After a new CEO appointment, Port Macquarie Hastings Council realigned the organisation and Pulse’s Corporate Planning and Reporting module was used to monitor and report the progress.
The organisation
Located approximately halfway between Sydney and Brisbane along the NSW coast, the Port Macquarie-Hastings region is one of the fastest growing urban centres in Australia.
The local government area covers 34 communities spread across the pristine coast and hinterland, in urban, suburban and rural environments. The region is incredibly diverse, with huge opportunities for growth and development.
The challenge
A new CEO was appointed to Port Macquarie Hastings in February 2021, and Council embarked on a large program of change and transformation to ensure they delivered their community’s vision.
Council adopted the Australian Business Excellence Framework to guide their actions, and in October 2021 implemented Pulse Software for their delivery program and operational plan reporting.
Towards the end of 2021, Council underwent an organisational realignment, and to focus their efforts on their transformation journey, they identified eight change management priorities, one of the deliverables being Functional Business Plans (FBPs).
The solution
The Pulse Strategy (Corporate Planning & Reporting) Module was chosen to monitor and report on the FBP progress. The reporting tool would enable Council to have better visibility on how they were tracking against each key milestone outlined in the plans.
Council decided to use features within the software to customise their reporting process, including:
- An additional hierarchy for the Strategy module was implemented and renamed to Functional Business Plans, with the structure defined into five levels.
- Roll up feature, which auto-generates the total progress percentage shown in reports and saves staff having to manually enter that information.
- Additional role feature - enables Executive Assistants to assist their Director’s reporting, action reporting workload is shared across multiple staff, and is a longer-term action responsibility solution.
- Customising the language used in the module to better reflect the terminology used throughout the organisation.
The result
The timeline of deliverables was the greatest challenge – the hierarchy development, data input, user training, and reporting requirement development. These challenges were all mitigated by the timely and professional support Council received from Pulse.
User feedback was exceptionally positive – Port Macquarie Hastings believe Pulse is a great platform for their business solutions. Feedback from staff who are working on the business plans is that it’s intuitive, very easy to use, and learning how the software works was a straightforward process.
Council are also keen to explore the functionality around linking to other Council plans and strategies, and to use Pulse for the next round of their delivery program for future operational planning.
“We found the software to be intuitive, customer-focussed, versatile, and flexible enough to be customised to meet our changing requirements. It’s responsive with the system enhancement functionality, and very competently supported by industry professionals.”
Gai Lazarides – Planning and Reporting Officer, Port Macquarie Hastings Council
About Pulse Software
Pulse is an Australian SaaS company focused on industry leading, out-of-the-box process management software solutions with module-style applications developed using the latest cloud-based technology for a wide range of organisations.
1300 363 325 | info@pulsesoftware.com