

The Legal Practice Board has statutory responsibility for the admission, supervision and discipline (through the Legal Profession Complaints Committee) of all legal practitioners in Western Australia. It also regulates the issue of annual practice certificates and administers the Articles Training Program and the law libraries at the Supreme and Central Law Courts.

Mr Graeme Geldart, Executive Director, Legal Practice Board of Western Australia said: “We needed a solution that would provide us with enterprise-wide best practice information management to ensure we maintain a high quality of service for our legal practitioners.”

“We undertook a comprehensive evaluation process and selected Objective based on their experience in similar environments and their demonstrated understanding of organisational needs and legislative requirements to comply with the State Records Act 2000.”

Objective’s security model was influential in the selection process. The Legal Practice Board deals with sensitive information that requires security and restricted access.

Mr Geldart said: “Objective will provide us with a robust secure solution that can be used to search for information enterprise-wide, at the same time allowing us to control access to confidential information.”

The Legal Practice Board operates over four geographical locations and will use Objective to manage the abundance of information and records that they create, maintain and store as a regular part of their business processes.

Currently, the organisation has 2,000 physical files at the Legal ;Profession Complaints Committee, 600 at the Article Training Program, 17,000 at the Office of the Board and 10,000 practitioner files.

“Establishing a single source for all information means existing multiple systems and information silos are eliminated. Objective will reduce duplication of work, improve collaboration and streamline our business processes. It will provide a solid foundation for sharing information across processes and teams of people regardless of their location,” said Mr Geldart.

For example, previously when a law graduate applied to complete the Articles Training Program and then subsequently to be admitted to practice, hardcopies of applications would be scanned or copied and emailed between departments resulting in duplicated copies of the documents stored in multiple locations. Cross checking details of applications or training history was a time consuming, labour intensive process.

Using Objective, all applications will be saved into a student’s electronic file, which will be linked to the course folder they are enrolled in. Rather than each department waiting for hardcopies or emails with the legal practitioners training results, staff will be able to easily access the applicant’s complete and up-to-date information immediately via the student folder in Objective.

“The benefits in using Objective are immediate – time saved in processing applications, improved efficiency across departments, consistency of approach to managing information, less use of paper, savings on storage costs and improved services for legal practitioners and the public,” said Mr Geldart.

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Cost effective and co-ordinated solution to the development of plans and strategies that underpin the Total Place initiative

Objective Corporation will be previewing its citizen centric Policy Lifecycle Management solution at a series of events across the UK focused on the Government’s Total Place initiative. 

The events – throughout June and July in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol – address local government officers on how the Total Place initiative will demand a ‘whole area’ approach to public services and how that can in turn, lead to better services at reduced cost. The Total Place initiative aims to identify and avoid overlap and duplication between public service organisations by making ‘place’ based policies and strategies around local service delivery.

Simon Etherington, General Manager UK, Objective, stated: “Improved public services at lower cost are the driving force behind the Total Place initiative.  It advocates a collaborative approach to achieving efficiencies through the delivery of local solutions to meet local needs. But to deliver on the core principles of Total Place, local authorities need to dramatically alter the way they interact with the community.”

Objective’s single shared platform enables departments and agencies to share and collaborate on information specific to a particular place and local stakeholders to access consultations that are relevant to the local community. This ensures that Policies and Strategies are developed in collaboration between all relevant organisations, successfully addressing the inherent challenges of data silos and policies being developed in isolation.

The managed service is delivered through a secure portal, providing a common collaborative environment for all key stakeholders involved in delivering services within Total Place to work together to create local solutions for local needs.

“Total Place necessitates a collaborative working partnership between all relevant parties. One in which areas of overlap and duplication are minimised, enabling a step change in service improvement and efficiency, whilst delivering substantial financial savings,” added Simon.

One of the main challenges to achieving this is the sheer number of stakeholders involved in the process of developing new policies and strategies.  As well as the local authority itself, the Total Place partnership comprises of a diverse set of partners from the community including public, private and third sector organisations, each with their own way of working. 

The complexity of Total Place creates a number of practical issues relating to the development of new policies and strategies that require efficient and effective partner collaboration, policy document production and public consultation. By adopting a shared platform, LSP’s will have a single view of Policy creation and monitoring. This will enable a clear focus on place based outcomes and allow more effective performance monitoring.

Objective’s Policy Lifecycle Management solution, based on its uCreate and uEngage solutions, addresses these considerations. Its ‘place based’ solutions enable departments or agencies to share and collaborate on strategies and plans specific to a particular place and local stakeholders to access consultations that are relevant to their local community. 

