This project's final report and evaluation was completed on 2 April 2019.

Project approach

In conjunction with approximately 50% of South Australian Councils, Wattle Range utilises IT Vision’s SynergySoft as its core enterprise software system. SynergySoft has a limited reporting capability, and key performance indicators (KPIs) are often difficult to extract and update. This necessitates a considerable amount of manual intervention which is resource intensive and can lead to non-standard reporting and increased error rates.

ANDD was contracted to map SynergySoft and develop quality assured KPI reports and dashboards that are updated in near real time via Microsoft PowerBI. They worked closely with Wattle Range Council’s Financial Services team to understand how data was stored, managed and extracted for reporting purposes.

Due to the age and nature of the SynergySoft platform, data had to be exported to a Microsoft SQL Server before it could be mapped and analysed via PowerBI. A range of manual work around processes that had been developed over decades also had to be identified and reverse engineered before consistent quality assured reports and dashboards could be generated.

The project was quite challenging due to the nature of the SynergySoft platform, noting that a previous IT company that also specialises in this field was unable to achieve proof of concept after 12 months of research and development.

Given the results achieved by ANDD, we are relatively confident that other SynergySoft Councils will be able to replicate similar results should the project proceed to stage two as initially proposed. We are also confident that more advanced enterprise software systems that support API will be able to replicate the same results.

Project achievements

Proof of concept was achieved in that a range of KPI Dashboards were able to be produced in PowerBI from data stored within SynergySoft that was otherwise inaccessible in this reporting format.

In order to access the data stored within SynergySoft, the data had to be migrated to Microsoft SQL via a nightly export routine before PowerBI could analyse and display it. This is not a limitation of PowerBI, rather it is a limitation of SynergySoft which is built on the Rocket U2 UniVerse operating environment which lacks any API functionality.

PowerBI displays KPI data in an interactive cloud-based environment with the ability to filter data and/or drill down into increasing levels of detail. The dashboard that the data is displayed on is easy to deploy and use, and it is an ideal platform for multiple Councils to share quality assured and standardised data for benchmarking purposes.

Project outputs and outcomes

Operating Surplus and Net Financial Liability Ratios were able to be generated from quality assured Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow reports. These financial reports were automatically generated and presented in an interactive format from within PowerBI where information can be filtered by date, department, sub-department, program and sub-program. These financial reports also have the ability to drill down into increasing levels of detail as required.

Rates per Ratepayer and Residential Rates per Rate Payer KPIs were also generated from the rates module data within SynergySoft. When combined with the financial module data, a Grants and Subsidies received per Ratepayer KPI was also able to be generated.

A workforce turnover KPI was generated from the payroll module data within SynergySoft and again when combined with the financial module data, and an Employee Costs per FTE KPI was also able to be generated.

The only KPI that was difficult to produce was the Asset Sustainability Ratio, which was limited by Council’s General Ledger configuration rather than SynergySoft or PowerBI.

Project distribution

A meeting was held in Millicent on 15 January 2018 with representatives from each of the seven Limestone Coast Councils and ANDD to discuss the project goals, objectives and outcomes. Six of the seven representative councils present at that meeting utilise SynergySoft and a number of them expressed an interest in developing similar reports and dashboards, especially around financial KPIs.

It is hoped that the LGA will disseminate this report to all of its constituent Councils and give further consideration to pursuing further development of standardised KPI dashboards across the sector as proposed in the initial Phase 1 project scoping document.

Given the more strategic lessons that have been learned throughout the implementation of this project, Wattle Range Council will not be pursuing any additional KPI or dashboard development in conjunction with the SynergySoft system. Instead we have elected to pursue the procurement of a more modern enterprise software system that is better suited to our current and future needs, and one that has been built on a more sustainable operating environment with best of breed API capability

Performance measures

The KPIs selected for the project were selected from the standard list of SA Grants Commission KPIs that are commonly referred to for LGA benchmarking purposes. Project success was measured against ANDDs ability to automatically replicate these KPIs in the PowerBI environment.

Project evaluation

This project has demonstrated that a range of standardised KPIs can be developed from one of the more broadly used Local Government enterprise software systems (SynergySoft). The same KPI data can also be produced from more modern enterprise platforms that support API. Should the LGA wish to pursue the option, there is a cost effective solution available to produce standardised KPI reports across the sector that enable individual Councils to benchmark their performance against others from data that already resides within their existing enterprise systems.