By Lilia Guan

Queensland-based Townsville City Council (TCC) has implemented a knowledge management product, for faster responses to its constituents' enquiries.

 

TCC chose IMC Communications to implement livepro, a cloud-based knowledge management solution.

 

TCC executive manager customer services, Megan Leavy said the council headed up the search for a system to help the large team to provide accurate and quick responses to questions ranging from ‘what night is garbage night?’ through to survival information in natural disasters.

 

“We had moved from a word based document system to a free shareware product and then to SharePoint, but the searching still remained chunky,” she said.

 

“The time it takes to get our staff ‘job ready’ when new or after leave will also be dramatically reduced.”

 

The ability to update multiple users simultaneously will help TCC manage emergency responses.

 

“During Cyclone Yasi, our disaster recovery strategy was supported by the LGAQ call centre in Ipswich,” Ms Leavy said.

 

“However, the nature and speed of the cyclone’s approach meant we needed to quickly supply the Ipswich team with information on how to handle the calls.”

 

Ms Leavy said the product could also help TCC interact with local councils in the region.

 

“Much of what we do will be very similar to our peers and we’ll be able to then share that information with other Queensland councils,” she said.