The solution puts in place the practical and technical capabilities to enable cross-partnership data sharing, as well as the shared learning and practice developed with the whole local government sector in order to advance understanding. The Objective platform will be able to identify specific themes – such as anti-social behaviour patterns – on which to share key data items across partnerships, implementing business changes required to achieve the desired outcomes, and exploiting this data sharing to deliver benefits to the partners and the communities they serve.

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Port Kembla Port Corporation (PKPC) has selected Objective Corporation (ASX: OCL), to provide its content, collaboration and process management solution to support business growth and knowledge management.

The Port Kembla Port Corporation is responsible for the provision of port management and shipping management. The Corporation provides a number of wharf and property assets for unloading, loading and storing cargo. 

PKPC recently experienced strong growth and an office consolidation, resulting in the need for a solution that would help them manage their content, knowledge and records as important strategic assets.

Ms Leanne Taylor, General Manager Corporate Services said: “The Port Kembla outer harbour expansion is about to commence. This is a major 20 year project that will bring with it regional growth and the scope for PKPC to support it. To prepare for this, we need to ensure we have efficient process management in place and that knowledge transfer is achievable via a single repository for all information.”

The Corporation began the search for a solution that would provide them with a solid foundation for information and knowledge management. Selecting from the NSW IAMS panel, PKPC undertook an extensive evaluation process that included a site visit to their sister port, Newcastle Port Corporation (NPC), also an Objective customer.

“We were so impressed with how Objective is supporting NPC’s operations. It was clear to us that the solution would be easy to use for staff and that we would be strongly supported by Objective during implementation, change management and training phases.”  

The Port’s hive of activity extends into their office where staff busily create and manage an extensive amount of content as part of their daily activities. 

“Objective will be used by all staff in a diverse range of roles across every aspect of the business for process and information management,” said Ms Taylor.

For example, NSW Port Operators must hold a Port Safety Operating Licence with NSW Maritime for the navigation of boats into the harbour. Strict compliance with an externally accredited quality assurance system is compulsory to obtain this licence. Non-conformance or failures can have significant impact including penalties, litigation or operational failure. 

Port Kembla Corporation will use Objective to mitigate risk of non-compliance by managing the content, review and approvals associated with the quality assurance systems.

Once the solution is implemented and training is complete, the Engineering department will utilise Objective for version control of all plans, drawings and photographs of berths, jetties and breakwalls. HR and Finance will use Objective for managing processes such as financial reporting, tracking of debtor and creditor payments and management of all contracts and associated information in tender projects for works undertaken in the Port. 

Objective’s governance and compliance capability will support the Corporate Governance department in managing their meeting minutes, board papers, policy and procedures and risk audits.

“Knowledge transfer is very important in our business. We knew it was crucial for information to be accessible and available for current and future employees, in order to advance our business processes and position us for future growth,” said Ms Taylor.

“Objective will enable us to leverage strategic value from our information assets. Being able to quickly and easily access and search for information electronically, will streamline our business processes and means less time for staff in finding the right information at the right time.   

“With Objective, PKPC can be confident in knowing our strategic information assets and corporate knowledge will be well looked after, and we can get on with the important business of servicing the port shipping needs of regional NSW.”

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Effective Community Engagement: Collaborating with the community for enhanced policy, programs, projects and service.

21st and 22nd of July 2010, Rydges World Square Sydney

Across all levels of government there is an increasing desire to generate better outcomes for the community in the areas of policy development, planning and service delivery. Today, engaging with the community is a recognised key driver to delivering these outcomes.

‘An objective of the Australian Government's e-government policy is to enhance closer citizen engagement. Through the use of new technologies, agencies are engaging more widely with the public through online policy information, feedback and consultation. Online consultation provides opportunities to enhance and complement traditional consultation mechanisms and generate better policy outcomes.’ AGIMO, Better Practice Checklist

The requirement to listen to the voices of those affected by the policies being shaped is seen as central to the delivery of modernisation and improvement programs sought by government.

In Australia, the recommendations of the Government 2.0 Taskforce, and the Government’s qualified approval for the majority of them, have heralded a new era of openness, transparency and collaboration.

At the forthcoming Effective Community Engagement conference, Objective’s public sector solutions manager David Eade will present three case studies from Objective customers around the world. Case studies that highlight:

• Lessons learnt from large scale stakeholder engagement
• The importance of managing the diversity of, and relationship with, a wide range of stakeholders across multiple consultations
• Tools that enable outcome-centric consultations delivering political, social and financial benefits 

David Eade says: “These case studies represent real issues and challenges faced by those who engage with a wide range of stakeholders, from peer agencies through to environmental groups, corporations and the general public.” 

“They demonstrate practical ways that engagement practitioners are using technology to make their lives easier and provide better outcomes for their communities.”

Objective is an established leader and specialist provider of proven content, collaboration and process management solutions for the public sector. Objective’s uEngage addresses the needs of organisations to undertake effective and efficient community consultations while providing consultee and engagement management. 

uEngage provides centralised management of the entire consultation lifecycle process, enabling organisations to consult all relevant stakeholders, citizens, employees or partners through the widest variety of response mechanisms, from electronic documents, meetings and surveys to polls, message boards and forums. 

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The “Talk” is being “Talked” – the challenge is for government at all levels to “Walk” the “Walk”.

The Coalition Government has invited the general public to take part in an unprecedented internet consultation on the spending review that it says will help to determine where spending should be cut.

David Cameron announced today plans for “a process to engage and involve the whole country in the difficult decisions that will have to be taken.”

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Chancellor George Osborne, have both stressed the need to “bring people along” through widespread debate and consultation.

Treasury ministers are drawing inspiration from Canada, whose government tackled its huge national deficit in the 1990’s by slashing federal budgets by 20 per cent over four years. Indeed the Treasury itself has said that it will be “open to the public generating new ideas” for the way that public services should be run.

Simon Etherington, UK General Manager, Objective, stated: “The Queen’s Speech gave us the first insight into the Coalition’s thinking as it strives to rebalance the relationship between State and citizen.  This is a dramatic step toward citizen driven policy making as it is an unprecedented act of public engagement. The key issue now is how this will be delivered.”

“Internet consultations have not always had the most positive reputation in UK politics with Downing Street petitions seen by many as ineffectual.  However, what is clear from the statements being made by Coalition Ministers is that this is an integral part of the radical approach this Government is making in citizen engagement,” he added.

“The technology is there to connect the citizen with Government that can deliver meaningful consultation in a controlled way, and as part of the overall policy development lifecycle, not as a one-off online interaction. Such an approach to policy lifecycle management can be used to deliver better policies with wide consultation and engagement, while at the same time achieve substantial cost savings. We have seen this on a smaller scale with our 250 local government customers,” concluded Simon.

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The State of Hawaii’s Community Development Authority (HCDA) has selected Objective Corporation’s (ASX:OCL) uCreate and uEngage solutions to enable them to reduce costs associated with the production of complex documents and expand citizen engagement. 

The HCDA is a State agency that was established to supplement traditional community renewal methods by promoting and coordinating public and private sector community development.

The community and collaboration solutions will be used across the organisation to help HCDA meet the challenges of their document creation and publishing workload without increasing staff numbers.

Mr Anthony Ching, HCDA Executive Director, said: “The forum for digital communication in today’s world seems to be increasingly comprised of bursts of information (e.g. email, text, twitter and facebook postings).  

“However, these blogs of information cannot compete with the extended and productive conversations that the HCDA will be able to engage in with staff and the community through our use of the uCreate and uEngage solutions.  

“The extended conversations and community engagement facilitated by these solutions will create neighbourhoods and communities in Hawaii instead of controversy and stalled development.”

HCDA will use uCreate to improve internal collaboration on the production of community development plans and administrative rules, reducing the time required for editing, reviewing, formatting and producing the final documents. 

uEngage will be used to augment their citizen engagement strategy, making documents available online in an interactive format, and to manage offline comments within a single consultation database.

Mr Tony Walls, CEO, Objective Corporation, said: “Our demonstrable experience in helping government departments achieve productivity gains and reduce costs associated with producing large, complex documents was instrumental in our engagement with the Hawaii Community Development Authority.

“The State of Hawaii has undergone significant change due to budget cuts, and we are pleased to be able to help the HCDA in reducing costs and continuing to improve its services.” 

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Copper producer Anvil Mining Limited has rolled out a centralised electronic document management system to refine its core business.

The Port Kembla Port Corporation (PKPC) has chosen Objective Corporation (ASX: OCL) to provide a content, collaboration and process management solution to support a 20-year expansion plan.

The “Talk” is being “Talked” – the challenge is for government at all levels to “Walk” the “Walk”.

Tony Walls, CEO of Objective Corporation speaks to Len Rust, publisher of the industry favourite publication - The Rust Report.